On Haggard, Image vs Reality and The Amazon E Book Game (May Edition)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

What a difference twenty four hours makes. There was I giving praise to the early part of King Solomon's Mines yesterday but having finished it oh my word it reminded me of the unreal tosh that was Beatrice, the previous Haggard novel I'd read.

It is, as I said previously a novel clearly written to be a bestseller, but a Victorian bestseller. So there's the foreign climes, in this case Africa, and of course most of which is British Empire Africa. So you get the racism, this case of the "nobel savage" variety, as well as "we are the masters" feel that an Empire or hard right Brexit can bring.

Haggard lays that with a trowel. As well as early on the hunting of animals as sport. There is a moment where the characters stop their all important journey for a spot of shooting at creatures whose only crime was to live in their natural environment. I was only surprised they didn't have a cup of tea afterwards

And there's the plot which probably at the time made Victorian readers high on adventure but the modern counterpart makes you wonder whether Haggard was high on drugs.

The real question you need to ask yourself of King Solomon's Mines is this. Would an updated version be successful? I'd argue that it wouldn't be. I'm glad I read it. Literary bucket list and all that. But I won't be encouraging others to follow.

Many years ago, I think aged ten. I picked up Ivanhoe. I remember not understanding anything and putting it down. It was the last time I've ever done that with a book, since then I follow the Mastermind principle of "I've Started So I'll Finish".

Well it's not Ivanhoe but the next book in the great ebook unread is The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott which is set in The Crusades, the first in a succession of Middle East military failures by the West you could argue.

Yesterday I discovered through a third party (ie gossip) that a person I knew was in financial difficulties. My first reaction (inwardly) was to laugh. Now this may seem cold but he is the sort person happy to flash the latest/most expensive cars, holidays, phones, whatever at you so the idea that all of this was a front seemed like natural justice.

But on thinking this further perhaps there is something more worrying around the corner here in Britain. For he is the second person I know in such a state and both of them are similar. They both have I had assumed well paid jobs, both had expensive hobbies and both are fans of the latest whatever on the market (the second person though was less ostentatious). These were men with seemingly comfortable lives and yet all of it, should the gossip be believed, is hanging by a thread.

Everything I'm going to say then is based on my knowledge, as well as the gossip, of two people. But let's say everything I've been told is correct. These men were not happy with what they had. They aspired for something a lifestyle that was beyond their reach and might ultimately be disastrous for them. You might say they should live within their means and are grown adults, which is true. Yet companies pummel these ads constantly at us. You buy this whatever and your life will be better. You don't need to pay it all now. Oh no we can arrange terms of repayment so you can buy now and pay considerably more later. Don't worry about that though. Remember Image is everything.

And in this world we live in image is everything.......until reality bites.

Ok then as I'm writing this it's the first of May. It's 5:06 on the first of May on a Bank Holiday to be precise (not just reality but insomnia bites as well). And that all means the Great (as everything seems to have that as it's title now) Amazon Ebook Game ....May edition.

The rules of this game are simple armed with just £5 (though as I seem to have loose e change this month £5.92) and see how many ebooks I can purchase for my Kindle. Stretching the money out as thinly as possible.

So I'm looking at the Amazon Daily Deal. I'm not interested in what's on offer aside perhaps from The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. Should I buy it? Will I make a mistake in thinking that the book's not for me judging by it's girlie cover? Me the most manly of men. Especially when I take my spectacles off.

Go to Wikipedia. There is a quote from David Starkey describes her writing as "good Mills and Boon" (what does that actually mean) and another from Helen Brown saying that her novels have "lashings of romantic licence".

It appears then that in this case you can judge a book on it's cover. Rejected.

Now it's the turn of the Monthly Deal. I notice a Michael Connelly novel featuring Harry Bosch The Black Ice for 99p. Never having read his work before but hearing loads of good things about him I'd be a fool not to buy it....so bought. I go further through the list. There's another Connelly book offered at 99p, The Lincoln Lawyer, so that's bought as well.

