29/12/14: Roger Green – Destination Nowhere: A South Mimms Motorway Service Station Diary (2004)

"I have a fifty-year-old woman sitting facing me, a few tables away. She is tucking into a large dish of quiche and assorted salad. Must have cost a bomb. Sunglasses rest on top of her ginger hair, her black blouse is unbuttoned halfway down, her large cleavage is prominent. She sits in a tight red skirt, with black stockings up to her bum, a pair of high-heel black shoes dangle off her toes . . . A man walking past in light brown desert boots and an all-in-one matching pilot's suit complete with coloured epaulettes catches her eye. He has Arab features – Colonel Gaddafi meets Marlene Dietrich!" (p.197)

A book of observations of the humdrum daily activities at South Mimms Motorway Services. Parts of it are dreary indeed – details of what people are wearing, eating and so on (as above) – and the author's prose fails to infuse the mundane with any sense of the extraordinary. The book is heavy on detail (including far too much about the author's use of the toilet cubicles), but light on analysis – an intentional approach, no doubt, but not one that's especially engaging. A more poetic writer observing this seething mass of humanity could have explored universal truths about who we are and how we live. More interesting are the brief interviews with service-station staff and regulars, who provide glimpses into the local history and real insights into the long hours spent in these non-places between places. More of this "oral history" tactic would have worked better.

A few errors: the group is The Byrds, not The Birds (p.32), and it's Pete Townshend, not Pete Townsend (p.148). The song referred to is "I'm a Believer", not "I am a Believer" (p.56), and slang for a bloke is "geezer", rather than "geyser" (p.67). These points may seem minor and/or pedantic, but they have an undermining effect: when he writes of "a young William Haigh type" (p.70), it's unclear whether he means the former Conservative party leader William Hague or someone else entirely. Not quite the level of research you'd expect from someone described as "Director of the Centre for Community Research at the University of Hertfordshire".

Some of the observations left a sour taste: "What is it about couples, men and women, walking arms around each other's waists so early in the morning? Have they just emerged from the Days Inn Motel opposite where a night of pleasure has occurred? Or is it simply they are sad people?" (p.149) What's wrong with being in love? Why is showing affection "sad"?

On the plus side, the photos are nice and I would have liked more of them. There's an entertaining and insightful book to be written about service stations. This isn't it.

28/12/14: Susanna Moore – In the Cut (1995)

A short, intense thriller: Frannie teaches linguistics in New York. She encounters a series of men, all of them potentially dangerous and one of them a brutal murderer. She becomes involved in an ambiguous relationship with the detective investigating the case and things start hotting up . . . An intelligent crime novel that quickly hooks you in. I am new to the author, but may well read more of her books based on the strength of this novel.

02/11/14: Chris Brook & Alan Goodrick – K Foundation Burn a Million Quid (2002)

In 1994, the K Foundation – Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty – travelled to the island of Jura, off Scotland, where they burned one million pounds in bank notes. Their friend Alan "Gimpo" Goodrick filmed them doing it. Bill and Jimmy then toured with the film, inviting debate about the meaning of the act. Was it art? Was it a political gesture? Was it stupid and reckless? Were they making a great statement? This book presents stills from Gimpo's film along with transcripts of these debates and other bits of commentary.

There are no "easy answers" about burning £1 million, but there's some very interesting discussion about the nature of art, money and value.

Note: although Bill Drummond has distributed this via his Penkiln Burn imprint – and obviously features heavily – this book is not written by him, as is suggested in some online listings.

24/10/14: Martin C. Strong – The Essential Rock Discography (2006)

It's obvious that a great deal of research went into this book, but it is badly let down by a few things:

This streamlined 2006 edition of what was once The Great Rock Discography no longer includes artists such as Gong, Talk Talk, Kirsty MacColl or even Abba, so it's much less comprehensive than you might have hoped, despite stretching across 1,250 pages. Yet space was somehow found for The Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Keane, The Killers, The Kooks, Korn, Lenny Kravitz, and so on.

It's in desperate need of proof-reader:
• The commas and apostrophes are all over the place – for example: "you're answers please on the back of a postage stamp" (p.472), This Years Model (p.243), etc
• There are silly typos such as "the The Smiths" (p.996) and spelling errors such as "punk sterotypes" (p.388) and "Blur mainman Damon Alborn" (p.605)
• There are factual errors: Morrissey's book was called James Dean is Not Dead, not James Dean Isn't Dead (p.996). The Fall's Levitate album was released in September 1997, not February 1998 (p.393). And in the same entry, keyboard player Marcia Schofield has been renamed "Marsha Schofield" (p.390).
If these mistakes can be found on a first glance through the pages, then what else is incorrect? The usefulness of a reference work of this kind depends on you being able to trust the information it offers.

By the end of the book, the printing has gone askew. The last few pages have been sliced in such a way that text is right up against the edge of the page and very difficult to read. On p.1,153, the caption "Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground" is also sliced off midway through the text. It may just be my copy, of course, but I'd still suggest you check before buying.

The artist biographies are deliberately subjective and opinionated, which can be entertaining, but the excessive exclamation marks make some of the entries tiresome. And some are a little simplistic: there's way more to Nico than "an avante-garde, moody songstress" (p.757).

These might sound like fussy points, but after all the effort that went into compiling this it's a real shame that a potentially invaluable reference book is undermined by things that might easily have been fixed. Maybe the next edition?

29/09/14: Jason Bitner – Found Polaroids (2007)

Found Polaroids is an interesting anthology of pictures picked up and sent in to Found Magazine. Each left-hand page contains a brief caption: where the photo was found and perhaps a few thoughts about the origins or meaning of the image. The right-hand page is the photograph itself. The format is very simple and seems to have disappointed reviewers, but I found this to be a rewarding book. The best pictures are deeply mysterious: who are these people and places? Why were the polaroids taken and why were they later lost?

20/07/14: Peter Doggett – Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Guide to His Music (2004)

This 160-page book covers every known Hendrix release issued during his life, along with posthumous albums, and officially and semi-officially released material. It really gets into the detail and helps you pick through the vast maze of Jimi's discography. Last updated in 2004 it obviously misses any releases since then, but what you do get is comprehensive indeed.

The author comes across as informed rather than opinionated, and wisely chooses not to take sides with the various factions responsible for these releases. It's a shame that the song index wasn't expanded to include all of the albums as well, as it can be difficult to navigate. But this is still well worth reading.

17/07/14: Nicholson Baker – Room Temperature (1990)

Room Temperature may be the best example of Nicholson Baker's ultra-detailed prose. He takes an idea and lets it unfold, exploring the associated ideas that flow forth (logically and illogically) from it. It's a short book, and beautifully written. Don't expect a "plot". It all takes place in the organic drift of the narrator's thoughts one afternoon as he sits with his baby falling asleep. But in rendering consciousness so vividly, Baker achieves something very rare.