A Story About Fame and Legacy

When I was a young lad, if ever I got a little too ambitious, my mother would say to me.

“You need to come back down to earth.”

Sometimes, when I was being far too ambitious.

“You need to get off your high horse.”

Meaning — stop acting as if you think you are better than others.

An idiom.

I grew up in a time when idioms were popular.

But I had no idea what an idiom was. I was probably not paying attention to the teacher at school.

I think it was my mother’s way of letting me down gently.

Life was regularly a letdown.

I did wonder about the high horse, though.

I lived in an inner city in middle England, so the only time we ever saw a horse was on television. The racing from Newmarket, Chepstow, or some other place that I would only ever see on the magical television screen.

The television also bought us a popular series for children about a horse called Black Beauty. It was based on an original story by the writer Anna Sewell. It was published in 1877, and she was paid a grand total of £40.

£40 is not much for writing a book, when you consider all the time and effort. In part because of ill health, it took her several years to write it.

But it was in 1877, and back then it might have been a lot of money.

I had to find out.

Charity shop book haul…yet another five for a pound haul (part two).

I went to the five for a pound charity shop this morning, and picked up another haul. However, this post is part two of my catch-up, pre-covid hauls. 

Another mixed bag, two non-fiction, three fiction, but as usual, good value for money at five for a pound!

Here's what I found.

Let's start with the fiction picks.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing). 

1) Don't Let Go, 2017, by Harlan Coben. 4.05 average review rating. 69358 ratings and 4613 GR reviews.

With unmatched suspense and emotional insight, Harlan Coben explores the big secrets and little lies that can destroy a relationship, a family, and even a town in this powerful new thriller.

Link: Don't Let Go 

2) Kill Baxter, 2014, by Charlie Human. 4.04 average review rating. 457 ratings and 39 GR reviews.

The world has been massively unappreciative of sixteen-year-old Baxter Zevcenko. His bloodline may be a combination of ancient Boer mystic and giant shape-shifting crow, and he may have won an interdimensional battle and saved the world, but does anyone care? No.

Link: Kill Baxter

I must admit, I picked this book up because of the cover!

3) Rumpole On Trial, 2014, by John Mortimer. 4.22 average review rating. 752 ratings and 54 GR reviews.

As Rumpole wends his way from court to wine bar and to the matrimonial home in Froxbury Mansions, listeners find their hero jousting with the Devil as he defends eight-year-old Tracy Timson against the dire threats of the local authority, is wooed by a beautiful violin player, watches Sam Ballard peer into the future, and appears before the Disciplinary Tribunal of the Bar Council.

I don't know about the book, but that's a long sentence. 

Link: Rumpole On Trial 

Now, for the two non-fiction. These are both by (former?) actress, comedian, and latter-day author Ruby Wax.

4) A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, 2016. 3.77 average review rating. 3885 ratings and 300 GR reviews.

In A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled, Ruby Wax shows us how to de-frazzle for good by making simple changes that give us time to breathe, reflect and live in the moment. It's an easy-to-understand introduction to mindfulness, weaved together with Ruby's trademark wit and humour. Let Ruby be your guide to a healthier, happier you. You've nothing to lose but your stress…

Link: Frazzled 

2) How to be Human, 2018. 3.71 average review rating. 3223 ratings and 281 GR reviews.

It took us 4 billion years to evolve to where we are now. No question, anyone reading this has won the evolutionary Hunger Games by the fact you're on all twos and not some fossil. This should make us all the happiest species alive - most of us aren't, what's gone wrong?

Link: How to be Human

Slight embarrassment on the back cover of this book is probably the quote recommending the book from Russell Brand. I suspect that later editions will probably change that.    

A book haul...Finding crime in the park.

This is one of my catch-up posts. I found these books in a local park about a month ago.

