[A Common Reader]

Stewart - nice to hear of someone else who doesn't like film tie-in editions. A book is totally spoiled for me if its got a couple of actors on the cover. Perfume is another book which doesn't translate to film all that well, although the film is good in its own right (I think its perfectly acceptable for a film to be seen as a quite separate creation "based on" a book, and don't quite understand the outrage of readers who find, for example, that the ending isn't quite the same - e.g. Captain Corelli).

I came to Perfume expecting to find crime novel, or a thriller, about a serial killer. Instead I found a beautifully written and deeply researched novel about a young Frenchman with an unusual sense of smell and a unique gift for the art of the perfumier. In fact, the murders of young girls, so emphasised in the film, take second place to the descriptions of how perfume is made, and the way in which Grenouille gradually infiltrates the profession.

The Ernst Weiss book looks good. Alas, my TBR list getting out of hand again!