I love books. In my early 20s when I was at University I worked part-time in "The Bookshop" (underneath the Crowtree Leisure Centre at the time). Each Saturday, Steve, the owner, would give me my wages and I'd then show him a stack of books I'd put aside during the week. Steve would nod sagely and take the money back.There's something very comfortable about a bookshop, especially a 2nd hand one. Here, books, no longer loved seek out new owners who will take them away and love them once more. I have fostered many a tatty copy of a well-thumbed early Philip K Dick or Frank Herbert in my time. Occasionally, usually due to lack of space, I have had to release a book or two back into the wild. It's never easy.My dad already knows that his book collection is to become mine when he finally shuffles off this mortal coil, for we have completed many a series by buying them for each other as Christmas and Birthday presents, so our tastes are shared and so are our books.So today, when I moved our biggest book case out from underneath the stairs out into the living room and was thus forced to spend several hours making it presentable (removing the double stacks, sorting into some kind of author based order) I wondered about the rise of the e-Book and the e-Book reader.Will these days eventually become distant memories? Stories told to grandchildren who stare incredulously in much the same way as my ten year old currently stares at the big black flat disc called a record when I get the box of vinyl out. Will they simply use their smart phone issued token/voucher to download the latest blockbuster to their Kindle as a Christmas or birthday present? Never to know what it feels like to pick up a present from under the tree and know that it's a book, but to not know what book. To listen to the gentle flap-flap-flap-flap as you flick through a hundred pages in a few scant seconds. To miss out on teasing the olfactory system and to not know the smell what a new book smells like. To never stand in a queue clutching your newly purchased tome reading it as you shuffle forward waiting for your idol to add their signature to the inside front cover and, if you were lucky, a personal word or two. Perhaps, in years to come, e-Book readers will come with a finger print scanner or a touch sensitive pad where authentication that you stood in that queue can be added electronically...It's odd that I, self confessed techno-geek, lover of all things electronic, find myself torn by the relatively sudden rise of the e-Book (and reader) phenomenon. To this end, when my friend and fellow writer Drew Wagar published his first pay for novel (the rest have been available as free downloads) I paid for the much more expensive print-on-demand copy.I am not yet ready to embrace the electronically printed word, not for my books at least...
Inspired...
This is my blog, these are my thoughts (on the screen),Held on the Internet (for the world, to be seen)This is my blog, where I tell you my mind,Then read through the comments, some good and some unkindThis is my blog, my alternate to writing,It's meant to entertain, perhaps be enlighteningThis is my blog, I'm in hyperlink heaven,But just six views today, will I reach seven?This is my blog, you can read it on your phone,And muse over coffee whether I am "in the zone"This is my blog, my dedication to James Carter,As you can see, a poet I am not, but this was just the starter!**James Carter is a wonderful and inspirational poet and has been "in residence" at Falkland's Primary school for the last three weeks. Both my girls love him, so visit his website and as a parent nag your school to get James in, you won't regret it.James lives (in a virtual sense) here: James Carter Poet
I'm Done With Fine
I was out in the US last week with work and had the chance to go to a local music bar one evening. We went to Antone's, something of a legend in Austin, where a couple of bands were playing, the second of which was fronted by an old Muddy Waters cohort. We stood there, having paid our $15, listening to some fine blues, drinking our Lone Star lager, watching this virtuoso blues guitarist with a rich gravelly voice deliver note-perfect song after song.
And then my friend, the local who'd suggested the venue, asked me what I thought.
I wrestled with my conscience for a few moments, nodding appreciatively as I sought the right response, and then told him they were actually causing me to question whether I still liked blues as much as I'd always thought, since they were clearly a very good band. He smiled and suggested we go see what was happening at the Continental Club.
My immediate reaction was to think of the $15 we'd already paid to get in, and the half drunk can of Lone Star that was slowly warming in my hand, not to mention the fact it was a 'school night' and going somewhere else meant at least another couple of hours 'investment'.
But we went, and it was great.
The band, fronted by fiddle man, Warren Hood, was in full swing (and Bluegrass) and suddenly I was alive. The style of music was irrelevant; just like at Antone's, these were performers at the top of their game in a small venue, but unlike the sterile set we'd just walked away from, these guys were clearly loving what they were doing - and their personalities shone large on the small stage and made for an infectious evening.
I called out 'thank you' to my friend, for rescuing our mediocre evening, and said, "The other place was fine. But, you know what, I think I'm done with 'fine'."
And if you're wondering why I'm writing this in a Wordwatchers blog, it's because I'm currently on draft 3 of The Stationary Half of Goodbye, and with the words of a few good people lingering in my ears, telling me that draft 2 was fine and that I should be sending it to more agents, I can't help thinking I have a much better answer for them now.
A busy night but the marvels of technology
Last night (Friday the 16th), I found myself in a pub in London (The Coach and Horses, near Oxford Circus) to watch the launch of a new book...And I really do mean watch - Drew, fellow writer, fellow Ooliter, released Finis, the final book in his mammoth 5 years of writing, 4 part saga set in the fictional Universe of the game Oolite (or Ooniverse as we call it), while in the pub. With his HTC phone acting as a wi-fi hotspot for his laptop he tapped a few keys and Finis went live, in a variety of e-book formats, all over the internet. Brilliant, simply brilliant.To get hold of a copy of Drew's latest novel and to stock up on his back catalogue, visit his site here: http://www.wagar.org.uk/