The Kowloon Diaries

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

Part travelogue, part personal memoir and part writing manual from the Japanese master. I was fascinated to see how Murakami connects sport and writing, which is something I've been thinking about recently too. I think, in fact, the point is that if you take on any activity seriously – whether it's sport, or art, or running a business - then you will require determination, guts and, above all, strenuous effort, and that's basically his point. Writing is hard labour, he says. It's a slightly depressing and slightly comforting conclusion.

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

I attempted to read this because of all the hype, and then I gave up and because it was so stupid, cliched and predictable that I couldn't stand it. I don't like to not finish a book, but in this case I made an exception because life is simply too short to waste on utter nonsense. However, since then it has been on my mind and I have found myself at odd moments wondering what happens to the characters. Yes I know I said it was stupid and predictable, and yet … I'm drawn to it. This is really annoying. Now I'll have to go back and finish it.

What is Your Dangerous Idea? Edited by John Brockman

I've been dipping in and out of this collection of essays written by Today's Leading Thinkers who are, apparently, people like Daniel C Dennett, Susan Blackmore and Stephen Pinker. It's not bad, but I've heard most of these arguments before. The authors agonise over stuff like the non-existence of the soul, human inequality, eugenics, free will, consciousness, and the general pointlessnes of the universe. Actually it was quite depressing. Today's Leading Thinkers seem to do a lot of worrying and don't have a lot of answers.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami

A delicious morsel of a book from Murakami. The action takes place over a single night in Tokyo. The story moves from an all night restaurant to a love hotel, to a mysterious girl sleeping and being watched by strange man. It's the kind of story that seems random until you get to the end and you see that everything was leading up to the perfect conclusion.

The Testament of Gideon Mack by James Roberston

A great Scottish book about a minister who doesn't believe in god, and then gets kidnapped by the devil. Very funny and full of truth, and the setting in the northeast of Scotland (at one point he runs the Elgin marathon) made me feel quite homesick.

Men and Cartoons by Jonathan Lethem

Nine short stories which loosely feature comic book superheroes in one way or another. I love the concept, and Lethem's execution exceeded all my expectations. In some stories the characters are pretending to be heroes, in others they are actually comic book characters come to life. It's quirky, offbeat and often absurd. Lethem seems to be following wherever his pen takes him, and the results are touching and and brilliant fun at the same time