Today I got two great books at the IFI (Irish Film Institute, mentioned in a recent post).

One is a book of comics by the director Alan Parker (called Will Write And Direct For Food) which makes fun of (to put it lightly) the film industry. It’s a really sharp and funny book – loads of great observations and perspectives.

The other one is a book called The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories. It’s a massive tome exploring the theory that all stories comply to one or more of seven basic plot outlines, and also man’s obsession or need for stories and storytelling throughout history. I haven’t read much of it yet, but it seems pretty good so far. Obviously the premise of the book is very interesting to me – but it was really the astoundingly relentless praise on the back cover which convinced me to buy it in the first place.