Moans, cribs and rants
We wanted to award Lynn Truss our publicity whore of the month award but it seemed just a little silly to give out about a book which is essentially a 200 page moan about modern manners.
Subtitled "the utter bloody uselessness of the world today", the book is an extended daytime radio show, the content comparable to what you'd get from listening to twenty minutes of Liveline. We all know that mobile phones are annoying, that we shouldn't wear our iPods in public, that we should say please and thank you a little more often. The beauty of Eats Shoots and Leaves was we didn't know what to do with our semicolons. Talk to the Hand is just too obvious, too familiar, betraying the low-culture inspiration it takes from The Jerry Springer Show. We've heard it all before, no matter how funny Truss's writing is. And yes, we're tired of mobile and iPod users who bitch about how others use the same gadgets as they bask in their own pure, untouchable Luddite-like life. Mostly we're annoyed by Truss' insistence at using the stupid and pointless "effing" all the time… Village reckons a good screamed expletive or two would make the woman and the bland Talk to The Hand just a little more bearable.
Pod people
It is possible Truss will have to row back on her anti iPod feelings if those firms marketing literature have their way for the podcast is here. A podcast is a recording which can be downloaded onto your iPod and listened to at any time like music tracks. One in the eye for your fellow bus passengers who assume you are in a middle class James Blunt heaven. Traditionally used by DJs, podcasts have morphed into a mechanism for people to play their favourite songs and hold forth on subjects they hold dear – a little like an oral version of those pages on amazon.com where people list "ten books you'd love if you liked The Lovely Bones" etc. Now, publishing companies are using the podcast as a promotional tool with authors discussing their craft and reading extracts from their latest works. Fans of Michael Connolly can learn about his latest, The Lincoln Lawyer, from michaelconnelly.com, while holtzbrinckpodcasts.com offer fiction and non-fiction including Michael Cunningham's thoughts on and reading from Specimen Days. A full list of what's available on odeo.com. Looks like the future is here – Lynne Truss will have to effing deal with it.
Morgan glory
Book Notes has decided that the best reason to read a book is when two disparate people beg you to take on their new favourite read. So when four people insisted we get Piers Morgan's The Insider, there was no option but to crumble and ignore a natural aversion to the oh-so-irritating Morgan. We'd hated his TV shows whose post-modern effort to understand celebrity served to mostly bolster his own profile. We despaired of his shameless name dropping, boyish pink-cheeked self assurance, his newspapers. His smirking belittling of Sinead O'Connor on The Late Late Show just seconds after he talked of tea with Diana and Wills drove us close to the edge. So you can imagine how much it takes to confess how fascinating and relentlessly enjoyable a read is The Insider. The story of Morgan's ten years as the youngest editor of an English tabloid, it journeys from youthful exuberance to his resignation after the questionable publication of Iraqi torture photographs. He sneers in the face of human tragedy, throws around his metaphorical weight, enumerates his thirty-odd meetings with Tony Blair. The Insider is self-aggrandising, unapologetically self-important yet revealing on every page. From short illuminating sketches of Thatcher and Murdoch to the indiscretions of D-list pop stars and models it's a great read which left us rapt in admiration of his chutzpah. As a trip through the events of the last decade from the death of Princess Diana to Alistair Campbell's early career in pornography it places Morgan smack bang in the middle of every story as if he was pivotal to all that happened. Take a quarter of it as objective and relish the rest.
Books for the little guy
Anyone who's spent time with Ryanair or bought a book at Tesco will know that we sacrificed service and quality at the dual altars of cheaper prices and fast-moving consumer goods. If the book you want isn't on the shelf, then you'll find what you want to know on the Intranet than from some shop assistants. People who worked in shops used to be interested in what they sold, not in just completing a sale. The day of the sole trader who has read the books he sells has gone – blame David McWilliams' Pope's Children. It may not be a permanent change however. The UK's Office of Fair Trading recently ruled against the proposed merger between Waterstones and Ottakers, large UK bookchains. They felt it was counter productive to issues of quality, service and range of books. Kudos to the OFT for speaking up for the consumer in the face of the world's drive towards uniformity and market forces.