I can't help feeling that this is the most appropriate of books to release into the wild. The pseudo-biographical account of a man who turns his life choices over the the roll of a dice, this book had a cult status when it was originally released back in the early seventies.

Would that I had read it when I was younger and more energetic! I might have been as beguiled by the freedoms of the die as were those many who read it at the time. I don't get the impression that the book has worn all that well through the decades though, not least because the hero, Dr Luke Rhinehart, seems determined to use the die as an excuse to indulge in a great deal of sexual experimentation in the days before HIV was anything to be worried about.

For someone of my advanced years, this gets a little tedious, and I kept wishing he'd think of something a bit more imaginative to do. As a philosphy, randomness doesn't seem to have a great deal to offer (beyond shagging and murder) as it ultimately seems to lead to self-destruction (indeed that is offered as its prime purpose) in pretty much every case. Besides which how is it possible to make a random choice when the subject is the one setting the options? Seems a bit self-limiting.

I'm no intellectual sophisticate, but even I need something a little more convincing that this. Mind you, if I'd found it when I was twenty-one I would probably be dead by now.

Morbidly fun to read though; witty and with some nice observations. This goes to my friend Alex who expressed an interest.