Bringing back the wonderful Jackson Brodie (now accompanied by a friendly little pup he rescues from a bullying owner), Started Early, Took My Dog is another great Kate Atkinson crime caper. The difference between her and some of the other crime novels I read is that her characters are so vivid, so well-written, and so sympathetic. So whether it is the aging actress suffering from dementia, cooking casseroles and four in the morning, or the ex-police woman who buys a small child after seeing her mother being abusive toward her, or the main character, Jackson, who I am slightly in love with, all of the characters are just superb. And the plot also rockets along with so many twists and turns - just a great read. I want to go back and read all of Kate Atkinson’s books all over again, which is how I always feel whenever I read any of her books. So, so good.

I just got home from a really great conference. Hosted by the Bookseller’s digital division, Futurebook, it saw lots of publishing types (myself included) come together to discuss The Future, focusing specifically on book publishing. Often when you go to digital discussions, there are people from all sorts of industries, and while that can be beneficial, it can also be a bit depressing. For example, if a company like McDonalds or Adidas talks about how they made some revolutionary online marketing campaign spending a paltry £20m, I usually come away feeling a bit sad for the poor old book industry with our tiny marketing budgets.

But because this was really focused on books, and how we can make the book world a more responsive, bigger and better industry, the ideas were relevant and most of the speakers were really interesting. There were one or two who were a bit dry, but possibly only because of my own natural “I NEED FOOD” lull.

Some notes from the talk:

• Growth of e-books is slower than expected in the UK (Phillip Jones of The Bookseller) - with Amazon having now released their first set of sales figures, and the iPad now selling their iBooks, I wonder how this will change over the next year. From the survey that The Bookseller ran, it seemed as though people were generally quite negative about e-book sales, still not seeing them as a big part of their business. If I’m honest, I probably feel the same way sometimes, but if Waterstone’s have already sold over a million e-books, then surely with more players in the market the numbers can only go up and up?
• You need change ALL through a business to make a difference - it is not enough to say you want to change the way you do things, you need to foster a culture where change is possible - culture beats strategy every time (Simon Waldman)
• Richard Mollet, now at the Publisher’s Association, previously of the music industry, had a few good points. I did feel that he started to demonise illegal downloaders quite a lot, but a couple of things he said stuck with me: the physical product is still important but habits change - physical sales still make up 85% of album sales in the UK, even though single sales have gone almost entirely digital, and people will probably never abandon books altogether; and you cannot price compete with free. Bringing the price down does not, therefore, necessarily discourage copyright infringement (not sure if I agree with this, but it’s an interesting idea). He also talked about creating good habits in e-book buying. When Radiohead released one of their albums for free online, 250,000 people STILL went to Limewire to download it because that was what they were used to doing. How do you get people to see the legal route as their first option? DRM pisses people off and doesn’t prevent piracy, so what’s the solution?
• Google Editions is out in the US before Christmas! Jason Hanley of Google talked about the virtuous circle they are planning with Google Books and Google Editions working together to promote and sell books across any platform
• Nick Harkaway (who looked COMPLETELY different from what I imagined him to look like, which was kind of weird) talked about selling the lifestyle of the book - reading as part of slow living - switch off your phone, turn off the tv, get comfy and read a book - that is certainly how I like to read best! He also mentioned a marketing ploy he had seen where if you bought a hard copy of one author’s book, you could get a DVD within it with all of their previous books as un-DRMed pdfs - I really like that idea.
• Max Whitby sold the entire audience on his app, The Elements. Definitely going to get that onto the department iPad. I absolutely desperately want a Periodic Table Table. It looks amazing. Very funny speaker, too. Touch Press, the company that Max started, is now working with Faber on an app that they are developing.
• On that note, Henry Volans of Faber spoke to us about the partnerships they have developed with app creators and talked us through a couple of really exciting projects they are working on, including a ‘transmedia’ version of Malcolm Tucker’s iPhone and a QI library (both with Agant, who we worked with on the Tess Daly app, and who are LOVELY). What I thought was brilliant about his presentation (and the approach Faber are taking to digital publishing) is that in his role he has no obligation to follow print publishing.  I think that a lot of really exciting stuff is going to come out of the Faber team in the next few years, so will definitely be keeping an eye on what they’re doing.
• HOWEVER, I did find the presentation from Ben Grass (of Pure Grass Films) quite terrifying. Their company is developing another ‘transmedia’ book type thing with Hodder. It is a novel, ebook, game, app, website and more. Each element tells a different part of the series, and you can get the back story, watch videos, become the character etc. I think it is a fascinating idea, but as a reader, I am not keen. Although I do like finding out more about a book, I essentially just want to have a great book to read. When I read I want to switch off, not have to be connected to all these other stories that are happening around it. But that’s just me.
• Then came Lisa Edwards’ presentation about Horrible Histories. They have all sorts of licensing deals - from city buses to top trumps to a DS game, but she showed two clips which absolutely had me in stitches. The first was from a play about Egypt - the audience members are given 3D bogglevision glasses in the intermission, and when they come back, all sorts of mummies and ghouls fly out at them from the stage - the kids in the audience went MENTAL with screaming. So cute. The second was just funny - Charles II as the King of Bling.

There were lots of interesting points to pick out of the day - Scott Pack was great and the things Macmillan are doing with their Nature Network were also really interesting, but those were really my highlights.

