Tales from the Bedroom Floor

London: Picador, 2015 Why is this book on the bedroom floor? - I first came across a review of this in Nick Hornby’s Stuff I’ve Been Reading , a collection of reviews for The New Yorker . It sounded interesting and I filed it away at the back of my mind, until coming across it in a Blue Cross shop about a year ago. About the Author - Ryan Gattis is a novelist who lives in LA and is part of a street-art crew. He’s written half a dozen books. All Involved is the product of Gattis’ two and a half years of research and interviews with eyewitnesses to the 1992 LA riots. Plot - Set over six days of the infamous LA riots of 1992, the book loosely charts the fall-out from a revenge killing on the brother of a member of Big Fate’s crew, drawing in family, deadly rivals, bystanders and the emergency services. Review - Imagine you’re sitting there, one evening (say, May Day or something), watching television. Then, without knowing why, your nice suburban street or the...

London: Victor Gollancz, 1994 Why is this book on the bedroom floor?  - I spotted in in a charity shop, and paid an extortionate price for it because I've wanted to read it for years. So given the slimness of the volume and its relative value, I waited for a couple of years before pulling it out and giving it floor space. About the Author - Don Watson wrote extensively for the NME during the 1980s, becoming a section editor and departing in 1989. After continuing to write across various publications, he now works in marketing for the British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations. No, me neither. Plot - ex-music editor goes to World Cup, meets people, describes. Review - First of all, I should declare a prior interest. Some thirteen years ago, at the start of my own professional writing career, I decided my first book-length project would be to go to a World Cup finals and experience fan culture, trying to find the single answer...