"IF WE WANTED TO SEE JAPANESE PEOPLE WE COULD JUST GO TOTHE ZOO" So it�s been another interesting couple of days. I finally read all my email and I�ll spend a chunk of tonight getting back to everyone. Yesterday I had the day off so I avoided the 24-hour tube strike quite nicely. I heard they�re planning another one next Wednesday, which is fine with me. One thing I�ve noticed is that no matter what crap the buskers are playing I�ve always got a really bad rock or metal tune going around in my head as I shuffle along with the rest of the mole people on my way to work. This morning it was Whitesnake � �Here I go again on my own, Going down the only road I�ve ever known, Like a drifter I was born to walk alone...� Why this shit is in my head I have no idea but it�s rather worrying. The only thing I remember about Whitesnake is that David Coverdale had a scary head of hair and that in one of the videos his wife�s breast popped out as she swung on the outside of a sports car. You don�t really get that with all this new fandangled White Stripes bollocks. So Frank left. I guess he�s finally back in Australia. On Monday night I was late back from work so I missed him leaving which sucked. With a little luck he�ll be back before the end of the year. Saturday and I�ll be joining the Stop the War march. It�ll be the first time since I was at University that I�ve been on a march � I used to do all the Anti-Nazi League ones which I felt were important. I should have joined one of the marches against the bombing in the former Yugoslavia seeing as I was opposed to that too but it�s easy to get complacent. I think that the US and UK will bomb the fuck out of Iraq no matter how many people march or what the UN has to say but fuck it, you�ve got to stand up and be counted every now and again. I got a couple of emails asking me about the great British earthquake. Sad to say that I slept through it. Not a single video was disturbed. I�m pissed off about the new Murakami cover. As anyone who knows me will testify I�m something of a fan of Haruki Murakami and as well as loving the writer I also came to love his UK publisher The Harvill Press. Alas, Harvill got sucked into the bloated body of Random House and are no more. I wondered how Random (who recently published Geri Halliwell�s new book and are about to unleash Dale Winton�s biography on the nation) were going to treat a rare talent like Murakami�s � I was more than worried partly because Harvill always recognised him to be something special and always made an effort to produce the best editions available. One of my favourite books is still the limited edition metal cased two volume edition of Norwegian Wood (signed to boot) � I also have the regular editions because the Harvill versions were always well done especially when compared to the American versions. Anyway, I had the misfortune of opening a box full of the new paperback version of Sputnik Sweetheart earlier this week. Here�s the old Harvill cover: Nicely understated and fits in well with the mood of the book. So what does Random House do? First off they stick Murakami on the dreadful Vintage imprint and some genius decides to stick a naked Japanese woman on the cover. Clever. Because you see, Haruki is Japanese and everyone likes naked women on the front of their books right? Fucking terrible. That sent me into a foul mood for most of the day. I cheered up when I saw that Life of Pi had made the short list for the booker though. Talk about beautiful covers: The whole thing is just too good for words. One of the best things I�ve read this year and I�ve read a lot of good stuff. I just polished off Crooked by Louisa Luna (whose Brave New Girl was a revelation) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I tried to read The Company by Robert Littell but it was turgid beyond belief � made me yearn for Clive Cussler who at least knows he�s writing crap and enjoys it. I almost started another Booker shortlisted title today but in the end gave in to �If Chins Could Kill � confessions of a B movie actor� by Bruce Campbell which is incredibly funny. Just to stay on the whole book related thread Jess found a site called Bookcrossing.com which is pretty interesting. The idea is that you take books from the shelf where they are gathering dust, tag them and release them into the wild by leaving them in public places. The idea is that the grateful person who finds the book reads the tag, logs onto the site and you can keep track of your books progress. It�s early days yet but I love the concept despite some of the shit that people seem to want to inflict on other people. If I decide to �release� any books soon I�ll make a note of them somewhere on the site. The new edition of Bookslut is due out in a few days and should carry my embargo breaking review of Donna Tartt�s The Little Friend. Jessa emailed today saying that someone from the Telegraph wanted to speak to me about it which is kind of interesting. More on that tomorrow. I�ve got to get back to the email. Mike is blogging to: a Leaf Label sampler