Fiction...

I hate to mention trains again, but I ran for (said train) today and (said train) was pulling out as I got to the station-but the driver stuck his head out of his cabin, saw me, and stopped to let me on! You wouldn't get that from a BUS driver. My godlike aspirations continue as I stop a train in its tracks...
Whilst in transit I read a wonderful passage from Alan Bennetts "Talking Heads": "A lady of letters" explains why she can't get away with reading fiction:

"Maureen's trying to get me on reading. I suppose to get me off writing. She says books would widen my horizon. Fetches me novels, but they don't ring true. I mean, when someone in a novel says, "I've never been in an air crash", you know this means that five minutes later they will be. Say trains never crash and one does. In stories saying it brings it on. So if you get the heroine saying, "I shall never be happy", the you can bank on it there's happiness just around the corner. That's the rule in novels. Whereas in life you can say you're never going to be happy and you never are happy, and saying it doesn't make a ha'porth of difference. That's the real rule. Sometimes I catch myself thinking it'll be better the second time round.....But this is it. This has been my go".

I won £50 in book vouchers from the university and tonight I'm determined to put together a buy-list of "true to life" fiction (like talking heads!), which I'll publish tomorrow. I was thinking of just buying Milan Kundera's entire works, but 50 quid won't quite cover it, and anyways I've read nearly all of them. So I'm going to be adventurous...