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Curious fact: whenever I go on tour, I always seem to buy a lot of books. The reason is really quite simple: I am a book addict. And when you go on a book tour, you go to a lot of bookshops! Not a good thing for a book addict. So what have I been reading then...?

"THE BLUE ROOM" by DAVID HARE

This is the play that Nicole Kidman starred in during its run in London. In a word, it is absolutely awesome. Very sexy...no, wait, "sexually charged" is a better description. And exceptionally well-written. I'll be seeing it next February when it comes to Sydney (with Elle MacPherson in the Kidman role). I found a copy of the play in a cool half-underground bookstore near my hotel in Brisbane.

"THE PRINCESS BRIDE" by WILLIAM GOLDMAN (25th Anniversary Edition)

Loved the movie, but had never read the book until I saw this baby in Alice Springs. Worth the price just for Goldman's fantastic introduction!

"WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES" by PHILIP GOUREVITCH

A far more serious piece of reading. And not for the queasy. This book is about Rwanda, and the genocide that was committed there in 1994. While its subject matter is confronting, disturbing, and at times, downright disgusting, this is one of the best-written books I have ever laid my eyes on. From the opening sentence, it is mesmerising. Read it and learn about the worst of humanity.

And finally, on a lighter note:

"HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE" by J.K. ROWLING

I am halfway through, and yep, she's done it again. That familiar feeling of "gotta get back to that book" is well-and-truly present in HP-IV. Joanne Rowling certainly knows how to tell a story. I just want to immerse myself in Hogwarts again and again (it's kind of like the school you wish you had gone to!). Utterly brilliant, and sheer good fun to boot.

One of the things I have discovered during the last month of touring is the amount of younger people reading my books. While I have a core adult readership, I was stunned to find that the books are trickling down to younger readers -- and by that I mean boys and girls 13 to 15 years of age, and a lot of so-called 'reluctant readers'. (I've had a heap of 30-ish men come to signings and say "I hadn't read a book since high school, but after reading ICE STATION, I'm now back into it. Thanks for getting me reading again.")

When I started writing, I just set out to write slam-bang action-packed novels (without any rest breaks!) that would take people (and by that I always imagined adults) on a twisting, turning rollercoaster ride. I never expected the books to strike such a chord with teenagers....but I'm bloody thrilled that they have!

I spoke at a dinner function the other night: the audience's ages ranged from one 12-year-old boy to an 80-year-old grandmother. Love it!

[Since I don't want to go on about it here, for some more thoughts on reading and teenagers, see the end of today's Thoughts]

Anyone seen the Australian TV ads for AREA 7? They look a bit like the Flash Intro to the website, don't they? After we held the competition on MR.com, Pan Macmillan got in touch with the winner, Ben Lynch from Mudgee, and paid him a concept fee to use the ideas from his Intro on the TV ads! (Ben, it should be mentioned, is only 17 years old!). Good on you, Ben.

I think it would be remiss of me to write about my experiences in September without mentioning the events of September 11. I don't think any of us will forget September 2001 very quickly. Like everyone else, I was sickened by those cowardly, cowardly attacks, and like all Australians, my thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones on September 11.

As a thriller writer, I have been asked how this will affect my writing. Am I, for example, frightened of people imitating my work in real life? (I heard Tom Clancy speaking on CNN soon after the attacks happened; I have read his novel, DEBT OF HONOUR, and I well know the scene in that book that was similar to the S11 attacks; I thought Mr Clancy, a true professional and a big inspiration to me as a writer, spoke very well on this topic.)

In the end, I believe my books are well-and-truly escapist fiction; books that sit firmly in the James Bond level of believablity -- good guys fighting bad guys, usually in exotic locations, during which heroes swing from helicopters and slide underneath speeding speedboats, and villains get their just desserts. Yes, there is violence and destruction, but it is of a highly fictional, 'good guys vs bad guys' adventure nature. The books are about the adventure, not the violence.

The attacks of September have changed the world we live in. As a writer of geo-political thrillers, more than anything, I make observations on the world (often they are speculative observations: allies fighting each other in the obscurity of Antarctica; internal squabbles between the US armed forces; 'ethnic bullet' biological weapons). That world has now changed. Consequently, my observations will change, too.

P.S. On a lighter note, a special hello to those two guys who came to my talk in Frankston, Victoria -- the two who said they hadn't enjoyed reading until they read my stuff. They're now enjoying Jeffrey Deaver! Cheers beers, boys!

P.P.S. It's back to the indoor cricket field on Monday night, and I'm ready and raring to go...

To anyone who says kids don't read, I've got first-hand evidence to the contrary: kids read. The thing is, they don't like adults (or governments or 'book councils') choosing their books for them. They'll decide for themselves, thank you very much. So let them.

And another thing about young people today. In my humble opinion, teenagers in the 21st century (kids who were brought up watching 30-channel cable TV, Nintendo, the Internet, and hyperkinetic action movies) can assimilate and process information far faster than any generation of teenagers before them. The world moves faster now, entertainment moves faster, and, to my mind, teenagers are used to that. And they want books (and movies and music and computer games) that reflect this faster-moving world.

The success of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, to me, speaks volumes on this. The Potter novels (complex in plot structure and yet completely in touch with schoolyard rough-and-tumble) are books that treat young people as the information junkies that they are. No wonder the Potter books have become a publishing phenomenon.