Facebook is a wondrous thing and I've actually made some gains from it, which is rather nice. You see, I made a pointed remark about the relative awfulness of the Malta Book Fair that was held recently. I had been strolling by, as one does, and thought I'd make a little detour through the exhibition, being as I rather like books and it would be nice if something caught my eye from the local scene.

Truth be told, the only book-length stuff (if you see what I mean) in Maltese that I'd read much of before now was the masterful series of memoirs penned by Herbert Ganado.

I remember remarking at the time that he used a version of the language that was so in synch with the way normal people spoke, albeit within the context of his times, that it was as if you weren't reading Maltese at all.

Before the purists leap up and down on my hapless corpse, let me just state, in my own defence, that the perception that reading in Maltese is not as easy as reading in English is not exactly badly founded. It is a reality, sad as it may be, that most of us, at least of my generation and social type (read into that what you will), find - or in my case, anyway, used to find, as, thankfully, this is no longer the case - Maltese a bind to read and an even greater trial to write.

I don't intend to go into the whys and wherefores of this, suffice it to say that it is the case, disgraceful as it may be and I fully admit that the disgrace is ours, though perhaps the deplorable manner in which some of us had the subject rammed down our throats had something to do with it.

The dire fare that passed for Maltese literature also didn't help, though, again, I freely admit that the fault was more probably ours than theirs, if you see what I mean.

So it was with an open mind that I approached the book-fair and it was with an empty shopping bag that I came out, the tawdriness of the whole thing having put me off the idea of making any literary acquisitions.

I remarked on this on a Facebook entry of someone who was connected, apparently unwillingly, with the event, and the upshot was that he very kindly sent me a couple of books.

One was Ramon u z-Zerbinotti by Guzè Stagno and, at this point, you are asked to imagine me standing up and applauding the gentleman. The book treats a week in the life of some secondary school students and it was so evocative of my own schooldays that it was uncanny. Set in the early 1990s, as opposed to the late 1960s and early 1970s when I was at the Lyceum myself, the novel so precisely, and hilariously, portrays the acne and angst through which your common or garden teenager trudges that I was sitting there giggling to myself like an idiot.

I can't recommend the book enough and I intend to make myself way more familiar with Stagno's work. It's not just comedy, though, because the style adopted conjures up an image of Malta that is, strangely enough, familiar and challenging at the same time.

Read it and see what I mean. I polished it off in an evening and the next morning, which I haven't done for quite some time.

The second book was a collection of short stories by Pierre J. Meylak, Qed Nistenniek Niezla max-Xita. Short stories are not a genre that I go for, generally, but I found myself moving from one to the other at quite a clip, probably because the language and the style were such as to engage me very strongly. One of the stories actually moved me to, well, if not tears, very damp eyes.

I must be getting sentimental in my old age. This was good stuff too, so you see, not only did I make material gain in the form of a couple of free books through Facebook, I even got intellectual sustenance.

While on the subject of sustenance, we had dinner at Tatita's in San Lawrenz, on Saturday night.

I'd been there before and it was adequately enjoyable but this time they raised their game superbly. Hats off to them and, while we're at it, hats off in a good luck gesture to the people from Snoopy's, who have taken on a new venture at the Preluna Beach Club. We got a sneak preview of the sort of stuff they will be serving and it was pretty good, though we weren't able to go to the venue, since the opening was over the weekend and, as attentive readers will have noticed, we were up North.

imbocca@gmail.com, www.timesofmalta.com/blogs