I have only been in the industry for 3 1/2 years and already in that time things have changed dramatically. There are definitely those who are resistant to change in the industry, but there are also so many people in books who are forward looking and passionate about what they do. Days like today, getting everyone together to talk about what’s working for them (or not) and share some of the knowledge they are gaining in their particular companies, make me feel incredibly lucky again to be working in this industry. Thanks to everyone who worked on the conference for putting such a great day together.

The friends that I stayed with in Thailand lent this to me and it has taken me ages to read, just because it is quite heavy and I haven’t wanted to lug it around on the tube with me. But about 3/4 of the way through, I gave up on that, and started carrying it, because it was just that good.

Tai Pan is the story of the founding of Hong Kong, and takes you in to a mercenary world of traders, pirates and colonialists. It took me a while to get used to the style of writing, as James Clavell puts accents on to everyone, and sometimes they can be a bit tricky to imagine, but once I was into it I absolutely loved it!

Swash-buckling, full of intrigue, double-crossing and heaving bosoms, it is a really cracking read. It had me in tears at the end. Definitely one to add to the list if you haven’t already read it.

Over my two weeks in Thailand, I read four books. You may notice a slight trend in that 3/4 involved some kind of serial killer. Also, full disclosure, the company I work with publishes 2/3 of the serial killer related novels and my friend works on the marketing for the 3rd, so I am a bit biased.

The first book I read was The Snowman. The MASSIVE sticker on the front seems to have worked wonders for Jo Nesbo, who only a small number of people had heard of before this book. Now, if you liked Stieg Larsson and you go into a book shop asking for something like Stieg Larsson, how easy is it for a book seller to just reach over, grab the book that says “The new Stieg Larsson”, quoted from an independent source (The Independent, as it happens) and there you go, job’s done. Obvious, but brilliant.

Anyway, to the book. Every time the first snow arrives in Oslo, someone is going to die. The women killed are always married, with children, and although they initially seem to have nothing else in common, our hero, detective Harry Hole, eventually unravels the plot. I say eventually because there are many red herrings for poor old Harry. I could have told you who the murderer was from a very early chapter but not because of anything he said or did, just because (spoiler alert): if someone has a really weird physical deformity in a book, chances are close to 100% that he/she is the killer. Just saying.

Next I read my advance proof of You Are Next. The book starts out with our hero, ex-detective Karin Schaeffer, willing the domino killer (who she investigated when he was leaving dominoes as clues to his next victim, who she caught, who escaped and then killed her entire family and has now escaped from prison for the second time) to break into her home and kill her. At the last minute, she realises she doesn’t have much to live for, but she doesn’t want to give in quite yet, and manages to get away. Then, they catch the killer but, as she finally starts to settle into life without her husband and child and make peace with what happened, her niece is kidnapped and dominoes are found where she was snatched from. Does the killer have a partner?

Then I read A Change in Altitude, the only non-serial killer book of the trip. Quite a sad, poignant book about a couple’s new life in Kenya. They make friends with a couple who convince them to climb Mount Kenya. Patrick, the husband, is up for the hike, but Margaret, his wife, who is the person we follow for most of the book, is less prepared. But she goes along, wanting to please Patrick and wanting to make friends. Then something happens on the trip which changes everything forever. Really interesting book, this one, although a bit of an abrupt ending!

Finally I read The Burning. Another serial killer crime thriller, but this time the twist is that while there is an investigation going on looking for the serial killer, a murder crops up that is similar, but not quite right. Our hero, detective Maeve Kerrigan, starts to investigate what increasingly looks like a copy-cat killing. Chapters by Maeve are alternated with chapters by the victim’s best friend, and through their eyes we meet a whole host of dubious characters, each one more likely than the next!

Of the three serial killer books, I think The Burning was my favourite. The Snowman was very Stieg Larsson-ish in that it was a big slow to begin with, but I was completely hooked by the end. Everything was so cold and grey and Scandinavian. And You Are Next was also thoroughly enjoyable and gripping. But I thought the Burning was a great twist on a serial killer novel and I really liked all of the characters. Like all 3 books (all serial killer novels ever?), there were a few unlikely leaps in the plot, but really fun and unputdownable - I read it in about a day and a half!

Anyway, great holiday reading, biased or not.

Now I am reading Tai-Pan, a book about the founding of Hong Kong, which my friends Emily and Seiji both said was their favourite book ever. I have to say I’m enjoying it so far, but finding some of the accents a bit difficult to keep up in my head. A Scottish man speaking in pidgin English to his Chinese mistress is a hard accent to imagine…

Sigh.

I so wanted to hate this book.

About a year ago, I got into an argument with my 13 year old cousin about it.

Me: “Emma, the book is clearly for pre-teens, similar to you, and it’s all about adolescent longing and how you’re too young to actually kiss any boys or do anything with them, but you’re starting to think about them all the time. It’s pretty lame and transparent, actually.”

Emma: “Katie, actually, you’re full of crap. I love it, Olivia (cousin, 18) loves it, Charlotte (cousin, 21) loves it. Everyone loves it. Get over it. Until you read it, I don’t want to talk to you about it again.”

Emma, I am sorry. You were right. I was wrong. I love Twilight. I am now going to need to read every book and every off shoot and probably see the films too.

Twilight. Buy it. Read it. Love it.