I mentioned in a previous post that a generous individual was leaving books in the park, usually four or five at a time. With the weather being rain, followed by more rain, to leave them in the park would only result in them getting soaked. I chose to rescue them. If I did not want them, I could always re-deliver them to a local charity shop.

I get the impression that the person leaving the books, likes a thriller, suspense, mystery, and crime. 

Here's what I found.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing). 

1) The Cuckoo's Calling, 2013, by Robert Galbraith (a pseudonym for J K Rowling).  3.89 average review rating. 579328 ratings and 37427 GR reviews.

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that.

Link: The Cuckoo's Calling 

2) Win, 2021, by Harlan Coben.  4.09 average review rating. 66715 ratings and 4865 GR reviews.

From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes this thrilling story that shows what happens when a dead man's secrets fall into the hands of a vigilante anti-hero—drawing him down a dangerous road.

Link: Win

3) Pure Evil, 2023, by Lynda La Plante.  4.34 average review rating. 2546 ratings and 116 GR reviews.

ALL KILLERS WANT TO MAKE THE FRONT PAGE . . .

Link: Pure Evil

 

4) Victim Without a Face, 2014, by Stefan Ahnhem.  3.97 average review rating. 9311 ratings and 867 GR reviews.

Criminal investigator Fabian Risk has left Stockholm with his wife, Sonja, and their two children to start fresh in his hometown of Helsingborg. He has planned a six-week vacation before he starts a new job at the Homicide Department. But after only a few hours in their new home, he is asked to investigate a brutal murder.

Link: Victim Without a Face

 

 

Charity shop book haul…yet another five for a pound haul (part one).

So, I'm now playing catch up. Having been under the weather for a while, there are a number of posts to catch up on, including several book hauls.

Let's see what I got this time from the charity shop that keeps giving with their five for a pound offer.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website (as of writing).

1) The Fry Chronicles, an Autobiography by Stephen Fry. 3.84 average review rating, 22132 ratings, 1232 reviews.

“Stephen Fry arrived at Cambridge on probation: a convicted fraudster and thief, an addict, liar, fantasist and failed suicide, convinced that at any moment he would be found out and flung away.

Instead, university life offered him love, romance, and the chance to stand on a stage and entertain.”

Link: The Fry Chronicles 

2) Animal, The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe. 4.15 average review rating, 8839 ratings, 639 reviews.

“Women have so much going on, what with boobs and jealousy and menstruating and broodiness and sex and infidelity and pubes and wombs and jobs and memories and emotions and the past and the future and themselves and each other.

Here's a book that deals with all of it.”

Link: Animal, The Autobiography of a Female Body

3) Only Fools and Stories by David Jason. 4.24 average review rating, 805 ratings, 67 reviews.

“…in a follow-up autobiography, he tells us about the many other lives he has lived – his characters. From Del Boy to Granville, Pop Larkin to Frost, he takes us behind the scenes and under the skins of some of the best loved acts of his career.”

Link: Only Fools and Stories

The Twelve Posts of Christmas: Day Three. A Billion Kindle Unlimited Reads

Just to say right at the start of this Christmas post, the billion reads on Kindle Unlimited does not refer to my book. I wish! No, it refers to a tweet I came across on Twitter X yesterday (I'm still going to call it a tweet regardless of what Elon says). 

Here's the tweet.

That is over one billion reads, which is remarkable.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed: A Book Review

I finished reading Cheryl Strayed's book Wild a few weeks back and have been meaning to write about it, a review. As often happens, other things got in the way, so I thought it was about time that I did that review, because it is a good book. 

 

Wild is a memoir that describes her adventure as she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail. The book is subtitled From Lost to Found and starts off by giving us some of her background history. The author is very open about her own flaws, her failed marriage, drug use and relationship with her family, especially her parents. Her mother died young of cancer, a battle that did not last very long. Her mother's death had a big impact on her life. Strayed embarked on what becomes a journey of self discovery.

