Tuesday 30th November

Today is the FutureBook conference in central London, at the Congress Centre - an event run by The Bookseller at which a host of speakers discuss the state of the industry as far as the rise of eBooks, DRM and eReaders continues. It's something I'm professionally interested in so I had asked to come along - despite the fact that it means battling my way onto the tube earlier than I'm usually awake. I arrive at around 9 relatively unmolested, however, and take a seat while waiting for the bosses to turn up.

There are some interesting speakers from places like Google, Lovefilm and Oxford University Press and the venue is well-filled - mostly by people with iPads. I've never seen such a concentrataion of them in one place. I amuse myself by tweeting my observations on the attendees (using the official hashtag) meaning that lots of other people in the room get to join in.

At the lunchbreak I grab one of the tiny bowls of complimentary food but decide to brave the snow anyway and go for a walk in search of some more susbtantial food.

The speakers get no less interesting but some of them do drag on a bit towards the end of the day - so I'm quite ready to go when the boss decides to make a move during the Q&A section. We head to Green Park to make the beginning of the launch of filmmaker John Waters' autobiography, which is being held at a swankier-than-swanky mens' clothes shop called Comme Des Garcons in Mayfair. This place is decidedly not for the likes of me - stocking things like £600 jackets, for example, which I and my glass of wine are allowed to get far too close to - and, funniest of all, a 10" PVC disc attached to a keyring which is apparently an Oyster card holder. It cost 30 quid. Fashion is completely alien to me.