Partner in crime

The other half and I watched the film version of Khaled Husseni's Kite Runner on Tuesday. I was pleased to see that he enjoyed it so much he marched upstairs straight after to read a Thousand Splendid Suns, which according to our local book seller (who's in no way sexist), is a girly version of Kite Runner.

Feeling pleased the other half had been bitten by the reading bug, I tried my hardest not to interrupt him with pointless questions every two minutes as he does when I've curled up with a book...but couldn't resist anyway. The other half, like a lot of the general population, mentioned he sometimes wishes he could write a book. "Well, not actually write one" he elaborated, "but just, you know, come up with the ideas and stuff. Plot twists and things. But I couldn't do what you do - spending hours tapping away on that lap top of yours". That's right, he'd rather spend hours immobile in the presence of football games.

***

Attracted more than average attention from Waterstones sales assistants yesterday: 'Did I need any help?' Oh the fun of watching them get away quick enough when they saw the copy of Immodesty Blaize's saucy Tease in my hands. I spent a mouth watering 40 mins choosing a new book (mouthwatering because the waft of costa coffee and choc croissants was beckoning). Even Louise Bagshaw's latest release wasn't enough to tempt me.

After much pondering, I went for Melissa Hill's Wishful Thinking and finished it in less than 24 hours. I love the chick lit genre because it is so diverse: Melissa delivers her novels by creating suspense and drama, hence the speedy reading time. I almost feel guilty for reading her work so quickly, as she obviously poured months, if not years into this. Most importantly, I loved the book and if you love mystery and twist-in-the-tale novels, you should definitely pick up one of the Dublin authors novels. The story starts with a train crash. We then go back in time by 4 months and look into the lives of three women. It's so gripping I can't reveal any more than that!

A victim of Wishful Thinking myself, I thought that given my other half's ambition to be some kind of pseudo ideas-scriptwriter (but without actually doing any of the writing), I could use him to supply some plot lines for me. He's great at spotting twists in films, long before most people have found their seats in the cinema and opened their chocolate. Perhaps I'm guilty of wishful thinking again by thinking he might feel less left out or threatened by all this solo reading and writing I do. He seemed thrilled with the idea of reviewing my drafts and being my Chief Plot Advisor! We'll give it a go....but any suggestions of shoot outs at the nail bar  or parachuting out of helicopters to be first in the sale queue will be rejected (he's into Action)!