Authors Electric

I usually prefer my monthly blogs to be fresh but, very occasionally, there’s so little ‘freshness’ discernible in the daily antics of the appalling people who govern our destinies and nothing in everyday life that’s not thoroughly depressing that I resort to revisiting some ancient topic I covered in my own blog. Quite frequently, it’s the seemingly inescapable evidence of absurdity  that provokes the piece. This month, however, rather than the bleak absurdity of the cynically mendacious and immoral Johnston, Trump et al’s words and deeds, which confirm the fundamental, philosophical inescapability of the absurd, it’s the version embraced by Jarry, Ionesco The Goons and others who step back from reality and recreate their own version of it for comic effect. Theirs is a sort of harmless absurdity, an expression of amused but extreme disbelief at the charades we all live. So many of the ways we behave must make God sorry he didn’t choose a different species, such...

Yes, it's December, and it won't be long now until it's Christmas, bringing with it mince pies, mulled wine and all sorts of  other good things, including, if you are lucky, a few prezzies of books, or possibly even a new E-reader to get your nose into. Which brings me to the vexing matter of E-book etiquette - or E-tiquette as it could perhaps be shortened to.  E-reader? What E-reader? Nope, haven't seen one round here. When I see someone absorbed in a book I'm always insatiably curious about what they are reading. Is it something I've already read? Or maybe a book I might like to read?  With a paper book, when you casually ask 'What are you reading?' it is easy for the reader to respond without too much disturbance to the flow ... just holding up the book slightly so the cover with the title can be seen, while continuing reading.  With an E-book it seems so much more impolite to disturb someone: they have to actually stop reading and sp...

Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I mingle with your books ... The bookcase is always the first place I gravitate to in other people's houses. While other folk are catching up on gossip or refilling their glasses in the kitchen, I'm to be found happily browsing the reading matter. Possibly this is a bit rude, but I'm shy and really bad at small talk. But as e-books become ever more popular and new paper additions to the bookshelves grow scarcer, I find myself wondering whether it would be a breach of etiquette too far to ask if I might browse through the titles on my host's e-reader instead? The Great Rosette Robbery and other stories by Karen Bush Available to browse (or buy) at http://http//www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Rosette-Robbery-stories-ebook/dp/B005NVRJKK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330432404&sr=8-1