Most of the walking I've ever done has been alone, in various cities. Of course I know that I'm always following in somebody's footsteps, and I also know that a lot of writers are also walkers. I'm happy to have fellow literary travelers even if they're not physically walking with me at the time. I find it impossible, for example, to walk down Oxford Street in London without thinking that's where Thomas De Quincey walked, and where he bought his first dose of opium.

In the course of writing Lost Art, I learned that Will Self was also doing a book of walking, called Psychogeography, a collection of his walking pieces from The Independent. Of course I didn't dare read his book until I'd finished my own. And now, thanks to The Believer, we've had a correspondence about walking, drifting, sex and drugs. The interview can be found here.

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The New York Times released its annual "100 Notable Books" list last week, a list compiled from all the books reviewed in 2008. These Penguin titles made the grade:

Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee Read New York Times review	The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon Read New York Times review	My Revolutions by Hari Kunzru Read New York Times review