Apart from Death in Venice itself, where the theme means that the overly descriptive style makes sense, I personally found the stories could have benefitted from more action but that's just me. They name streets after him in Germany so some people must like him. Not exactly 'mein Bier' as they say, but who knows? Maybe you'll like him.

I picked this up at my first London meetup at the Cittie of Yorke last night. I thought I would take a look as I am particularly interested in the form of the short story.

I passed this on to Phil-ya-boots, a new BookCrossing member, on Friday night. I haven't read it yet but I am hoping that it will come back my way at some point in the future. I think Kuju wants to read it too.

Caught this book at about 2 or 3 O'clock on Saturday morning after having quite a surreal Friday! Will be reading it soon, so thank you kind Aussie girls and see you soon for the next impromptu party/book swap!

This book is pretty heavy going at times and some of the stories seem to have been written as an exercise in written language rather than for the stories they tell. Having said that I found 'a man and his dog' and 'Mario the magician' really good, and 'death in Venice' pretty absorbing. Anyway, will try to get this back to Fire-Dragon who I must thank for introducing me to a book that I probably would never have read otherwise.

In case you're wondering, no this book has not been caught in a blast - it is perfectly safe and with any luck I'll get down to reading it on the beach in one week's time.

CAUGHT IN LONDON FULHAM UK