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.

I Bet No One Who Knew Victor Hugo Asked Him For Directions

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well Les Miserables has been finished with no tune to bother me. Makes me wonder whether I've been the only person in Britain who has rather read the book than watch the musical once it became popular.

Of course that makes me out as a snob, which trust me I'm not. Just a reader me. Perhaps to prove that let's begin by saying that whilst by no means the worst book I've read so far this year I doubt I'm going to read one as annoying.

For what happens seems to be this. You as the reader are hooked as the plot unfolds. You are turning (in my case swiping) every page. Suddenly though it appears out of your view that Victor has gone to his characters and said something along the lines of "Yes I know it's tough mes amis. Liberte, equalitie, fraternitie and all that so I tell you  what. Why don't you just a have a coffee and a croissant and I'll take over for a while?"

(A quick aside. If you're insulted that I haven't put any accents on the French words the explanation is simple. I don't know how on the laptop)

And this happens constantly throughout the book. All of a sudden, with a link to the plot that is tenuous at best,unclear at worst and constantly mind numbingly boring we suddenly get Victor's views on everything ranging from Waterloo to religion to slang (yes really!) with all manner of subjects in between.

You may remember that I said after reading Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes that I'd reckoned the author had pummelled all the stories he left in a bottom drawer into the novel. Well I reckon the same happened here except that we're talking opinion pieces. It just read as if Victor stuffed  the book with everything he could.

Just imagine you're lost and happen to come across Victor and ask him for directions. He will get you to where you want to go but in the longest most unnecessary route possible where there could have been a quicker route to your destination. For the reader of Les Miserables the destination is the return to the actual storyline....because when you reach it it's worth it.

When it goes into proper novel mode this book is gripping. Believable people coping in extraordinary situations. For although the goodies/baddies are clear, even the goodies have shades of grey within them. When in novel mode you can see why this book is a classic.

So Les Miserables then. A great book sprinkled with literary mogadon...which is why it's also annoying.

The next book amongst the great ebook unread is Winter In Madrid by C J Sansom.A relatively modern novel (2006) which is good as I haven't read one for a while. We'll see how it goes.

Until the next time.

Unquiet Flows The Don Quixote And The Library Question To Rhondda Cynon Taff Labour Party

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I've done it. Another classic has been crossed off  the literary bucket list. Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes has been finished. Thank you. I know mental bouquets have been thrown by readers globally....well like to think so anyway.

To be honest though. Didn't like it. Starts interestingly enough. You're intrigued by the thought as to whether this is the oldest book you'll ever read where a complete nutter is the main character.

But as I read on. The thought occurred to me that what De Cervantes was doing was to getting everything he'd ever written and then proceeding to wedge it into this novel. You want sonnets? You get sonnets. You want short stories where Quixote is a peripheral figure? Here you go. You want a novel within a novel? You don't as you think it's pointless? Tough here's one I've made earlier.

And a quick aside about those stories I mentioned. A fair proportion of them seemed to be a variation on this formula. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl who is the most beautiful and virtuous in [insert Spanish region, town, village here]. Boy finds obstacles in his path to true love.

The effect of all this, well on my poor humble brain anyway, is that you feel mentally wading into treacle. Grimly trying to hang onto any thread in all of this to pull you through to something much more clearer. A book should not have this effect on you.

I suspect that in this mess of a novel there is a book that I would have liked screaming to get out. That is however only I in a parallel universe has enjoyed.

The next tome to emerge from the pile of the great ebook unread is The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. Another classic in that literary bucket list. Though as the Don has showed having classic status doesn't mean I'll like it.

And now another 140 character moment. When you're on Twitter you can get retweets from those you're following. I got such a tweet (actually more than one) yesterday from Rhondda Cynon Taff Labour party about its local manifesto. In it the local party promise investment in the following Children's play areas, 3G pitches, transport infrastructure, "Protect school budgets from Tory cuts" (Wait a minute isn't Welsh education controlled by the LABOUR controlled National Assembly and run with their agreement by a Lib Dem?), roads, "footways", childcare, free town centre wifi, town centre regeneration, increased graduate and apprenticeship posts and tackling dog fouling by employing more enforcement officers.

All very well. Though it gives the impression more of a wishlist than anything else and I can't help wondering why all these promises that have now been made just before the local election haven't been started earlier. After all if they the capacity to do this beforehand why not? Or is it one of those accounting tricks where you cut a budget until just before an election and then say "look at us we're putting extra money in" but this money is less than the amount cut years previously? In truth I don't know and it's for more knowledgeable people than me to discuss.

