October 2017

I have neglected this blog for quite a while. It is now October and summer has well and truly departed. The schools went back and my grandson began his more formal education although he had enjoying nursery. So off he went, an antonym to Shakespeare's boy, willingly.

I am also increasingly aware that blogs are not as popular as they once were, probably because most of us no longer have time to read long and prefer tweeting and texting or even, God forbid, preferring emojis.  In consequence I intend to use my blog just to talk about the books I have enjoyed immersing myself in recent months, about my small word jotting my thoughts about writing, publishing and my love-hate relationship with Amazon and anything else that comes my way.

The older I get, the more I remember those miscellaneous memories that pop up unbidden when thinking of something else entirely. My earliest memory is walking up and down what I thought was a vast long hall with a massive door at the end whilst my parents and invited friends were engrossed the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Quite how my parents could have afforded a television, I don't know. Maybe they rented it. I think not because they always abhorred hire purchase as it was known then. I remember very little of that flat. I was born in March 1951 in Leicester which is where my parents and most relations lived. My Dad worked for the Leicester Gas Corporation which soon after became part of East Midlands Gas (Emgas.) Promotion meant a move to Lincoln when I was a few months old. Anyway, the  coronation was in June 1953. I didn't know what this word meant that everyone was talking about. I kept being showed hanging baskets and flags in the streets and being told they were for the Coronation. I looked up and I saw flowers everywhere above me. (Remember I was in a pram or pushchair.) Dad must have grown carnations in the garden. or he bought two hanging baskets that Lincoln council were selling off cheaply to the public afterwards.

Therefore, for a long time, I thought the 'Carnation' and 'Coronation' were the same.

Memory are one's perceptions at various states in one's life plus an overlay of later experiences that alter them. Maybe memories are main transient fictions. And why the older one gets. the more one thinks about past experiences more vividly than what one did yesterday?

In addition, it is well-known that everybody remembers and sees things totally differently. This brings me neatly onto Amazon. No shouting, please.

I am very mixed in my thoughts of this vast behemoth. I agree that they shouldn't avoid paying tax. I know that Amazon is a vast shark swallowing up or crushing good small dedicated bookshops and publishers. But...but...but...If I want the latest novel by my favourite author I can order it and it arrives the next day in pristine condition. I no longer drive and cannot walk far plus I live in the middle of nowhere and there are no bookshops within 25 miles. And to muddy the waters even further, although I adore books, loved working in various bookshops over the years, but I have nowhere to put all my books now and now my eyesight is poor in low light, I find I am more and more drawn to reading books on my Kindle. I know. I know. You are probably telling me I'm a philistine but it has been a life-saver. I still prefer actual, real books, both fresh and crisp and those foxed around the edges. I particularly love to read the hand-written dedications. I am also overjoyed if a dried flower or card of any kind falls out. These are personal and intriguing and brings me closer to another readers. Who are or were they?

My current meditation on books, reading and working in bookshops and engaging with readers brings me to mention two books that have delighted me recently. However, both decry the use of a Kindle for reading. I understand them completely. They both have slightly different reasons for their hatred but both books dwell on the impersonal sterile format plus the inability to retain words read on screen.

What neither writers mention are people like me who for various reasons have had to forgo the pleasure of browsing in bookshops, whether independents, chains or second-hand treasure-troves. First of all, as I said, I live in the middle of nowhere and I don't drive. Plus by significant other is not interested in books, reading or writing. Lastly and more importantly, I am finding it increasingly difficult to read in anything other than very bright light. I can alter the brightness of my Kindle. It is a life-saver for me so although I smile to see that the Wigtown bookshop displays a mounted shield on which a Kindle the owner shot and killed, I would die if Kindles (or what might replace them) became extinct.

Increased age, a long- term medical condition and bad mobility is a real bummer no-one likes to talk about. We are all supposed to be super-healthy and  enjoying ourselves and if not we only have ourselves to blame. It's a lie.  But I refuse to be down-heated and will continue to use this blog for the occasional moan. But thanks God for my Kindle. It's keeping me same.