It has been a long time since I read a book that started with a prologue, and Wild has a very good one that achieves its objective, which is to get you to read on.  Strayed tells the story of when she loses one of her boots over a cliff edge. Now, barefoot walking is a thing, but out in the wilderness, in the middle of nowhere, with stones, sharp rocks, rugged terrain, you are left wondering, what is she going to do now? No spoilers, you will have to read the book!

A Book Haul, Courtesy Of the Local Park

I was cycling through the local country park very early this morning to do some shopping, when I came across a bag of books. The park exit takes me across a walkway close to a river and through a small car park. There is a wall that runs alongside the river, the plastic shopping bag with the books inside had been left there. I decided that if they were still there on my return journey, I would have a look.

This was not the first time that I had seen books left in that spot. I assume that a local resident, having read the books, had perhaps put them there so somebody else could have the pleasure of them. A sort of book recycling. It's also possible that they were just a litterbug, someone who couldn't be bothered to take them to a charity shop. I'd prefer to think it was the former. 

I did have a quick look and decided to take them with me. There were clouds gathering, the possibility of rain. If I left them there, they would get a soaking. I thought that if I had no interest in them, I could recycle them to the local charity shop. One way or another, someone would appreciate them.

When I got back, I took the books out of the bag. There were four books, all fiction. Now, I am more of a non-fiction reader, I probably should make an effort to read more fiction than I do, especially as right now I am trying my hand at writing fiction. The last time I did that was at school, years ago. I don't think I was very good. 

Here are the four books that I found.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website. 

1) Listen To Me by Tess Gerritsen.  4.17 average review rating. 14787 ratings and 1339 GR reviews (as of writing).

NATIONAL BESTSELLER — Rizzoli & Isles are back! From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, this “shocking and fast-paced” (Karin Slaughter) thriller has Jane and Maura investigating a brutal murder with dire implications, and this time, with Jane's intrepid mother, Angela, looking into a mystery of her own.

Listen To Me

2) ALEX by Pierre Lemaitre.  4.09 average review rating. 17009 ratings and 2349 GR reviews.

Kidnapped, beaten, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a wooden cage, Alex Prévost is in no position to bargain. Her abductor's only desire is to watch her die.

ALEX  

3) The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly.  4.20 average review rating. 78370 ratings and 4321 GR reviews.

Bringing together Michael Connelly's two most popular characters, “The Brass Verdict” is a thriller which reaches for, and then surpasses, the highest level!

Not Happy... With Happy.

I'm currently reading a book called Happy by Derren Brown. I bought it a while back in one of my charity shop book hauls. So far I have found it to be an interesting read, yet I am not happy with it. There is something about Happy, that I am not happy about.

It's the actual book itself, not the contents.  It is a paperback and has 558 pages, but the book is one of those that when you hold it, you have to apply constant pressure to keep the pages that you are reading open and in view. 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. Surely no one buys a book with the intention of damaging it so you can read it comfortably?

Hardback books are more durable, but paperbacks often get abused in this way, but the real problem is 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 on the spine of the book. So far I have 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 this hefty tome?

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.

Charity Shop Book Haul: Finding Books Priced at Five For a Pound.

On Saturday, I made another visit to my favourite charity shop for buying books. They have a sale on of five books for a pound. In fact, that sale appears to be a permanent sale now, as every time I go in the same sale sign is on show.  

Let's see what I got this time.

All the ratings are from the Goodreads website.

1) Conquer Your Year by Natalie MacNeil. This has a 4.05 average review rating. It's more of a daily planner than an actual book, but I thought I would have a look. I'm not the greatest at planning for each day, so this might give me some ideas.

2) I Never Knew That About England by Christopher Winn. This has a 3.63 average review rating. Published in 2005 it is a book that presents a random selection of little known facts and stories about the 39 counties of England. It's one of those books that you can dive into as and when you are in the mood for some trivia.

