Between The Covers: 12/06/2011

*Former investment banker Geraint Anderson made his name as the City Boy columnist in thelondonpaper, writing about disillusioned, mid-thirties stockbrokers, who were doing too much cocaine and getting paranoid.

He wrote the column anonymously, before giving up his job in 2008 and coming out as the author of the book Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile, which was about disillusioned, mid-thirties stockbrokers, who were doing too much cocaine and getting paranoid. Last week, his latest book was published. "My new book, Just Business, is out this Thursday and was written for the same people who enjoyed Cityboy," he writes for the Book Brunch website. "It's about a disillusioned, mid-thirties stockbroker, who's doing too much gak and getting paranoid (I don't know where I get my inspiration from!)." The book, he assures us, is "simply a cracking read".

*Between the Covers is proud to bring you an exclusive insight into the forthcoming film of Matt Thorne's 1999 novel Eight Minutes Idle, which has been written by Thorne and his friend Nicholas Blincoe. "We're deep in the film edit and the producer says it's like a proper Hollywood rom-com trapped in a bizarre Bristolian nightmare," says Blincoe. "My work here is done." This is not the first time that a Thorne-Blincoe collaboration has been adapted for the silver screen, but it might be the most fun. The pair teamed up to co-edit the 2000 anthology All Hail the New Puritans, which was based on the Danish Dogme movement. Thorne was delighted when he was invited to Croatia to see a four-hour film adaptation of his 18-page short story, made by a group of fans. However, he told us at the time: "I'm not looking forward to sitting for that long watching my own stuff in Serbo-Croat, with only a fish stew to sustain me." The Twitter feed at twitter.com/#!/8minutesidle suggests that both food and filming on the new movie have been considerably more enjoyable.

*TS Eliot was no stranger to innovation when he was the director of Faber & Faber, but surely even he would be surprised to find one of his greatest works in an iPad edition. The Waste Land is now available from the App Store for £7.99, complete with interactive notes, images of original manuscript pages and, synchronised to the text, readings of the entire poem by Eliot himself, Alec Guinness, Ted Hughes and the actress Fiona Shaw.

*Here is a bright idea from the W Hotel in Leicester Square: a library of good books, chosen by authors, and available to guests and visitors to peruse with a drink. Ten books each have been chosen by 10 authors – Bret Easton Ellis, David Nicholls, Hephzibah Anderson, Geoff Dyer, Ned Beauman, Alex Preston, Naomi Alderman, Sloane Crosley, Jake Arnott and Craig Taylor – who have hidden a handwritten introduction in each of their chosen titles explaining why they love the book, with other personal anecdotes. Hephzibah Anderson recommends Great Expectations, not least because "Dickens's London is still there" outside the hotel. David Nicholls likes Casino Royale: "A guilty pleasure and surely the only novel in which the hero orders half an avocado pear for dessert." He also suggests Salinger's Franny and Zooey, which "makes me cry every time". Fortunately, this library provides cocktails to help dry those tears. "Hotels seem to have every conceivable idea – except a well-chosen, well-used library", says Nicholls. This one opens on Tuesday.