The other day I put up a link to an article on Haruki Murakami. In the piece, it mentions that Murakami translated the work of Raymond Carver into Japanese and spent some time living with him in the USA. Carver is a writer that I have been meaning to investigate for a while now, so at the recent Redland fair I was delighted to pick up a large collection of his short stories. Over recent night's I have taken my first tentative steps into the world of Carver. I can certainly see a connection between the two writers, they both share a deceptively simple prose style and an ability to drag you headlong in the story, within a couple of lines.

During the day I'm reading The Crying Of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. Once again, this is my first encounter with one of the big names in American literature. After years of recommendations from many friends, one of them finally just slapped the book on my desk and told me to get on with it.