The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold debut book The Lovely Bones has captivated most of the world and has attracted the attention of film director Peter Jackson. 

Michael Crighton book States of Fear written before the December tsunami lends a chilling weight of prescience to the work.

Waterstones on the Net and Joe Gordon the blogger in his book about his employer "Bastardstones"

Book signing and how its done by Simon Hoggart and Margaret Atwood

The 70s are Back with Jonathan Coe's book The Rotters Club

Three years ago, it was all looking a bit grim for Alice Sebold. Her first novel had yet to be published and the nervousness this would have created cannot have been eased by the acclaim her husband, Glen David Gold, was getting for his debut novel, Carter Beats the Devil. That book won many accolades in 2001/2002 including Best First Book from the Guardian. To compound the pressure, Gold sold the film rights to the most bankable star in the firmament, Tom Cruise. Betting hacks would not have offered good odds on the same household hitting paydirt twice, but Sebold bucked the odds with her debut The Lovely Bones, overshadowing her husband's work and captivating most of the world in the process. And what's more, director Peter Jackson announced last week that The Lovely Bones would be his next project. The story of a murdered 12-year-old watching from heaven as her friends and family deal with her death is a poignant yet gripping story. It will be much anticipated, not least by the fans of The Lord of the Rings director who has dramatically changed the pace of his work after winning last year's directing Oscar.

Crichton Again

We remarked (in December, when announcing the arrival of Michael Crichton's environmental thriller States of Fear) on this writer's unflagging ability to mirror the Zeitgeist. From nanotechnology and cloning to viral threats and virtual reality, Crichton's scientific knowledge and desire to live on the cutting edge has given his books an eerie ability to echo current events. Those who scoffed at his method of creating dinosaurs in Jurassic Park may remember the post-publication discovery of insects fossilised in amber – the exact same as his story. The opening chapter of his new book features research into tsunamis, wave patterns and the tracing of the effects of these phenomena on different coastlines. Had it been written at any time after the catastrophic Stephen's Day events in South East Asia, critics and readers would have been rightly offended, regardless of its relevance to the story. Written as it was before the December tsunami, it lends a chilling weight of prescience to the work.

Waterstones on the Net

An American website annually distributes The Darwin Awards (also producing a similarly titled book) which is a compendium of international stupidity, celebrating acts of intellectual failure and ignominy and, though we are only three weeks into the year, we already have a nominee for 2005.

Joe Gordon is a blogger, someone who records the minutiae (and boy are they minute) of his life in an Internet diary called a weblog. Millions of these clog the Internet, nearly all cynical, a rare few entertaining. Gordon's detailed his job in Waterstones in Glasgow and his dealings with his manager. Which is where the trouble arose, since Gordon referred to his employer as "Bastardstones" and his manager as "Evil Boss". It seemed to readers that he even liked parts of his job, making it unfortunate for him when the bookstore sacked him. This classic case of biting the hand that feeds you led his defenders to liken his weblog to a private conversation on which Waterstones eavesdropped. We think not.

Sign Language

Simon Hoggart, Guardian writer and "sharer" of David Blunkett's ex, tells of venturing into small bookstores and asking to sign any copies of his book. Allegedly books are deemed sold when signed and cannot be returned to the publishers, as would have otherwise been their fate. Certainly, the signed book is a common modern sight – often whether you want them signed or not.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has shown a keen interest in science fiction that has permeated into her fiction in books like The Handmaids Tale and Oryx & Crake. The author has now combined her interests with a common hatred of book signing – and turned her hand to inventing. Her proposed machine will make remote book signing a reality, allowing her to be in a store in Canada and sign a book in Ireland. The Irish reader will be able to hold their book under a computer-attached pen that is electronically linked to Ms. Atwood's PC and will mirror what she writes. Sort of takes the magic out of the whole process, doesn't it?

The 70s are Back

Jonathan Coe's hilarious tale of Seventies adolescence, The Rotter's Club, moved from page to screen last week as the book, adapted by Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais, started a three-week run on BBC2. The story of three friends growing up in Birmingham in the 1970s, it takes in teenage angst, trade unionism, murder, the bombings and the perils of forgetting your swimming trunks. One to watch even if you missed the first episode.

RONAN BROWNE