The rail thing

You may be surprised at how much you enjoy "Platform Souls: The Trainspotter As 20th-Century Hero" by Nicholas Whittaker. Like Sean Dooley's enthralling Aussie birdwatching memoir "The Big Twitch", it confirms the lengths to which people will pursue a hobby, while demolishing the modern stereotype - beloved of those seeking a cheap laugh - of the anoraked loser with the pen-packed pocket.

For the young Nicholas, 'spotting was less about memorising data to be rattled off Trump Card-style and more about catching as many trains as his pocket money would allow, all over England, without being caught. While doing that, sneaking into rail yards for closer inspections and, yes, underlining numbers in a book, he grew into a well-adjusted (definitely well-travelled) adult with a family and career.

Whittaker conveys the adventurous appeal of his fave pastime so successfully that you'll be wanting to give it a go long before the end. Where "T/B/T" filled me with the desire to grab some binoculars and hunt down a rarely seen species, "P/S" has me on the lookout for rail journeys I've yet to take that could lead to who-knows-where-and-what. Trainspotting in its purest form.