This month I have been mostly reading
Robert Baer – The Devil We Know
Scott Ritter – Target Iran
Paul Carr – Bringing Nothing to the Party
Christina Lamb – Small Wars Permitting
Hunter S. Thompson – The Rum Diary
Eric Hansen – Motoring With Mohammed
Caroline Knapp – Drinking a Love Story
Peter Biskind – Down and Dirty Pitctures
Back in Dubai trying to finish a piece on Kuwait for HK magazine, a piece on Beirut and Dubai for the South China Morning Post and booking tickets to Nepal to do a piece for Esquire Middle East. Will be there over the New Year which should be interesting. Also finished four books in the past four days including a re-read of Hunter S. Thompson’s Rum Diary, definitely one of his best – written before his mind got addled with all manner of substances.
Off to Beirut now to pitch Berytech on a mobile apps concept myself and Eamonn have been working on (with the help of Narain). Should be an interesting weekend, not least when I make a trip to the Hezbollah gift shop and pick up some pillow cases. Will be staying in the Le Gray Hotel and will be writing a number of travel pieces…
Getting to a good place with a comedy screenplay I am working on. The dialogue is flowing, need to work on character development and episode narratives. Fiction is a lot more fun than journalism – no nasty things such as facts to get in the way. Was once told the only way to write a good screenplay is to read constantly. Given I have been doing that for the past 3 months, there might be some merit to that.
On Writing Well came through in the post yesterday which is something every journalist/writer/human should read. The UAE’s PR community should be forced at gunpoint to read it.
Another piece on Dubai for the foreign media, this time concentrating on the island of Ireland, on the now empty The World development.
This month I have mostly been reading:
Money by Martin Amis
Video Night in Kathmandu by Pico Iyer
Soldiers of God by Robert D. Kaplan
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
Eastward to Tartary by Robert D. Kaplan
The Other by Ryszard Kapuscinski
Did a piece a whileback for CNN Traveller magazine on Dubai’s new(ish) Metro. Not hugely impressed, but let’s wait until it is actually finished. There is one stop right outside my apartment which will make life a lot easier. Also finished a piece for the Irish Times today, will be in Saturday’s paper.
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