All shall be well; and all shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well (Tod Wodicka)

Just started in a novel with an interesting point of view on life. I pre-ordered this work when I read about the author in the VPRO programming guide for radio and television. It was not published back then, but what I read about the author and his first work was interesting enough to buy without reading any reviews at all.
The interview with Wodicka is an interesting read: he dislikes youth-culture, he loves history but as he is a romantic and not a researcher he didn't start a study in Medieval History as he did not want to learn Latin and research everything so all is completely correct and scientifically accurate.
I've only read the first two chapters of the book now, but it is a very encouraging read, as I regularly escape into the past myself in my dreams...

The cover shows the An Old Man and His Grandson by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Burt, the main character in the book, often feels like the man in the painting.

Tourism (by Nirpal Sing Dhaliwal)

Tourism, I borrowed the book from a friend of mine who was definately quite fond of the harsh style, the filth and the fast pace of writing.
I must say that I didn't dislike the read, but it was not what I expected. The main character 'Puppy' is not likable. That is not a problem. The thing is that most of the characters in the book are not that interesting, although the contemporary view on modern life in London City is interesting.
After all, not a bad read, but not a must-read.

Train tickets..

In the Netherlands it is still NOT possible to use a credit card to buy train tickets from a machine.. If you are 'lucky' there is a point of sale which is manned by a human being. For the use of this service you pay an extra fifty cents on top of the price of your ticket.. Oh and this only works if you are so lucky to have actual cash money. I don't understand this at all.