Yesterday was a rather lovely day. Babel unexpectedly turned out not to have a shift at work, so came to collect me for lunch. We bravely headed into Birmingham city centre, which was a million times quieter than last time we visited it during the run up to Christmas, and we spent a pleasant hour or so looking around bookshops. My mother had given us some vouchers, and so we made a valiant effort to eat at Pizza Express, but both the outlet in the Bull Ring and the one in Brindley Place had queues pretty much coming out the door, and so we elected to have lunch at our old favourite Walkabout instead. We were very grown up actually, and shared a bottle of wine with lasagne

In walking to Brindley Place, it had caught my attention that the Odeon was showing the film ‘The Reader’. I desperately wanted to see the film, but the timetable at the Odeon was rubbish so I googled it and found that the cinema at the far end of Broad Street had a showing at 5.25. Babel agreed to come along with me and watch, and we just had time to stroll back towards the shops and grab a coffee before the film started. (more…)

Bored in Stuttgart airport a couple of weeks ago, I decided to have a mooch around one of the duty-free shops, and was pleased to discover it had a small selection of books. My pleasure was actually short lived, as I soon discovered that virtually the entire stand consisted of trashy American novels in translation Just when I was about to give up and find myself a copy of Der Spiegel to read on the flight home instead, I came across a paperback novel by Bernhard Schlink. Having seen it, I had no choice but to buy it (more…)