The Writer's Life: Not Happy... With Happy.

 

 

I'm currently reading a book called Happy by Derren Brown. Yes, that is the Derren spelt with two E's, regardless of what the spellchecker tells me. It even says so on the front cover of the book. I bought it a while back, found in one of my charity shop book haul. It's an interesting read, yet contrary to the book title, I am not happy with it. 

There is something about Happy, that I am not happy about.

It's not the contents, but the actual book itself.  

It is a paperback that has 558 pages, a hefty tome. The problem is, it is not easy to keep the pages open. It is one of those that when you hold it, you have to apply constant pressure to keep the pages that you are reading open. If you get too physical with it, the inevitable end result is that you will get a crease in the spine of the book.  

I don't like that with paperbacks. The local charity shops are full of second hand paperback books with damaged spines. I don't think anyone buys a book with the intention of damaging it, just so you can read it comfortably?

But so many books have that damaged spine.

It poses a question. Why has it been produced like that? Was there no testing beforehand? There are paperbacks where the pages open smoothly and there are no creases in the spine of the book. Why can't all paperback books be like that?

With Happy, I have so far managed to resist the temptation to force it open and damage the spine. I'm on page 103, so 425 more to go (not including the index at the end).  

Will I last the course? Brown seems to think that the stoics had some answers to being happy. 

Perhaps I need to be more Stoic when reading Happy?

Maybe I should just go with the flow and force the pages open. After all, it was from the charity shop and only cost me twenty pence.

Update (2026).

No, I didn't last the course. The further I got into the book, the tighter it became. Or maybe my hands were getting weaker by then? I couldn't bring myself to damaging the spin, but that would be the only way to read it — or at least read it in comfort. 

I got to page 180 and gave up. 

I now think that the only way I will get through it is by damaging the spine. As Derren Brown is a magician, maybe he can come with some magic that will help?

Charity shop book haul...another five for a pound haul.

Last Friday, I got another five for a pound haul of books from the charity shop that keeps on giving.

Let's see what I got this time.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website.

1) QI Second Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson. 3.91 average review rating. This is one of those factual books that you can dive in and out of as and when it suits. Originally published in 2010 it has hundreds of individual bits of trivia like what did Cornish wreckers do, and what is a brass monkey? Like the BBC TV series, many of the answers are not so obvious.

 

2) First Man In by Ant Middleton. 4.02 average review rating and 705 GR reviews (as of writing). The memoir of a Special Boat Services sniper and a No.1 bestseller, which you might be forgiven for thinking that this is a man's book, yet quite a few of the reviews on Goodreads were from women. Maybe because it is about the secretive world of conflict and war, I assumed it would be a “man” thing. GQ describe it as “fist biting fun”, I suspect that at the time it wasn't always fun for the writer.

Until You Realise, It's Just a Story

43 years ago today, the band Teardrop Explodes released their debut album Kilimanjaro. An unofficial Twitter fan account describes their music as bubblegum trance music, psychedelic soul music. Not sure what it is, but it is very pop and melodic, very 1980s post punk, new wave. It was music that I had long forgotten about until I listened again today.  

Music is subjective, so just to say that having rediscovered this today, it is like finding something new. I will be reacquainting myself with their back catalogue of music for a few days now. It seems to have stood the test of time.

As they say. Until you realise, it's just a story.

Is it Christmas Yet?

Clearly not, but I was in a local charity shop earlier today and I noticed that the music playing in the background was a Christmas tune. At the front of the shop was a table set out with potential Christmas gifts, including a box of books, all of which had a Christmas theme.  The saving grace was that there was that they had not yet put up a Christmas tree.

The music was coming from a CD player, the CD that was playing being a Christmas greatest hits compilation album. Track number one was Slade's Merry Xmas Everybody. In merry old England, you always know that Christmas is just around the corner when shops start playing the Christmas hits of the past.

Except it is the 6th of October, the sun is out and this weekend into next week is expected to be sunny and warm.  Might even be hot. 

For the shops, even charity shops, the time to sell for Christmas just seems to be getting earlier. I have to say I wasn't tempted to do any Christmas shopping just yet.