A Short Trip Round Porthcawl Leading To A Chat On Brian Aldiss,Thomas Mann and Hilary Clinton....As You Do

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It was Thursday morning. I'd been to the dentist (surprisingly better than expected) and had about two hours (including lunch) to fill before going to work. I'd been to Bridgend Town before Christmas but hadn't visited Porthcawl for a while and was curious to see what it was like. So Porthcawl it was.

Now let's start with the obvious. It was a nice day. Hence a good picture looking at the sea is required.

I did my best

In my short time round the town the best thing is that nothing much has changed. I've mentioned before of the maritime centre being built and though there were two shops closing down I suspect they will be replaced very soon given that I didn't see any empty shops. Only one place has closed down since my last visit and I'll return to that in a moment.

It's looking good

So after a good sausage sandwich lunch in a café (where the waitress revealed that when she gets angry she's liable to smash things) I went to my favourite charity shop in the area with it's wide display on the first floor of books. But before that let's chat about the one building in the area that has closed down since my last visit. A closure that indeed made the national news.

The public toilets

Now from the outside it's a nice looking building that blends into it's surroundings. Built in the days when councils cared about such things.

From the inside it was clean and (if you excuse the expression) did it's job.

Now for the moment at least it's closed. And it's a disgrace. As I've said before many people come here for the beach over the summer months and this facility is needed.

Bridgend Labour Council in action folks.

Before I chat about the books I bought in the Porthcawl Animal Welfare (PAWS) charity shop a word about the latest book I've read the complete short stories written in the 1950's by (mainly) Sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss.

Regular readers will know that I am a fan. But to be honest less so here. At best OK at worst (and this seemed to focus on the longer tales) a draft for a novel. What I will say is that I've read some of his short stories written in the sixties and seventies and they were (if you excuse the expression again) out of this world.

Anyway to the two books I actually bought. Firstly one had to be a Penguin in a classic coloured spine cover. It turned out to be.

Thomas Mann - Buddenbrookes

Whilst I have some Thomas Mann books in my great unread and e-unread pile I've never actually got round to reading him. Simply because of so many books so little time. Let's hope I read it relatively soon.

You may remember when I started the insomniac meanderings posts I said I was going to get Hilary Clinton's autobiography? Well I might plead guilty to being late on acting out on my promises but I do try to keep them...

Promise kept....at last

I wonder how many people look at Hilary Clinton now since we've had over two years of the Trump presidency and think...."If Only......"

Of course now I have to get round to reading it.

Until the next time.

When Is A Game Of Thrones Prequel Not A Prequel? When It's The First Book Of The Series You've Read

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well as regular readers to this blog will know taken as a rule I'm not a fan of prequels. My view is that what's the point of knowing the route when you know the destination? I use the TV series Gotham as the example of this. We all know Bruce Wayne is going to be Batman. So where's the tension?

Similarly I'm not a fan of fantasy novels  as a rule either. Books where a writer makes up their own worlds with fantasy names and words with the occasional bit of "magic" thrown in. So far in my reading life the one and only exception has been the Helliconia series by the late Brian Aldiss.

And so...as I go into my local library the next book on their display which I am honour bound to read by wish to read every "practical" book there turns out to be this.

George R R Martin - A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms

This is in fact three novellas set a hundred years before the Game Of Thrones years where roaming Westeros are our heroes. A "hedge" knight called Dunk and his child servant Egg. A land where there are some exotic places as Cockswindle, Osgrey, Standfast and Ashford (isn't that in Kent?)

I remember vaguely watching the first ever episode of Game Of Thrones years ago. I was half asleep and really unaware about what was going on. Other than that I've passed it by.

Now I know that sounds snobby on my part. Not my intention. But I hope it explains that when  picking the book up I had probably the unique advantage of being able to treat this book not as a prequel but as book one of the whole saga. In other words through luck rather than design I was starting from the beginning.

So did it change my mind regarding this type of book? Well slightly. It's certainly readable. The best novella of the three was the final one which had a mystery at it's core. If I was able to read the next instalment of this (prodigious) series for free I wouldn't baulk at the opportunity.

But whilst interesting and readable I can't say I was excited by it. Even though it was for me book one it still lacked any degree of tension for me. I suppose therefore it was a prequel after all what ever you approach it.

In any case. Helliconia still wins.

