On A Cover Spoiling A Book, Library Crisis, The Dangers Of Forgotten Wells And On Avoiding The Wodehouse Until Now

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Since I last chatted a number of books have been finished. Time to take a deep breath and begin.

Totally Wired by Andrew Smith. The first book borrowed since I joined Sully library is now read. Here's my suggestion about it.

Avoid the cover.

On the cover of the book I borrowed it implied a general investigation into the dotcom crash of the early nineties. But although there is an explanation of events at that time, it's to put in context the creator and company that it focuses on Josh Harris and Pseudo.com. I didn't realise this until a third of the way through. Thinking "Well I get Josh Harris when do I get to the others?" felt quite irritated until it dawned on me that the cover had led me astray.

Perhaps (I don't know) the UK publishers felt that unless you were that technical geek interested in internet American history the book would be avoided by the great British public. This could be true. But for me it spoilt the book as my mindset was on one route because of the cover whereas it was taking a slightly different journey.

(As a quick aside the only internet or even information technology advice I will give people is. If a geek describes to you a high tech future in whatever form then believe in the geek. It will happen. You might not want it to happen, you might not want your life to be monitored by a mainframe in Vladivostok, but it will happen. However it will never, ever, happen at the speed they will tell you though. That one piece of advice that was given to by a geek and I pass it on to you).

Totally Wired is actually worth a read once you realise what it's really about. I'd recommend it.

Had a library crisis last night. Came home after the afternoon/evening shift knowing amongst other things I'd be off to the library tomorrow to borrow the next non fiction book. But, disaster.....my library card was missing.

That's right the library card I had waited for, made an effort to get, was gone. WAS IN A PANIC! Before I pinged myself a microwave meal at ten forty five pm was hunting it down and accusing wife/daughter of having hidden it. Why am I like this? Why am I obsessing over a library card? Is there a hidden meaning? Where is Freud and Jung when you really want them?

Anyway I gave up last night when hunger took over as a concern. Then, as it eventually does, sleep.

What did I do first thing this morning? Hunt for the card again. And you will be happy to know my mental state is back on track as I found it, sticking out behind a furniture cabinet like a naughty schoolboy. Must have dropped after the wife moved pile of papers it was on. Panic over. Better put it in the wallet now. Don't judge me. At least it's not drink or drugs.....it's reading.

On the ebook side of things finished Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner. Italy in this case meaning California. I won't repeat what I've written before about it except that if you want to give a present to a Californian Geography teacher with a taste for local history then this is the book to get. Otherwise avoid..

Next up turned out to be a ghost short story from H G Wells about a man who knowingly spends the night in a room. I won't spoil it further except to say that once finished you will be severely underwhelmed. Unless he wrote it for money it was the most pointless ghost story I've ever read. It was as if he was thinking "I'm H G Wells. I've revolutionised science fiction novels, I done works of social commentary, I can write a ghost story. How difficult can it be?"

Well if The Red Room is anything to judge by very difficult.

H G Wells is remembered for specific Science fiction novels as well The History Of Mr Polly and Ann Veronica. A lot of his other stuff is forgotten. Having read the bonkers and racist When The Sleeper Wakes and now this could it be that most of his work was forgotten because it was rubbish? An experiment for another day perhaps.

So am now reading The Man With Two Left Feet And Other Stories by P G Wodehouse. I've never read a P G Wodehouse book before. No let me be even more clear. I've avoided them. Whether it was in the library,bookshop or online Wodehouse works were to be swerved from. Why? Well the impression the covers (we come back to that again) as well as short snippets on TV whilst channel surfing gives is that it's the chocolate mousse of literature. Easily consumed and as quickly forgotten. There always seemed to be better things to read.

As for Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. Well if Jeeves really was the one with the brains he would've thrown Wooster into jail whilst taking part in the glorious revolution of the masses against their capitalist oppressors. Instead he serves an idiot.

But I haven't read the books....this is just an impression....and this collection was free.

Will chat properly when I've finished it but on a scientific survey of having read two short stories....my prejudices remain.

Until the next time.

A Further Thought On Ford in Bridgend And Caitlin Moran To The Rescue With Old Technology

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday was Saturday and just after lunch had to drive from where I live now to the outskirts of Bridgend town to begin the afternoon/evening shift of work. Normally my choice of  radio station of this journey is BBC Radio 4 ( the station coming back varies, but that's unimportant here) solely because I can catch up with the news at one the next time world events and me meet on these shifts will be when I've finished at ten in the evening.

The programmes before and after the news normally just wash over me. And so it should have been this time. Being a Saturday afternoon that was Any Questions where a panel answer audience questions on the issues of the day. Normally it's too predictable to be of any interest to me and occasionally annoying when a particular guest I don't like turns up. Here it was Julia Hartley-Brewer, a talk show host who can be best described as a toilet trained Katie Hopkins.

Now one of those questions was of the government's plan (and the fact that this government has a plan over anything is astonishing in itself) that no petrol or diesel cars would be sold by 2040. It appears that similar moves are being made across Europe (taking back control...ha!). The point though is whatever the timescale and how it's implemented it does appear that the future is electric. Cars will be humming to a different beat.

It was when they had finished discussing this issue that I passed the turnoff to the Ford Bridgend plant. Only then did my brain join the dots. Something I already knew but didn't register properly before.

It's an engine plant.

I have written before of my belief that the UK and Welsh governments need to move now to secure the future of Ford Bridgend. If motoring is to be electric then investment needs to be made now to make sure that the factory and the jobs are safe. The plant will need to be updated to cater for electric cars in order for it to be relevant in this new age. Ford will want incentives to do this and too be honest money should be thrown at them to be tempted to do this and fend off the consequences of Brexit. Because if the technology goes to a country in the EU, then whatever the enviornmental benefits of electric cars are the environmental costs to Bridgend will be disastrous.

Both the near closure of the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot and the closing down next year of the Tesco Call centre in Cardiff revealed governments (particularly that of the Labour run Welsh administration) that were seemingly caught out by events. Here they have time to seriously make an effort to secure the future of Ford Bridgend.

But the clock is ticking.

And to lighter matters.

Have finished Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Don't really need to say any more than I did yesterday. You know I liked it.

The next ebook on the Kindle pile is Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner. first published in 1892. Only in this case "Italy" turns out to be California. If I understood the logic correctly. California is like Italy because of it's varied climate and landscapes. Thing is. In Chapter One there is mention of the Mojave Desert. No Geographer me but at this moment at least, before global warming changes things beyond recognition I don't recall Italy having a desert. There is also at least one moment where Europwe is compared unfavourably with the sunshine/drought/flooding/forest fire state. When you read it my first thought is "Then why the title Charlie?"

But let's be fair here. The target audience for this book now are probably Californian Geography teachers with an interest in local history. My lack of any real interest is probably because I'm so far away from the core demographic I'm in a different continent...which literally I am....specifically in fact the Italy with rain that is Wales.

Anyway I have 29 minutes according to my Kindle to go. I know this because that was the moment when a sign came up saying that it needed charging during a break at work. But unexpectedly there was a backup. Moranthology by a hardback book I'd bought yesterday in windy Porthcawl and had left in my work bag. Yet again in Ms Moran has come to my reading rescue. Not just because there was something to read but also that it's so damned good.

Until the next time.