Culture Vulture has asked for suggestions of books and authors from different countries, as part of a fortnightly series. Starting with Finland. Errrm. Tove Jannsson is the only one I know. I shall obviously be visiting the 'best suggestions page' when it goes live to ensure my embarassing lack of knowledge is put right!

I also posted, suggesting that they run a similar series at some point on books from different cities. Last year I visited Toronto, and really enjoyed reading books by authors based in the city, mainly writing about the city, on my return. The trick would be to find cities that aren't so frequently written about - there's nothing surprising, for example, about a book from London or New York. Now what about books written about Budapest (Tibor Fishcher, step forward please) or or Buenos Aires (Cortes?) or Auckland, etc.

Facts for book nerds

The British Library (tagline: The World's Knowledge) is a great institution. It's a lovely place to read too. Somehow validates your work in a way that other libraries don't. 'See! I am allowed to work here, therefore I must be doing valid academic work.' Whatever. It's one of six copyright libraries to which UK publishers are obliged to send every new book. That's so many books that, apparently, the British Library commissions 12km of shelving every year to contain three million new volumes. And, according to the Observer, if you looked at five items each day, it would take you 80,000 years to view the entire library. Crumbs.

Fascinating article in the Observer today about Jeff Skoll, the founder of eBay, and his new career as a producer of politically-oriented Hollywood blockbusters. The films he produces have to be commercially viable, but they also have to have a social message. There is hope over the pond, I reckon...