I enjoyed the evening with Granta at waterstones with two minor issues. The first was that without PA (and I was in the second row) I had to strain to hear some of the replies/readings the authors gave - Both Steven Hall and Evie Wyld were both very softly spoken. The second issue was that i was a bit tongue tied when speaking with Steven Hall afterwards and it seemed to an innocent bystander that I had implied that he'd stolen the idea for his second book from Mark Z. Danielewski which is mortifying, I really didn't mean that at all. I've mailed him to apologise... What I said was something along these lines -

Me - I'd not read much Ergodic Lit before the Raw Shark Texts so it blew me away when I read it and had to find more things like it, so I read House of Leaves. I find it interesting that both you and he have followed an ergodic book with an infinite loop book.

Hall was very gracious but thinking back on his answer, which was basically "I was always going to write this book and although Only Revolutions came out I still thought it was worth doing and the two books are very different"

Me and my Size 10's :-(

There was a reading by each author from the books featured in the Granta edition, $12.99 available on the night which I got the three authors to sign.

There was also an interesting set of questions basically showing that although very different the three authors all shared a fascination with memory. Joanna Kavenna promised to write about sharks for her next book :-) (perhaps Perverted Detective Shark!)

Last night was the launch of Riot! by Mike Manson, a book about the Bristol Bridge "Riot" in 1793

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Riot-Bristol-Bridge-Massacre-1793/dp/1909446009/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366967733&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=riot+mike+manson

There was an introduction by Dr Steve Poole about the fact that the book is the first to call it a Massacre and that places it almost 25 years in the middle of two other massacres.

Mike Manson talked about why he wrote the book and read a short section out.

The launch was in Renatos on King Street that Steve Poole identified as the oldest building on the street, it certainly had an interestingly tilted floor upstairs and I wouldn't like to consume too much Chianti before trying that floor...

As a bonus I got my copy of Adventure Rocketship from Tangent

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventure-Rocketship-Wright-Jonathan/dp/1906477736/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366968064&sr=1-1&keywords=adventure+rocketship