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You're booked.  The 2005 Premier League Reading Stars campaign and Jamie Oliver on school dinners and Dan Brown  with Angels & Demons

Village's eyebrows were raised when they finished watching Jamie Oliver in Jamie's School Dinners last week. Smug, omnipresent Oliver, who we had previously written off as a shameless self-promoter belied this by showing how a celebrity can use their fame to influence an audience and challenge accepted truths. He saw the lack of substance in children's diets and intervened to bring about a revolution in how schools and the UK government fund and provide school dinners. All our preconceptions are tumbling now as the football Premier League follows suit in an effort to bring these same well-fed kids back to reading. Granted, they're more likely to listen to someone they can identify with, but perhaps our scepticism may be better placed in this case? The last interview we read with Michael Owen had the England and Real Madrid Star confessing that he'd never actually read a book. The recent jailing of Arsenal star Jermaine Pennant unleashed a wave of articles, revealing disturbing levels of illiteracy in professional football.

Still, Jamie Oliver won us around, so why not a bunch of multi-millionaire soccer players? March saw the launch of the 2005 Premier League Reading Stars campaign. Squad members from mostly Premiership teams have nominated their favourite book (either children's or adult) which is then rated and discussed at libraries, schools and on the Premier League website. The books chosen are a motley collection, by authors ranging from Nelson Mandela to perennial favourite Roald Dahl. Some choices are bound to raise a smirk - Rio Ferdinand, best dressed Briton and Manchester United defender who was once banned for missing a drugs test, chose Dahl's The Twits. Other choices of interest include former Republic of Ireland defender Jeff Kenna choosing to share the memories of an Irish childhood with Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. Matt Murray of Wolves decided to expose children to the horror and premeditated violence contained in Keane: The Autobiography by Roy Keane and Eamon Dunphy. Oddest choice of them all goes to Charlton and ex-Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy for recommending The Anatomy of Motive by John Douglas, a book on criminal profiling which sounds perfect for schoolkids.

Black lies, white smoke

We keep on talking about Dan Brown, but only because you keep on buying him. Many will have noticed the Vatican getting in on the publicity act for The Da Vinci Code (somewhat belatedly for the 20 million readers of the book worldwide) by pointing out the inaccuracies in the text. The stakes seem to be high for the church, who in their bid to mock Brown may have missed the fact that it is just a novel, a work of fiction. Expect more attention and confusion this week as fact, fiction and Dan Brown once again intertwine. Angels & Demons, the precursor to The Da Vinci Code, is set to sell its millionth copy in the UK, the first book to break this mark in 2005. The book also features Robert Langdon and its similarities to its sequel have been well documented. The plot centres on a bomb threat to the Vatican and – without illuminating too much of the plot – the structure and workings of a conclave to choose the next Pope feature in detail. After listening to people take everything he says as gospel, will the world base their knowledge of forthcoming proceedings in Rome on his work? And did he get it right? It seems to be de rigeur to write books scoffing at Brown - you've already seen the bulging shelves on Da Vinci Code. Now make room for Angels & Demons: The Unauthorised Guide which will point out the inaccuracies within. This should save you from nightmarish errors while discussing the advent of white smoke and the election of a new Pope.

Going, gonzo, gone

We wrote previously of Hunter S Thompson's plans for distribution of his ashes post-cremation. Now the implementation of these wishes have begun to take shape. His wife Anita has announced that they will be shot over the estate from a cannon. The cannon will rest on a 16 metre high sculpture of a clenched fist, the gonzo logo, which will remain on the estate as a permanent memorial. When interviewed by CNN, Anita fittingly yet perhaps unnecessarily added "He loved explosions". Those looking for further tributes can check out the daily cartoon strip Doonesbury, while those looking for meaning in his suicide may find it in his final interview, given to Playboy magazine and published this month. More fodder for the age old myth: "They print really good articles, you know…"

Bits and pieces

Betting on the International Man Booker Prize for 2005 was halted last weekend, presumably because of a minor rule that says that the prize cannot be awarded posthumously. Sadly the favourite was Canadian American Saul Bellow, who died last Tuesday April 5th. In the same week that we lost Pulitzer winner Bellow, this year's prize went to Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, a topical tale of a dying preacher reflecting on his life. Andrea Levy's Small Island continued its winning ways by adding The Commonwealth Writer's Prize to her haul of awards. It will adorn her mantel beside the Orange and Whitbread prizes.