I am now officially in love with Steinbeck. I can’t believe I never read him before. But I am thrilled I didn’t because I have a lot to look forward to. This delightful 1942 first edition I picked up is an elegant tale about invasion, war, and what happens to people who wage it. He is so simple and so precise, so sparse and yet paints characters so well.

I picked up a signed first edition at the Santa Monica Book Fair. Not cheaply, but happily, for this is a wonderful novel. I had a lot to say about it, but forgot to write it down. Ah, memory. Anyway I highly recommend it.

Found a nice UK first edition of this, (1974) with a signed envelope from him, in a secret new treasure trove bookstore I won’t be sharing with you. Couldn’t resist re-reading this. The tale of the manufacturer who resists blackmail and revenges himself on the perpetrators. Classic tale.

I picked up a lovely illustrated edition of this at Iliad. Some of the advice here should be illuminated and hung on the wall of all writers rooms. Many offenders, including a Graham Greene I picked up but put down because it broke one of his rules: “Never open a book with weather.”

I confess I had a bit of trouble with this one. I love him and his writing but to me the writing became very dense and some parts I had to read two or three times to see what was going on. This seems to defy a couple of the basic Elmore Leonard rules: “Try and leave out the parts that readers skip” and the most important “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

I gave it a re-read. To me it’s only a pointer towards what he can achieve. The writing is superb, but I got a little tired of it.

Book of poems gifted by Dylan Moran—most of which I enjoyed.

Co-written by my co-Director of What About Dick, his co-story of his co-work in the great album art of Hipgnosis.  Lavishly illustrated classic album covers (Pink Floyd and co) with tales from the front line. Aubrey is witty and honest and wise. A lovely book. Contains my favourite summation: There are five stages to a project a)  Excitement and Euphoria b)  Disenchantment c)  The Search for the Guilty d)  Punishment of the Innocent e)  Distinction for the Uninvolved. That says it all.

First published in 1935 as England Made Me. A seedy tale of a no good brother and his too-loving sister attempting to help him with Krogh the millionaire in Stockholm. Ends in a seedy death. Nice moments of writing. I apparently read it in 2006 under the other title, but left no notes. Only for the Greene fan probably.