Shampoo Planet - Douglas Coupland. The second of Coupland's novels covers the teenagers who grew up in our information and brand soaked age, as opposed to Generation X which covered their older relatives. Coupland, as usual, has fashioned a highly readable and idiosyncratic story rich in modern brand trappings. His characters are intense, crazy and brand aware to extremes that sometimes make you wonder if such people do exist - however Coupland always makes you believe they do, somewhere. Good read.

Genome: The Autobiography of the Species in 23 Chapters - Matt Ridley. This amazing book, which I picked up at Fopp in London for three quid, is a must read. Well written and informative the author covers a lot of the current understanding of genetics in light of the Human Genome mapping project amongst other things. Obviously there is a lot to cover, so Ridley focusses on some of the more interesting aspects of genetic knowledge, both medical and social - every page contains some fact or other that will fascinate you and make you the delight of dinner parties everywhere. Maybe.