Babcock spotted

A worrying development... he's gone corporate!

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry | Sometimes a man has to blog, even when others don't

Here's a book you might fancy. You might not. Harold Fry... one unlikely pilgrim. I featured it on the Big Issue book pages the other week. You can read the review via this ere link.

(I have another book column out on the streets on Monday. It's on Running with Kenyans. It isn't a novel, its about an English guy who goes to Africa and, er, runs with Kenyans.)

I really enjoyed Harold Fry, which is one of the Waterstone 11. This, I am assured has nothing to do with The Twelve.....(Babcock... Babcock.....). Nor has it anything to do with Oceans 11 or indeed Catch 22.

Actually, I resisted liking Fry at first because of its sheer Radio 4ness. It really couldn't be more Radio 4-y if it had included a shipping forecast every ten pages. I try however not to be entirely prejudiced against everything on R4, a station I actually listen to most of the time. Of all the speech radio stations it is definitely up there in the top two. However, I do occasionally yearn for it to do something genuinely surprising. But then I think, what would that be? Would I be surprised if, say, they featured a poetry slam on The Archers? No, I say to myself, I probably wouldn't be.

All thoughts and postings on Radio 4, books, Harold Fry and the meaning of Babcock... most welcome.

Still no final pigeon of confirmation from George re the next meeting. But I suspect the previous Tuesday (was that the favoured option?) will be just fine...

True Grit | How the west (end) was won

Clearly we all just read far far too much. Of the (magnificent) seven who came, just one had failed to read the book. To the surprise of everyone, that one was not Thomas 'Poor Excuses' Quinn but Cathy 'Jugglin' Them Chillen' Norton.

What happened was this. We took them early in the morning. Their horses were lame. Their jokes were lamer. We had the upper hand. We had a magician. He completely fooled them with a trick involving a rattle snake and a spinning coin. Or it might have been a rattling coin and a spinning snake. Nobody was quite sure.

Personally, I thought True Grit was an excellent novel. I don't think beans were mentioned more than once. And well worth re reading, Arabella, should you manage to find a spare hour or two between running the Best Damned Dental Surgery In The West.

I really liked the narrator. She was full of purpose and you were never in any doubt what kind of person she was. I loved how she would fill in the narrative with tangents. I really thought it did what a good novel should always do. It gave a fresh perspective on a world we thought we knew. In this case: the lawless west. Plus, I never even imagined Indians might have owned slaves. The thought never occurred. I feel I need to research this more.

Mark, the book I mentioned was Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. I have never read it but I had a friend once who did. He loved it. The fact we are no longer friends is neither here nor there. I never slept with his sister or stole his horse. Click on the coloured bit to find the wiki entry. Lonesome Dove was written in 1985 and was turned into a TV miniseries which featured none other than Robert Duvall, but only because John Wayne refused to be in the movie. Both the TV series and the book are available via Amazon and other book retailers. Be warned, it is 960 pages long. But at just £6.79 for the paperback I'd say that represents excellent value. Yeehaw.

Book piracy

Interesting blog from an author about confronting an online pirate.

Check it out....

Books and Twitter

I know that blogging itself is hi tech for some of you. But Twitter is where it is at. Sort of. In 140 characters or less.

140 Characters? Sounds like a Charles Dickens novel.

Funny article in the Telegraph which you can read by clicking here

True Grit | original cover

Some background on the novel... 

...and I love the idea that it is "like Cormac McCarthy but funny"... 

Ah...posting successful!

True Grit

With a certain social media website constantly changing their own rules when it comes to group pages -- yes, Facebook, I'm looking at YOU -- it seems appropriate to try another means of mass communication.

Few know this but blogs were first invented in ancient China. Confucious wrote the first blog, carving out his thoughts on that morning's breakfast on a piece of bark which he then carried around Beijing on his back. Later, in the 19th century, authors such as Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, revived the concept, but used paper and printing presses. Thin pamphlets were produced and passed by hand from gentlefolk to gentlefolk. One such popular blog, written anonymously but thought to be the work of a young Joseph Conrad, consisted entirely of commentary on east London pie shops. In truth, while they had a certain following among the cognoscenti, they never really caught on with the hoi polloi. They only reached a wider audience with the coming of the computer age.

According to my copy of Blogging for Dummies, a blog will allow an informal yet close knit group such as the My Best Friend is Martin Amis to post on such subjects as the books we are reading, books we hope one day to read, and books we wished we'd never heard of. We will also be able to post photos and links... indeed, all the things that Facebook lets us do, but - hopefully - without the irritating friend suggestions and with the inclusion of such social media refuseniks as George and Lisa (assuming they have a computer).

I'll send you details of how to contribute posts to the blog just as soon as I figure out a way. In the meantime please feel free to post your comments below and berate me in any way you feel reasonable.

Also... a reminder:

Next meeting is March 21, 8pm, to discuss True Grit. The venue is most likely the Chip. Western clothing is encouraged but not expected.