South of the border, west of the sun - haruki murakami. A short novel from Mr Murakami this time and the shortness works in its favour as often his books can seem a bit drawn out. This tale is of lost childhood love and the choices faced in mid-life, not an uncommon theme but this time the main hero is not an expert cook. One of his better ones.

Sophie's world - jostein gaardner. Interesting basic introduction to a number of philosophers with bizarre tacked on 'alternate reality' plot. Targetted more at late teen age rather than adult so a lot of the characters (such as Sophie herself) are extremely one dimensional to the level of being annoying avatars. Not bad.

Dance dance dance - haurki murakami. An even stranger than usual story from Murakami... The hero has strange dreams about a hotel he used to visit with a prostitute in another part of Japan and decides to go and try and find out what it means. What follows is a tale of random (and not so random) connection culminating in a slightly confusing ending. The ride along the way is good though this is not one of my favourite Murakami books. Oh, but it does have the interesting aside of a character who is an author called Haruki Murakami - this is apart from the hero who, as usual, is an intelligent loner who likes cooking and occaisionally bedding attractive woman but not falling in love.

Factotum - Charles Bukowski. Another Fopp special picked up for only �3 (I love Fopp). Oh, and another great read from Bukowski. Much like Post Office, Factotum describes the life of Henry Chinaski (a pen name for Bukowski) as he makes his way from drink to drink, job to job and woman to woman. Each chapter pretty much describes a new job, and given each chapter tends to only be a few pages long you get an idea of how many jobs Chinaski has had. All of this is described in Bukowski's sparse yet poetic style, showing us the life of someone who lives in the moment but without the spiritual aspirations of Buddha. Good stuff.

Life of Pi - Yann Martel. This is the wonderfully fascinating and readable story of Pi Patel, the only surviving member of the Patel clan after a ship wreck on the way from India to Canada. The prose flows along at a rapid rate and the book is practically impossible to put down. Martel seems to imply this is actually a real story he picked up but even if so there is some strange embellishment that goes on and a wonderful twist in the tale at the end. Another must read I'm afraid - ask me if you can borrow it!