It is an interesting question (despite the tendency to find it asked in trashy magazines called things like Heat or Girl or Tatler) but since blogging began it has been on my mind more than usual.

At the side of the blog there is a list of friends. Speaking with the sensational Lee Hill (his blog @ www.writeratlarge.blogspot.com) last night we got onto the subject. It appears that in the US college radio is being replaced by blogging as a means of spreading music, gossip etc amongst the student population. There are some kids who have literally THOUSANDS of friends. When they upload playlists or whatever they often crash whole sections of the net as all these friends try to download the music at once. That is clearly a case of having just too many friends.

We have five at the moment (Bigup The Retard, Emsbabee, morele..., lauren6 (better by far than the other 5) and Mr Flighty.) though I have no idea who any of these people are! Still love you guys - come in to the shop sometime and I'll love you for ever...

At the bookshop last night I was delighted to meet Pete Hobbs and now hope I might count him among my friends. Indeed the shop was full of folk with not much in common other than a love of books and reading.

I have met all sorts of people through books over the years. It's one of the things I can talk about to anyone for hours (a useful addition to my conversation which would otherwise revolve almost entirely around politics and football - two areas that are more likely to involve fisticuffs than reading, though the whole Scott Pack thing almost changed that. If he were a Chelsea fan then I might have to issue another challange BUT I digress...)

Since opening the shop I have met all kinds of people I would now think of as friends who I would never have spoken to otherwise for a number of reasons. There's Fifi and her lovely coffee, Dave the street sweeper (a true unsung Hero of the Marsh), Mr Ivory who has been educating me in the merits of Nigerian fiction, all the bookgroupies (Paul in particular) Lea, Skuds, the delightful Barabara Sweet (by name and nature) and loads of others I hope I don't offend by not mentioning...

My point? Surely it's up to you how many friends you have? After all in the words of that primary school anthem - Love is something if you give it away - you end up having more...

I may be wrong though - recent calculations have suggested 28 as the maximum...