But the area I do know a little bit about,and the Twitter question I asked was "What about libraries?". In 2014 the Labour controlled council closed (as I understand it from google) fourteen yes FOURTEEN libraries. Depriving people of the joys of discovering books, community activities and for those poorer families free access to the internet.

And not just fourteen libraries, but fourteen communities as well would have suffered as a result of these closures. We're not talking here of somewhere like Cardiff or Swansea but of isolated places where the library is one of the focal points of the community. Now gone. And gone let's not forget from the action of a LABOUR council.

Let me tell you how bad a reputation this gave Rhondda Cynon Taff. I remember overhearing a conversation in Porthcawl library months ago where the librarian boasted that whatever problems the Bridgend libraries were having at least none of them had been closed . Trust me if there is a situation where Bridgend council can feel itself superior to its neighbours then something is very, very wrong.

I haven't yet received a response from my tweet. If I do I'll let you know.

Until the next time.

On The Best Books To Give For People Who Are Unwell

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Twitter can sometimes cause surprises even with regard to this blog. I hadn't thought of anything to post when I was chatting to people in it about books.

The other people involved in this converstion were @AnnaCaig ,@Efrogwraig and @MacdocLeonard (all rights reserved etc,etc).

The chat moved from being able to praise an author directly online after having read their work, to my doubts Miguel De Cervantes that, even by ouja twitter, he could use just 140 characters, to the relative merits of  Don Quixote, Miss Read and Jane Austen.

But what intrigued me the most was when @Efrogwraig advised that not only was @AnnaCaig a journalist writing a book column in the Sheffield Telegraph (and incidentally has a book blog https://murderundergroundbrokethecamel.wordpress.com) but also gave her books when unwell. Which got me thinking? What is the perfect book to give for someone who's ill?

In some respects I'm not the perfect person to have asked this. In my life I've been fortunate that only twice have I been in hospital as a patient. The first time aged four to take my tonsils out, the second to have my wisdom teeth extracted in my late twenties/early forties. I can't remember my four year old reading habit but books second time around took a back seat from recovering from the anaesthetic and listening on hospital radio to West Ham losing in the quarter final of the F A cup against Luton Town.

I do however remember having the flu in junior school and picking up Black Beauty by Anna Sewell to read sitting in an armchair and going through it pausing when everything seemed to be swirling around me. Praised this book in the past and won't repeat myself here except to say that on reflection perhaps the episodic nature of the story as different issues befall the eponymous horse made it easy for an ill boy to digest it all.

The worst place to answer this question is probably at a hospital shop. The last time I went inside one (daughter's physiotherapy for her knee) around January did have a look at the books on offer. Certainly it was a different selection than when the shop was owned by W H Smith. Then it seemed to be current bestsellers,what were bestsellers and what they seemed to hope would be bestsellers. Lots of thrillers by James Patterson (and one other) and Clive Cussler (and one other) adorned the shelves. To think I'm so old I can remember when Clive Cussler wrote rubbish thrillers by himself.

Now the books seem to be bestsellers of decades earlier. SS GB by Len Deighton (before the TV series - Am not a fan which I'll explain if I ever get to read another book by him again. Let's just say this cemented my dislike) and The Dead Of Jericho by the late Colin Dexter (I've read this and a few other Morse novels and, and I'm sorry to say this, the TV series was much, much better) were the titles that sprang to mind. But though the selection was interesting it didn't really seem to hit the right note.

So perhaps the answer lay in the one and only time I gave books to a person whilst they were in hospital. Over a decade ago a friend of ours was struck by an infection which though she is much better now has changed her life forever. At that time she was staying in a hospital in Llandough (near Cardiff  and funnily enough one of the places we're looking to move to now) for a number of weeks as I recall, and possibly even a few months.

Before going to visit her for the first time I was in the Waterstones bookshop in Cardiff having decided that grapes/flowers didn't really cut it as gifts given  the circumstance so decided to get her a couple of books instead. But for reasons that seem inexplicable to me then, let alone now, I bought a couple of gritty dark crime novels by Patricia Cornwell.

What made this decision odd was not only that these books were dark crime thrillers, not just that they were from her medical examiner Kay Scarpetta series to be read by a woman stuck in hospital for (then) an unknown period of time but also that I'd never read a Patricia Cornwell novel before....and indeed since.

