I'm home in bed, suffering from some kind of dreaded lurgy. It's either a bad dose of tonsilitis or the early stages of swine flu. I'm riding out the aches and pains, fever and sore throat by taking paracetamol every four hours and drinking lots of water. Sadly, I don't seem able to muster the energy to read my latest book, Ed O'Loughlin's Not Untrue & Not Unkind, but scooting around the internet for a bit of a look-see is manageable. Here's a few great links I've discovered today:
Jackie at Farm Lane Books Blog has a thoughtful post about contact with authors.
Anne Brooke has a cracking review of Chris Cleave's The Other Hand on the always wonderful Vulpes Libris blog. [Via Lisa, who left a comment on my review of Cleave's book.]
The Times has published a list of the best 60 books of the past 60 years. It's an interesting list with a load of popular titles. I've read 22 of them.
John Self of Asylum has a great review of Magnus Mills' latest offering, The Maintenance of Headway. I've added it to my wishlist, having read most of Mills' previous novels.
The Guardian has published an intriguing piece about Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall going from Booker outsider to favourite in 48 hours. I'm itching to read it: I saw the glowing reviews on Newsnight Review on Friday, which are mentioned in the piece, and promptly added it to my wishlist. It's also got 20 five-star reviews on Amazon, if that's anything to go by...
The Irish Times looks at whether getting nominated for a literary prize guarantees a longer shelf life for your novel.
The same newspaper also has a great interview with Patrick McCabe, who has just finished a new, yet-to-be-published novel.
