The Mysterious Flame of Zaphod Beeblebrox

Ahead of next week's Booker shortlist, I've started noticing that a small number of customers have a response to the shop which can be summed up as "oh my god, there are so many books". It's as if they feel they *should* be reading them all, and consequently feel guilty that they can't keep up. I'm reminded of a particularly hideous torture device described in one of the Hitchhiker's books called "The Total Perspective Vortex" which - once strapped in - allows you to fully appreciate your place relative to the entire universe, the shock of which usually sends its victims mad (only Zaphod Beeblebrox has an ego large enough to survive the onslaught). With the sheer number of books published each month, added to the sheer number of books *ever* published, it is pointless to feel that you can read but a fraction of them. (Unless of course you are dovegreyreader, deep into her 2006 Booker-a-Thon. Mind you, I'm beginning to suspect that 'dovegreyreader' is in reality a collective of sock-knitting community nurses locked away in a devonshire farmhouse beavering away at the list, but that may just be my slightly furtive imagination). I guess 'back in the old days' (say, the 1970s) when there were 3 channels on the telly, and the paper you read was indicative of your social status (i.e. there was no real *choice* involved) it was conceivable to cover all the information bases, and keep up with the important stuff going on in the world - and that included books. Now that the world of information has fragmented into a bewildering array of media types, channels, products, etc. it's practically impossible to identify the important or relevant books coming out, much less read them all. I'm sure the blogosphere is evolving too, with a 'blogorati' of publishers, authors and media outlets, which you can track and organise into your own tailored daily newspaper. Anyway, one of the nasty secrets of opening your own bookshop is that suddenly you have less time to read. Nicki and I have thus decided that part of our professional bookseller's duty is to spend a given number of hours per week actually reading the books we sell. This includes reading outside our normal areas of expertise. So this week "I have mostly been reading" a Joanna Trollope, a literary first (for me) and the experience was not unpleasant. After Slaughterhouse 5 (purchased during my recent trip to Crockatt & Powell) and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, it was a nice, easy, inoffensive read and outside my normal comfort zone. All this reading, coupled with a sudden increase in the number of visitors (thanks to a piece in the local paper) and the strain of pulling our first events schedule together, has meant the blog has suffered. Our apologies, but expect our first events schedule to be published early next week...