Info Dump

- J.G. Ballard’s memoir Miracles Of Life is already in the shops, a week ahead of its publication date. (It’s available on Amazon.co.uk, too). There is an excellent, if all too short, video interview with JGB on the Waterstones site. “All most classic English novels produced in me was an overpowering headache and a wish to leave for the South Seas…”

- Ballardian.com are holding a competition for Ballardian home movies - submit yours to win a copy of Miracles Of Life and more JGB goodies.

- SuicideGirls.com have posted an interview with Irvine Welsh

- My own booklist of what I’ve been reading since November is on GoodReads - I’ve not bothered to review or rate any of the books yet, but it’s a handy way of keeping a list so I can remember six months later. Anyone else who’s maintaining their own GoodReads list, please leave a comment with the link to your page as I love nosing through other people’s reading.

- Incidentally, my favourite novel of 2007 (admittedly I only read about 4 novels last year) was Steve Aylett’s Lint. Possibly because it’s a biography rather than novel. A fantastic homage and pisstake of sci-fi and writing. If you didn’t read lots of Michael Moorcock fantasy novels when you were young it might be lost on you. There are moments of pure Chris Morris funny too.

- I just got round to watching Will Self’s superb talk about psychogeography at Google campus last November. If you can’t see the video player below, the direct link is here