(A quick aside here. The reason I've not read Patricia Cornwell is simply because there are so many books but so little time and they've simply not come up on the pile of the great unread. As to how do I know therefore that her novels are dark and gritty? Simple. I've judged a book by it's cover)

And the reaction of our friend? She has moaned about it to me ever since. Complaining that she so loved the thrillers she's had to buy every other Patricia Cornwell book including getting a hardback copy before the paperback came out. Unwittingly I had created a superfan. Ms Cornwell you don't have to thank me.

And the point to be made? Unless the person's condition is terminal perhaps the best book to buy an unwell person is one where people have worst problems than the recipient of the gift is facing. Like say danger on the streets....or death.

Until the next time.

The Post For Athiests,Henry James Doubters and Those Who Remember Alan Gilzein

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let's start with some housekeeping, or rather housenotgetting news. The search continues. The reason why I haven't blogged for the past few days is that we were close to getting two houses, both which we had seen twice. Ultimately though the doubts that were niggling in our minds, one house for me, the other for the wife, stopped us from making an offer the buyer couldn't refuse.

In my case it was a house at the limits of our budget which still needed work on it and, more crucially, had the feel of needing work that we couldn't see. As for the wife she sees the next house as a final forever home and it was the steps on a tiered garden which was ultimately the dealbreaker. She could not see how it could be dealt with as we become more aged (remember should I outlive my wife this will not be my last house. Which is probably why this didn't enter my brain.Will move to the Rhondda Valley, particularly Treorchy and end my days in this classic example of Italy with rain).

This Easter weekend we are having a househunting binge in the Penarth and surrounding areas, four houses on Saturday, three on Monday. I say "we" because I'll be working on Saturday so a friend might accompany my wife and daughter then. If no house comes into play by the end of next weekend a renting we will go.

And as we're chatting about the Easter weekend (seamless or what?) I'm writing this post at 5:23am on Good Friday morning. I'm working two days on this holiday period, today and tomorrow. Other than not being able to view those four houses on Saturday I'm not bothered by this. I'm not religious, but it goes beyond that.....I'm an atheist.

From Catholicism to atheism in fifty three years, actually much earlier than that really, my forties. I just came to a point in my life when I saw the suffering in the world and thought " A God? Really?".

Do you know what the worst thing about being an atheist is? It's that if we're right and our literal lifetime guarantee expires, we can't gloat to those who believe and say "I told you so" as like an unfixable machine when you're gone you're gone.

Mind you should despite logic and science should those who believe in an afterlife are proved right they will have little time to gloat as given all the religions in the world there can only be one that's actually correct. For all we know people will enter an afterlife and find that all their beliefs have been an elaborate joke by Zeus.

On that basis it was probably a joke by Zeus that has me awake at this time on Good Friday when I'm working the afternoon/evening shift ............or led me to reading a collection of short stories by Henry James.

This was, let me stress again, the first book by Henry James I've ever read. Also,
if you're a regular reader of this blog you'll know that I can dislike one book by a writer and like the next. That said it was the most pointless book I've read this year so far and definitely the most disappointing.

Nothing much happens and I'm including any Katherine Mansfield style nuance in that as well. My one thought as I was reading this was "Is that all there is"?

The next book could not have been more different. In Search Of Alan Gilzean by James Morgan. Gilzean was a footballer who played for Dundee and (how I remember him through the nostalgic prism of childhood) Tottenham in the sixties and seventies. Now I'm West Ham till I die (with no afterlife remember) but I did enjoy watching Spurs in that period. They played with a sort of elan, an enthusiasm which reminded me of how you felt playing football at school....just with a bit more skilll.
Gilzein, along with the likes of Martin Chivers and Steve Perryman was synonymous with that period, and although they were not as successful as their North London rivals Arsenal they're probably (with the exception of Bob Wilson) remembered more fondly to the neutral.

The mystery with Alan Gilzein is what happened to him after he left football. No one apparently knew. He was, as the saying goes, "off the radar".

It's this that makes this book different because essentially it's two stories entwined into one. Firstly it's a football biography and a good one at that as it reveals a complex character that footballing history has seemed to have underrated. Secondly though it's a detective story as we follow the author as he seeks to find out what's happened to his subject. He mixes these strands well. It's a good read and I do recommend it.

So the book I'm now starting to read is Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. It was chosen randomly though it seems to be a bit current now given the arguments re Spain/Gibraltar. I'm not sure where I stand on Gibraltar. Except to say that given the way Britain is becoming a cold and cruel country particularly post Brexit perhaps they should look again at Spain should the rise of jackboot politics/journalism continue.

Until the next time.