If You Want Classic Fast Food Literature Ask The Erle

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's funny how it's just over a year since I was in Essex exile looking after my mother, visiting her in hospital and then nursing her back to health. People ask me how I managed it and in truth you just do. What I did and experienced was just a fraction of what carers have to do for family members 24/7.

But if you discover things that relax you through this process then it's a help. I've already chatted about becoming unexpectedly a fan of the TV series Bones and the latest book I've read reminded me of someone else who helped as well.

Perry Mason Is Back

It is literary fast food. More enjoyable than Lee Child but still fast food. Easy to digest. A formula you already know (someone's in trouble for murder - Only Perry can deal with it) which you like and indeed trust.

It's not like fast food immune to criticism under examination. Perry Mason is too calm and perfect. How he worked the solution to the crime here is not really something the reader could have even guessed. The court scenes are also annoyingly short in relation to the rest of the book. However like fast food you don't look at the detail you allow everything to overwhelm you. And again as entertainment this really works.

Gardner's treatment of women is interesting. Whilst some including Perry Mason's assistant/secretary Della Street are described as having a good figure there is no one who could be called a bimbo. Neither is a female (or in this day and age male) character there so seduced by his charms she's ready to jump into bed with Mason either.

Also in these times of  #Metoo there was a moment when a secretary was asked by Perry whether her boss tried to make a pass at her. The answer was yes but he respected the "no trespass signs". Perhaps that's the tenplate for office rules in the future.

Ultimately like fast food you will forget this book months in the future. But you will also remember the experience. And like all good fast food, you'll remember it was fun.

Until the next time.

Why All Readers Should Follow The Mastermind Principle Of "I've Started So I'll Finish"

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers to this blog will know that the few devout rules I have in my life is that, with certain extreme exceptions, I follow the Mastermind Principle when it comes to books in that no matter what I think about it "I've started so I've finished".

Well according to writer James Colley I shouldn't be bothered. If I don't like it. Throw it away and go to the next one.

Here is the link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/30/the-joy-of-not-finishing-books-if-you-dont-like-it-dont-read-it

The subtitle to this piece is that " you'll simply not read every book in your lifetime". Well yes. Neither will I see every film, TV Series or play. But it's through circumstance. If you've opened the pages of a book you are in. You are honour bound to finish it. For only then can you truly comment.

And he is not talking about "difficult" books. He's talking about books where you're well into it but don't feel engaged with the characters. Well some books are like that. But some books might lead you into a false sense of security to a surprising conclusion but of course if you haven't finished you will not know.

Mr Colley talks of a "joy" that you feel if you put down a book that has not been working for you. Really? If I did that then I would feel as if I've surrendered. For books are not a quick fix drug. They slowly work on you. If though Mr Colley wants the literary equivalent of a Big Mac (enjoyable at the time forgotten soon after) can I suggest the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. For it's that he seems to desire in books.

I've read Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes and I did not like it. You may agree or disagree with my view (it's in this blog) but whose opinion would you listen to? The person who finished the book or the one who couldn't be bothered to?

I am not a Mastermind. But I am and will always be a reader. And only true readers know that following the Mastermind Principle is the duty you have as a reader. Anything less and you've failed.

Until the next time.

Lee Child's Jack Reacher : The Big Mac of Fiction

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I will always remember the first Jack Reacher book Killing Floor. But that's only because it was the first ebook I ever read. When it comes to plot however my mind begins to be a little vague all these years later though I do remember liking it.

So I now approach his third Jack Reacher novel Tripwire. Doesn't really matter in these sort of books that I haven't read book two. Because I get the feeling that Lee Child had perfected his winning formula when he wrote this one.

Indeed it reminded me of books I read as a teenager. With variances they seemed to follow this pattern. The hero is tough but can be sensitive to situations (but note not girly sensitive).The hero is a loner, but is popular and respected. The hero cannot form long term relationships with women. But no matter because they lust after him anyway. In my fifty four years on this planet I've never met a man (or indeed a woman) that comes anywhere near that.

Jack Reacher has his own personal mannerisms. His height (very tall). The way he gets money. The way the only luggage he has is a folding toothbrush but really he does fall into that "knight deals with tough situation" storyline.

And that does not matter. Neither does it matter that (reminding me again of similar books I've read in my younger past) the plot has to be clever but not so clever. Indeed the big reveal is not difficult to work out trust me.

For like the best sort of these books Tripwire works if you see it as an entertainment and nothing else then it does work. The storyline works because Mr Child successfully pulls the feat of telling you what's happening through various characters.

So I enjoyed it. Yes I did. In the same way in the past I enjoyed eating a Big Mac. But like eating a Big Mac I know full well that it will fade from my memory very quickly.

Until the next time.

Why Jack Reacher Author Lee Child Should Understand Readers Are Gamblers Of The Mind

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've only ever read one Lee Child novel featuring his bestselling character Jack Reacher. The first in the series in fact. It was alright. Though I didn't see anything special. Still I've other books of his to read so who knows what I'd feel after that.

However I discovered on Twitter that he complained about readers moaning about the standard price of books where they would be prepared to pay roughly the same amount on two large cups of coffee.

It got me thinking. I knew Mr Child was wrong. But I couldn't put my mind to it. Then it came to me.

When a reader buys a book he/she are gamblers of the mind.

If you buy a cup of coffee unless you try one of the coffee houses "experimental" drinks (coconut coffee anyone? Not for me) you know what you're buying. You know what you're expecting. There are no surprises/shocks because what you're seeking is the taste you already know.

When you the reader buy a book however, especially with a writer you've never read before. Then you've acted as if you've put some literary chips on red number 15  in a casino. You don't know until the book is finished whether you have liked it, hated it, or in this case of the Lee Child novel I read, neutral about it.

And so that's why price matters to a reader. He/she has a limited budget so wants to spend the money wisely on a book that gives him/her the best chance that when finished will be a good experience. So no reader wants to buy an expensive book that he/she is unsure whether will be liked at the end of it.

So Mr Child books are a gamble for the budget. Coffee is not because you know what you're getting. And I'll remember that next time one of your novels comes up on the pile of the great unread.

Until the next time.