The Return Of A King

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have I must admit not read that many Stephen King books in my life. Not at any dislike of the horror genre or a snobby attitude towards bestselling writers but simply because there's so many books and so little time.

So based on a very small sample I can't say I'm really all that much of a fan. Simply because the plots seem to be that a person (group of people) face some incredible evil beyond the forces of human knowledge and yet with one bound he/she/it pulls through. To which my thought is "Really"?

Indeed of the small number (it really needs to be stressed) that I have read the only one I really liked was his non fiction trek into the genre on books, films and TV Danse Macarbre. It has been decades since a book of his (and he's prolific. Prolific in a "I'm writing by myself not James Patterson like with someone else") has come my way.

But cometh a trip to the library cometh the book.

Revival

As regular readers will know I try not to chat about the plot as much as  I possibly can. So let me say this it's not a gore-fest. What happens is a slowly building sense of unease. I like my horror that way.

Also as is rare in such a book it's difficult to say there's an evil character as such. Which makes the book's moral questions credible.

You can tell I think from the above two sentences that I loved this novel. Obviously I'd need to read a lot more but it made me think of John Wyndham writer of the Day Of The Triffids in that within the demands of the genre Stephen King is trying to write an extraordinary story in as ordinary a way as possible. No hyperbole with Mr King.

My interest in the King is not dead. It is revived.

Until the next time.

On A Vain Search For A Jeffrey Archer Novel In W H Smiths Epping

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It seems that on returning from hospital my mother's taste in books has gone as wild as her taste in food. She asked me today as well as groceries to get a novel for her in the Epping branch of W H Smith (she can't remember where her library book is). That novel was Not A Penny More Not A Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer.

This choice, left field though it was, was not an issue for me. Firstly it meant that her taste for reading had returned. Secondly, as I've mentioned before in this blog I have no problems with Jeff's books before A Matter Of Honour judged purely as an entertainment. Indeed I've read Not A Penny More Not A Penny Less and, as a piece of bestsellery fun, liked it.

Now what I'm going to say next is not at all scientific. Obviously the state of selling books has changed since I was a child. The internet has seen to that. Still the percentage of adult books for sale in the shop seemed small for me and if you exclude those being offered as a "Two for £7" offer then really pitiful when you reduce the choice to adult fiction. The time when a small branch of W H Smiths was my childhood book nirvana has long since gone (Ilford many decades ago).

So looking for Archer's books did not take me long. Nor did looking at them either. There were just four. These four were part of the "Cliveden Chronicles" (which I haven't read) and as they were numbers two,four,five and six respectively then buying them instead of the novel she wanted to read was not going to buy them as a consolation prize. Indeed if you were not following the chronicles then no one was going to buy them.

When I was young, so the glasses I'm wearing are obviously rose tinted as well as modelled on Joe 90, then if you were a bestselling writer (I'm not talking about the factory like James Patterson - plus one other) then most of your books were going to be on sale in the local small town bookshop. Not apparently anymore. No Kane and Abel or indeed my favourite Archer novel of all time First Amongst Equals. Nothing. And you can't say that it was because they were written decades ago. Stephen King's Carrie and Misery were in that very same branch.

Jodi Picoult and Stephen King had more books than Archer in this branch. As indeed did Terry Pratchett and Peter James.

So what am I saying? Perhaps it's the case that Jeffrey Archer is not as much of a bestselling writer than he was. No real idea and to be honest I don't care.

Well if you live in a small town and want a particular book that very day then you will probably have to go to a bigger town (for example the W H Smith in nearby Harlow is larger). A small town with a bookshop is unfortunately rare nowadays unless you're watching old movies. Penarth has one. Epping did once but it closed years ago.

The small town bookshop then. Slowly dying due to the internet and supermarkets. And yes I'm just as much of a hypocrite as the rest of us.

Until the next time.