A Second World War Book For The Twitter/Snapchat Age....It Doesn't Work

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I borrowed Voices From D-Day edited by Jon E. Lewis from the library. I'd expected to be riveted by the accounts of people who were in one of the most momentous events in the history of the world. The D-Day landings.

Mr Lewis had taken interviews, writings, diaries on the subject from all the military services (including Germany) and then proceeded to edit this book. Not I'm sure an easy task.

Which he did badly.

This book is a triumph of style versus substance. Not though in what the phrase normally means. For instead of a glossy style covering a flimsy substance what we have here is a flimsy style covering an important substance.

What we have is something like this:

We get a recollection from Person A of about three paragraphs.

BAM: We move to Person B's recollection of One paragraph.

BAM: We move to Person C's recollection of two paragraphs.

BAM: We move back to another recollection of Person B of two paragraphs.

And so on.

When I started counting the most (and this was rare) a recollection would get would be about a couple of pages. For the most part it would be this relentless/quick shift from one person, nationality, different part of the armed services to another in a few paragraphs....and it doesn't work. This does not make for settled reading

This is a book which makes an assumption about people who use Twitter/Snapchat etc. It assumes that users of social media do not have the attention span capable of reading longer accounts of important conflicts. In this case it insults such people. For regular social media users are more than capable of reading beyond a few paragraphs from the accounts of those who lived through the conflict and who for the most part deserve our respect. Respect which I would argue Mr Lewis does not give in the way he has styled this book.

Until the next time.

On Books: Particularly The Best Non Fiction Book I've Read This Year Despite One Disappointment

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Absolute Friends by John Le Carre is finished. I did enjoy it, but on reflection it's not Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Mind you reading it for the most part whilst you're fighting dozing off in a hospital reception whilst your mother is having a cataract operation is probably not the best circumstance to give a book proper attention. But there you are.

The next ebook on the Kindle was (and I'm doing the Literary eqvilant of taking a deep breath here) The Lock And Key Library. Classic Mystery And Detective Stories. Old Time English. This Public Domain ebook (and so free) was basically a collection of horror stories by well known writers. These stories ranged from the surprisingly uninteresting (Lawrence Sterne, William Thackeray) to the downright bonkers (Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas De Quincey).

But it also had The Signalman by Charles Dickens. I'd been meaning to read this for a while. It was for the most part the calmest story in the whole collection but also the most chilling. For that alone I was happy to have read this book.

Which is more than I could say for The Great Cycle Adventure by James Plumley. A free ebook about a cycle ride he and his friends had in France,Spain and Morocco.

This is a slight book (took about fourteen minutes) and is basically his diary of the trips in print form. Really that's it. A few paragraphs here and there with no detail,explanation nothing. Really a waste of time.

The next ebook to read turns out to be You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. I'm looking forward to reading this I must admit. We'll see how it turns out.

Went to the library yesterday. The book I took out was:

Voices From D-Day - Jon E Lewis

Seems like the right book to read at the right time.

When I borrow a book from the Library I share it on Twitter. The literary version of instagramming the meal you're about to have. Normally there's no reaction. Occasionally a few people comment and that's it.

When I tweeted out that the next book from the library I was reading was The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane I was inundated with likes and people saying how much they enjoyed it. I realised then that this was a book that men and women have taken to their hearts and loved.

Having read it now I can see why. Colour me converted.

It's a book about particular rambles the author takes on foot. Sometimes alone, other times with friends and or acquaintances. He can picture the scene and make you think you were there and definitely makes you wish you were there. The poet's language is evocative and moving.

But it's not all lyricism. He can go off in a tangent and discuss books and writers and paintings for example which have a connection to his journey and effortlessly go back to his trek. That takes talent. Once you read it for the first time you'll want to dip into it for the rest of your life. It can be described, in more ways than one but only as a term of praise, as a rambling book.

He can make the distant sounds of the M11 part of the countryside. Whereas the Essex part of the M11 I know (turn off from the M25 depart at Epping turn-off) is anything but.

This book for me is unique in that there are certain writers Mr Macfarlane mentions who I've already downloaded to read in due course. I've never done that before. Also it makes me seriously consider undertaking such routes through South Wales (as regular readers of this blog will know I've said previously I don't mind long walks as long as there was a purpose at the end of it).

And there's the disappointment.

For there is no walk undertaken in Wales in this book. There are walks undertaken in England (including Wiltshire in the west), Scotland and the all encompassing "abroad". But not in Wales. Which is a pity.

Now I'm sure you will say that I'm obsessed with Wales and/or you'll say that with regard to Robert Macfarlane it's his book and so his rules. You would be quite right. Which is why it's a disappointment and not a criticism. It does not hide the fact that it's a truly wonderful work which I heartily recommend and is unquestionably the best non fiction book I've read this year.

Until the next time.