Good Intentions

This year I bought myself a notebook - a kind of faux Moleskin one - in which to list the films I have watched and the books I have read, on the grounds that this would keep me on track.

Turns out I over estimate myself.

I can probably reconstruct the reading list, but let's start from scratch for now.

A trip to Faversham (so I could walk to Whitstable via Kit Pedler) netted an unexpected set of Ian Fleming novels or colections, at fifty pence each, including Casino Royale. This also chimed because I'd decided the other day that I ought to read John Le Carre's Smiley novels.

Once more we notice the ability to start projects which don't get carried through.

People with obsessively long memories may note I'm on;y three books into the Morse novels, but at least i read all the Rebus books in order.

Casino Royale had featured on The Hour, in which the main male character refers to the main female character as Miss Moneypenny. As far as I recall, Miss Moneypenny (who is in one scene) does not encounter Bond in the book. Perhaps it's in Live and Let Die. I'm suspecting the writer is remembering the films.

Anyway, it's a competently enough told thriller, hampered by its two set pieces being characters sat down - a card game (which made no sense to me despite being explained in the book) and a torture scene. There's some heavy-handed info dumping and it's a surprise to see the point of view shift away from Bond, but I enjoyed it enough to start looking for the follow-up.


(Oh, is it just me or -

Chorus: YES!!!

- is the use of new bulletins as info dumping - in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Second Coming - getting both lazy and tedious?)