Not to be left out of the loop, I thought I’d join Rosie and Kath with their 7 Bookish Things blogs. I’ve never woken anyone up to get a newly released novel, nor have I written anything worth attempting to publish but here we go, these are my seven facts about me.
Fact 1:
Unlike Kath and Rosie, I do remember learning to read; Peter, Jane and Pat the dog were much loved members of my formative years and I still have fond memories of sitting under the oak tree at school and learning to read with Mrs Thomas.
Fact 2:
I used to get into trouble during English Lit classes, a lot! When called upon to read out loud I’d have no idea where we were; not because I wasn’t concentrating but because I’d be so caught up in the story, I’d be chapters ahead of everyone else.
Fact 3:
I read my first proper sex scene at age thirteen; it was Gary Brandner’s The Howling and it was rather explicit. I blush even now at the thought of thirteen year old me reading it.
Just in case
Fact 4:
I was a particularly unpopular child at school and to escape my tormentors; would spend my lunch breaks in the school library, reading everything they had.
Fact 5:
I still have a library book from college; it’s called Muck and Magic, about a city boy becoming a pig farmer. Every time I look at it I feel guilty, but not guilty enough to return it.. Yet.
Fact 6:
I have a very rude book sitting on my bookshelves, I love watching guests reactions when they spot it. To date not one has passed comment.
Fact 7:
I take a book, or my Kindle everywhere! I’ve even been known to still be reading during the opening credits of a film when at the cinema.
So that’s me, Shan.. Nothing jaw dropping and yes, I will buy a new copy of Muck and Magic (or something) for the college… Eventually.
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Here’s my 7!
1. After my first day at school, I arrived home and announced “Well, I’ve been to school!” I gather my mother only just persuaded me to go back in order to learn to read!
2. We were set Koestler’s ‘The Watershed’ (a biography of Copernicus) to read at school. I felt ripped off when I discovered that it was only the middle part (and least interesting) of his riveting history of astronomy and modern science, ‘The Sleepwalkers’.
3. I remember I felt a little betrayed when I discovered, by accident, that Ursula LeGuin had written a sequel to ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’. I picked up a science fiction magazine and there it was! Part Two of ‘The Tombs of Atuan. I still have a feeling that I’m entitled to be told of the next book in a series without much effort on my part.
4. I binge-read all Asimov’s science fiction over a few days at uni. That was a mistake – I discovered his very mechanical plotting techniques which he’d developed in the pulp magazine days with every chapter finishing in high suspense. A true practitioner of ‘Perils of Pauline’ adventure writing.
5. I love reading prefaces and introductions. So often there are some humorous gems in the most unlikely of tomes. One set of lectures in nuclear physics has had in each of its editions a preface freshly describing the author’s delight in ski-ing. In the first edition he dwells on the fact that by giving the early conference contributions he was free to ski unencumbered by other physicists! G E Brown: Unified Theory of Nuclear Models.
6. I caught my first glimpse of the sets of ‘The Golden Bough’, The OED, and Hastings’ Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics at Feroz Sons’ bookshop in Lahore during my first overseas holiday. They were truly top-shelf books!
7. I still love sets of books with a passion – and get distressed when new cover art becomes dissonant with the early series. Sometimes it gets worse. One of the great science fiction anthologies was the five-volume ‘Spectrum’ series edited by Robert Conquest and Kingsley Amis. The original series was issued by Pan. A nice consistent series numbered after the Roman fashion. The series was later reissued by Sphere (I think). New cover art, Hindu-Arabic numerals. I have the complete set: Spectrum 1, 2, 3, 4 & V. Gnash!