Until the next time.

Of Books Read And Borrowed Leading To My Big Enviormental Question

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the collected essays of Brian Aldiss is now finished. And for the most part I enjoyed it. You will rarely have a consistent view of any anthology but for the moment calling him the George Orwell of Science Fiction essays (though not all are Sci-fi) seems appropriate.

There are a few caveats. Some of these essays were so above me they were rocket to the moon length. Also this particular ebook lazily put certain volumes together even though some of the essays appeared twice, which was annoying. But approaching subjects like Mary Shelley or George Orwell from his sci-fi perspective is interesting and unusual. The book was worth reading for those essays alone.

Won't read the other Brian Aldiss I have on my Kindle yet, I'll save that for another day. So back to Charles Dickens and David Copperfield.

Went to Sully library to choose some new books. The Fiction choice was..

Edward Marston - Timetable of Death

I've never read The Railway Inspector crime series before. So this is new to me. But when waiting for my daughter at her school read sixty one pages of this book without realising I'd gone through so much in a short space of time. That is the mark of a good writer. Early days obviously, but it looks promising.

The other book. The one I wasn't sure to get but eventually decided upon was this.

David Attenborough - New Life Stories

This leads to my environmental question. Because I should explain first that I've never watched a David Attenborough or any animal programme.

So the question: Can you be truly care for the environment when you're wary in the presence of animals?

I believe in being environmentally friendly. I do believe in climate change and have shown that landscapes are important to me. Also I'm against zoos believing that animals should be allowed to roam free but at the same time I'm ambivalent to anything that's not human.

Part of the reason for this, possibly all of it, is my actual phobia for dogs. Brought on by being almost mauled by an Alsatian when I was a very young child. Even now, no matter how small the dog ("He won't bite,he's showing he likes you") my reaction is to stiffen with fear.

So I can't say I've read many animal books. When I finish it that will need to be borne in mind.

Until the next time.

How Bruce Chatwin, Brian Aldiss and the NRL Fared In The Rainy Sunday Test

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Although my daughter has one more day of the school holidays left to go but let's face it the Monday doesn't really count) the wife had plans for Sunday.

"Let's go to Tenby" she said on Saturday.

I shrugged. Been there done that. As I've said before in this blog I'm not really a beach person.But then again I'd no real alternative option so fine.

However it's now Sunday morning....and it's raining. It was one of those Sundays (wherever in the world you are) that aside from getting any necessary provisions you know from the moment you get up that you're staying in.

There's now a channel called FreeSports ....yippee to that...where you can watch....surprise,surprise sports without having to pay for it. As mentioned before because of the internet connection where we are renting at the moment I've had to drop BT Sports. This was good news for the wife and daughter as it meant the number of programmes I'd recorded dropped to one (Professor T). Now however I'm back DVR'ing as if my life depended on it. So they find they're watching something and then the screen suddenly changes to an Australian rugby league game. Oh how they love that

Ah yes Australian Rugby League. The NRL. A season about to go into it's final stages. I'm Ok with the sport. Football will always come first but don't dislike it. So on Sunday morning watched a recording of a few games. The most important for me being the North Queensland Cowboys versus the Brisbane Broncos.

This game, being the first to watch was going to decide which NRL club I was going to follow. But. even though it might mean that I wouldn't be able to watch them for the rest of the season I'm no glory seeker. So whoever lost would have, for what it's worth, my support.

Well.....go get them Cowboys from now on then.

I enjoyed the games of course having the advantage that not living in Australia meant I wouldn't know the result in advance and could watch them later. There is a possibility dem Cowboys will move into the final eight at time of writing but I don't know and am not finding out before I finish watching this week's games

In the afternoon though wife/daughter wanted to watch movies. In particular Evita starring Madonna. Wasn't interested in that (though it raises the question whatever happened to Jimmy Nail?) so picked up and continued to read In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin.

Now I haven't finished the book yet. But those of you hoping that I would be somehow transported into the wildlands of Argentina and wax lyrical about the prose will be disappointed. I don't like travel books where the natives are treated like exhibits for the examination of the writer. He is not superior.

Furthermore the chapters are short,very short, one, two, three pages long. Tells a story and moves on when you're sure he could have got into more detail.

You know what? It might have been a better read as a blog (before his time I know).