The Black Echo. The first of the Harry Bosch books is offered for 99p as well. Great I think. I'll buy it as well I think. That is until the Kindle kindly reminds me I purchased it in 2015.....memories eh? But another Connelly book comes into the picture. The Poet. 99p so bought. And wait for it, an ebook original The Safe Man, 99p that's purchased as well. Looks like this is a Connelly month.

There are Harry Bosch short story collections on offer for 99p but I think I should read the novels first.

I look at what's recommended for me "in Literature & Fiction". Thomas Wolfe's novel You Can't Go Home Again intrigues me.99p. Taken.

That all leaves me in this month's budget with an annoying 97p to spend. I find Fathers and Sons bu Ivan Turgenev for 75p. Done.Leaving me with a carry over of 22p for next month.

Must admit I enjoy this game. You never know how things turn out.

Until the next time.

Reading Before A Saturday Night Out

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A "Saturday night out" conjures up images doesn't it. Of forgetting for a few hours the cares the world has thrown at you and just having a good time. You return to the perpetual hangover that is life on Sunday morning this is Saturday night....and you're out.

But I'm fifty three. Saturday nights have often been spent working and when I am free nodding off in front of the TV seems to be the most wildest things I've done. Times of wine (other alcoholic beverages are available),women (another gender could be available should you wish) and song (other leisure pursuits are available) are long since past. Then again I don't drink, am not a good singer and as for the opposite sex I'll leave that to your imagination.......as well as my own.

Yesterday however we were as a family going out. To ironically enough Penarth (given that's the area where we're moving to) and a restaurant there to celebrate the twenty first birthday of a friend's son. There are few things that make you realise the passage of time and how ancient and decrepit you've become than watching someone who you have known since birth move permanently into adulthood. There was a moment that I could carry him as you would any fragile object. Now he is a job, a girlfriend and that look of hope that only the young can carry off for a while. To him, we are probably fond memories of the past but his future he can start moving on for himself without the help of us relics.

The thing about going out for the evening is that there comes a moment where you have nothing to do because in half hour/forty five minutes it'll be time to get ready. That moment where the TV has been taken over by your daughter and the wife in the same position as you has decided to take a nap. Of course she will need greater time to get ready, having double my wardrobe space and yet apparently never having "a thing to wear".

So the Kindle is taken and I start reading H Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. A book by a reputation and the half hour session I had with it is a "manly" read. Indeed if King Solomon's Mines was a person it would be having a few pre party lagers before we left and mocking me for my teetotalism and indeed the fact that I've a Kia Picanto and not some 4x4 "all terrain" thing.

Still it was (with reservations which I'll chat about when I've finished it) an entertaining read. You can see that this is the sort of book where the writer sort out to create a bestseller. Sort of a James Patterson (plus one other) of his day.

And I must admit it put my mind off the evening for the short period of time. Reading can do that. It can immerse you.

But eventually reality had to bite. It was time to throw on the aftershave (had to be one the wife had bought "Blue Water" by Davidoff. Not on an endorsement. As long as you don't smell like a dung heap I'm no judge of smells). Put on clothing that I've already laid out. In particular a blue shirt that has the magic ability to hide my body circumference no matter how wide it's turning out. And finally proceed to wait for half hour whilst wife/daughter get themselves "just" right whilst never feeling completely happy.

As for the dinner the company was nice and the artistically placed food (not a fan) was good but not worth the wait. It could almost be described as a quiet night out. Which at my age is probably as good as it gets.

Until the next time.

In Which Four Books Are Read In Twenty Four Hours And An Update To The Welsh Labour Metaphor

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well four books have indeed been read in a twenty four hour period. A combination of their relative briefness and my insomnia which has recently returned to bite by waking me up. Still four books off the list of Kindle great e book unread is productive.

(As a quick aside apparently ebook sales are falling at the exact moment that because all my traditional books have all been boxed/crated up awaiting the move I've used the Kindle the most. Thus showing my ability to join a trend at exactly the opportune moment! As I've said in the past though the Kindle (other e readers are available) does have it's strong points but nothing beats the quiet pleasure of turning a page).

