My sister borrowed The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold from the library recently, and when I was waiting for her at the dentist's I picked it up. By page nineteen, I was hooked. By page forty-five, I had shed tears. Later that night I picked it up again at 2am and didn't stop till I was finished, at about 5am.

I thought it was a great read, completely original, yet the ending still left me disappointed. I'm not going to say it sucked, because it didn't, but I had the same feeling I had after I finished reading How To Be Good by Nick Hornby, i.e. a kind of 'oh is that all?' feeling. I don't know whether it's the novel's 'fault', or if anyone else felt the same way at all, or whether it's just something that's hard to avoid because of the kind of story it is. The main event happens before the novel even starts, and everything else that comes after is how the characters cope. It ends when it seems the author has run out of emotional events to describe, and I suppose that's fair enough, though I did find the immediate aftermath much more interesting than when time sped up and it was several years later.

The thing I enjoyed most was the novel's concept of heaven. I think I'd like that place; the way it was described as being made total sense to me.

'Have you got any soul?' a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I wish I could spread it a bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problems though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.

With every re-reading of High Fidelity I love it more. This must be something like my fifth, and it still feels fresh. I'm a notorious 'skip to the goods bits' re-reader but this is a book where I enjoy every page. It's my favourite Hornby book. Fever Pitch dragged in places, About a Boy was nice, but felt too emotionally light, How to Be Good started off very promisingly but the ending sucked and now that I think back to it, A Long Way Down was a chore to read. Haven't read Slam yet; don't really want to.

High Fidelity the movie has a pretty enjoyable soundtrack. Anyone want it?