It is fair to say that the last week or so has been a bit of a blur. I spent it recovering from two days in Kraków(!) which meant painkillers, getting up only to need a long nap two hours later, and spending my awake hours on the sofa either looking out on the sunshine or reading. My partner, David, took over cooking duties for most of the week, bless him, but I still feel vaguely guilty about leaving it all to him.

I’ve read three books this past week: Anne Donovan’s Being Emily, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Michel Faber’s Under the Skin.

Donovan’s book was a letdown after her excellent Buddha Da or perhaps I am just not very good with emotional, comic and heart-warming family tales. Satrapi’s graphic novel proved an interesting, clever and often funny look at growing up a smart woman in 1970s and 1980s Iran. I still struggle with the actual graphic novel format, though. Finally, Faber’s Under the Skin. A fascinating, horrifying and absorbing read. I wonder what it says about me that I cannot get behind “emotional, comic and heart-warming family tales” but I fall head over heels for a strange, disturbing, genre-defying short novel?

Finally, I know I’ve posted a lot of YouTube links lately, but this one is an absolute cracker. A student at Glasgow’s School of Art sat down to make a video installation about obsolete technology. This is the result. So strange and beautiful.