When the skies grew darker I turned to my Kindle and it's backlight for further reading. However Charles Dickens will  have to wait. Amazon always throw offers at you when you've bought a Kindle. Normally I can ignore them. But recently they've offered deals on works by the recently deceased writer Brian Aldiss who I wrote about recently. Well I was tempted and bought a complete set of the short stories he wrote in the fifties as well as a complete set of his essays. Not only that but cannot resist reading them (starting with the essays) now thus jumping the queue of the great ebook unread.

Will chat about it when I've finished. All I'll say now is that I'm not disappointed.

It's Monday as I'm writing this. It's raining...but I have work coming up.

Until the next time.

Brian Aldiss. Two Examples Of What A Great Writer He Was

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Barkingside is near Ilford. It's in that area where Essex melds with East London. I won't say there is anything out of the ordinary about the place, It was when I was a teenager a place which bathed in its suburbia and was proud of it.

As a teenage boy though there was one building that was the exception to that normality. The library. It was large and circular. I loved wandering around the place. A lot of my reading education was nurtured there.

One of the books I took out of the library was The Brightfount Diaries. About life in a provincial bookshop in the fifties. Loved it. Knew what I wanted to be in life. A bookseller.

As is almost always the way things moved in my life in a completely different direction. But I never forgot the book or the effect it had on me. Tried in vain to get a copy many years later. The price however wasn't right. Stunningly high since it was no longer printed but obviously had the same effect on people as it had on me. It's resale value reflected the memories.

A few years back I finally got a copy. And did what I rarely do nowadays which is to reread a book. The irony though was that it was an ebook. One of the reasons why bookselling is no longer what it was in the nineteen fifties. I'm happy to say that I did not finish it disappointed, though I'd admit feeling more bittersweet given bookselling today.

Example two concerns the fantasy genre. I like Science Fiction, Am interested in the idea of parallel worlds. But the glories of different world fantasy novels have passed me by. Personally I find them indulgent pieces of comic book writing without the illustrations. You can tell that the Game Of Thrones phenomena has obviously taken a diversion when it approached me.

The Helleconia series though was different, I was hooked. And the reason why I was hooked was that the quality of writing made you believe in the world that was being shown to us.

So the writer of one of my favourite books of all time and of a series of novels that I enjoyed in a genre I normally back away from. Those examples show I hope what a good and wide ranging writer Brian Aldiss was.

RIP Mr Aldiss.....and thankyou.

Until the next time.

The Quiet Pleasure Of Turning A Page (The Love Of Reading) and the joys of chasing Penguins and Pelicans

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Firstly I'm feeling a little better. Though the night was a painful rasp of continued coughing and I've still got a sore throat at least I feel more with it than I did yesterday. Still there was no reason to overdo today so I mainly spent the day reading.

Now let me not be accused of being a hypocrite. I have a Kindle and it is useful. If you're going on holiday it's more convenient than putting a couple of books in the travel bag. You also can obtain books that are difficult to get in its print form. For example on my ereader there's The Brightfount Diaries by Brian Aldiss.I remembered enjoying reading it as a child in Barkingside Library. It was a fictional account of life in a fifties bookshop. That's right. The only copy I can obtain at a reasonable price about working in a bookshop is through an ereader. That's irony.

But, but. When all other things are things are equal there is a quiet pleasure in turning the page that the swiping of your finger along a tablet cannot match. When I am sitting down with a book in front of me, or standing in a queue, or waiting for my daughter from her school bus I can instantly find myself as I am now into the world of Scottish politics, Welsh football, A journey around the Mediterranean, a football fan's life and political thinking of a renowned essayist. Books can do this,

The decline of the paper book is a tragedy. Because the Internet cannot fulfil that latent thrill of discovering a tome in bookstall or a library that you know must read. The Internet cannot match trailing your eyes along the shelf. What it cannot do is the unexpected discovery. On the web you have to give it a guide through the search engine so the thrill is not as great.

For a while now I have been collecting Penguin and Pelican paperbacks. But only those that have the distinctive coloured spines on them. The spine bit is a bit of vanity as I like the way its uniformity on the shelves. The Penguin/Pelican paperbacks though I collect because they are the publishing house that would produce the widest range available.

As you see I'm in the process of putting the books I currently have in my collection online. At time of writing they are "under construction" (ie I've not finished yet) but hopefully they'll be completed soon.

Until the next time