And so to the four books:

Orations by President John Quincy Adams is really just a fancy title for a political speech. Let me save you the bother. It's not the Gettysburg address.

The Panda Theory by French writer Pascal Garnier. This is a novel of a man who wanders around a small town in Brittany and the people he meets. It's a story where nothing much happens, but it doesn't matter , because you the reader are affected by the ordinariness of it all. Essentially decent people trying to get a handle on their lives.

Needless to say I loved it. The blurb said that Garnier (a writer I wasn't aware of before buying the book in an Amazon deal) could be compared to George Simenon and I get it. Not only in the type of story being told but also in its relative thinness and its sense of place. I've never been to Brittany but  felt in the time it was being read that I was there. Garnier is a writer I'll look out for in the future.

Haydn is a 1908 biography of the composer by John F Runciman. Short,opinionated and basic (and that's just Runciman.....I'll get my coat) this really was a waste of time which upon finishing it made me able to go back to sleep.

A Ball Player's Career by Adrian C Anson is a sporting autobiography published in 1900 giving his account mainly of his time playing (and managing) the Chicago Base Ball Club.

It's a charming read, but not without bite. The story of a proposed breakaway league is fascinating. And the account of the way he left the club, having been betrayed by at least one person he'd considered a friend is heartbreaking.

Of the four books this definitely got the silver medal.

And the latest book I'm reading? King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard, Definitely one of those books that you should cross off your literary bucket list whether you eventually like it or not. It's not the first book of his I've read. As a teenager I read a novel called Beatrice which was pure unmitigated twaddle from start to finish. Still, this is obviously a more famous work and has stood the test of time, so we live in hope.

And speaking of time....it's metaphor time  and yesterday was probably the last time before we move I went to the barbers. It is, you may remember a converted van, outside what was the Ogmore and Vale Labour club, now but a sorry wreck of happier times and was what I used as a metaphor for Welsh Labour in an earlier post.

The Metaphor Returns

You will see that to the left of this photo is a van. That's where the barbers have moved to as it was right next to the club for years. Clearly something was going on.

On entering the van I mentioned their move and my assumption that something after all this time was going to happen was proved correct. There was a lady and male barber there. He said the building was going to be completely demolished. Not saying that this was going to happen by election day but what was an iconic Labour party building in the area will soon become just a memory, and a withering one at that. So not just a metaphor for Labour in the present but for them in future as well.

What I'm going to say next is what the barber told me. I'm assuming it's correct, but for all I know this is but local gossip. You will need to bare that in mind.

What he said was that the demolished building was going to be replaced by flats for social housing with a couple of shops at the bottom and the specific one he mentioned was a Co-op grocery store.

Now I have no problem with social housing. The lack of it in Britain I'd argue is helping to cause social instability but if correct the news about the Co-op shop bothered me. Why? Because there are two convenience stores just a block away.

Why would Bridgend labour council agree to this? We all know exactly what's likely to happen. The Co-op will come in. Undercut the two other stores and then will have the power to do what it likes as at least one would close down. Competition only works for a short while but eventually in this sort of circumstance there is only one or at the very least a predominant store remaining which will have the power to do what it likes without any major comeback.

As far as I can see it (and let me stress again it's on the assumption that what I was told was true) this is just the Labour council spreading their legendary incompetence in town management to the suburbs as well.

Incidentally we discussed the forthcoming elections (a lady hairdresser was there as well) and I stated that Plaid Cymru was having my vote. No one actually questioned me on it. No one said "You're an idiot" or "You're English why? ". Labour need to understand that many Welsh people are disillusioned. Carwyn Jones might blame Jeremy Corbyn but the cancer affecting them started a long time before he came to power. This is just an excuse to hide a party which has been arrogantly incompetent in government on a local and regional level in Wales for years.

As I left I knew the lady hairdresser would consider voting for Plaid. My job was done.

Until the next time.