3) Anyone Can Do It, My Story by Duncan Bannatyne. Has a 3.9 average review rating. Probably best known for being one of the dragons on the BBC'S Dragons' Den and for saying “I'm out”. 

4) Blowing The Bloody Doors Off by Michael Caine (who else could it be?). It also has a 3.9 average review rating. I expect a heavy dose of nostalgia.

5) Ancestors by Alice Roberts. Has a 4.12 average review rating.  The book is about the prehistory of Britain in seven burials. 

This may be the one I read first, or maybe Blowing the Bloody Doors off will beat off the more academic challenge of Professor Roberts.

I note that in the three charity shop book hauls that I have done so far, all the books have been non-fiction.  That's probably because I mostly read non-fiction. I should probably try harder to pick up some fiction.  There is usually plenty available, so no excuse, other than the non-fiction just draws me towards it.

Charity Shop Book Haul: Another haul

I made another visit to a local charity shop that regularly runs five books for a pound sale.  This is what I bought this time.

1) Pause by Daniella Marchant. How to press pause before life does it for you.  Has a 3.79 rating on Goodreads.

2) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.  Has a 3.73 rating on Goodreads. I don't really buy all this Law of Attraction stuff, but I thought that given how it cost twenty pence, I would finally read the book. It also has something to do with a pair of boots I found recently.

3) Happy by Derren Brown.  Has a 4.06 rating on Goodreads.  I see a trend here.  Three self-help type books in a row.  Interesting.

4) The Meaning of Sport by Simon Barnes.  Has a 3.78 rating on Goodreads. I like sport, so for 20 pence this was an easy pick.  We will see.

5) A field Full of Butterflies — Memories of a Romany Childhood, by Rosemary Penfold.  Has a 3.67 rating on Goodreads. The lowest Goodreads rating here. Having written a memoir myself, (well, the only book I've written) it is a genre that I like, a real life story. 

So, plenty more to read and all five for a pound.  

The Bestselling Books of 2023 (So Far)

Here are the bestselling print books for the first half of 2023 released by Publishers Weekly.  It does not include audiobooks or e-books. 

Perhaps not surprisingly the top spot is taken by Prince Harry with Spare, 1,179,379 books sold.

Colleen Hoover has seven books in the top 20 with almost four million in sales.

 For the full list, go to Publishers Weekly.

Charity Shop Book Haul: Bargain Hunting for Books

I do like to look for bargains in charity shops.  I recently visited one that I had not been to for quite a while.  They had a sale on their books, five for £1.  Despite the sale being so cheap, I had trouble in finding five that I actually felt I might read.  It always seems to be like that.  A struggle to find the last one. It could just be me.

I came away with the following.

The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper (actually written by Robert Popper).  Looks fun and has some good reviews.  Huge bestseller according to the front cover.

Quite by Claudia Winkleman.  Will I ever read Claudia's offering? Is it aimed at me?  Not quite sure.

Peaky Blinders, The Real Story by Carl Chinn.   I've never watched The TV series of Peaky Blinders, but this book might give me an idea of the real past history of Birmingham's gang violence.  Do I really want to know?

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.  Bill Bryson knows how to write an epic book.  A big book.  There again, is 574 pages really enough to cover “everything” that history has to offer?  Well, he does say “nearly”.

Gone Fishing by Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse.  I've started with Gone Fishing, as I have watched the television series on YouTube.  I like both Mortimer and Whitehouse.  Even though it is about fish and fishing, the latter being something that I have never done or felt the need to do, I think I will read it all.  I do like fish though, especially with chips.

So, not bad for a quid in these cost of living crisis times.   Once I have read them, I will probably re-distribute them back to a charity shop or two.    

Spared

2023 has started with a bang in the world of books.  Spare is a memoir written by the British Royal who chose to step back from his role, Prince Harry (ghost-written by novelist J. R. Moehringer.) Released on the 10th January 2023, it has caused a stir, and not just in Royal circles.  

This is my first blog post, and it is not my intention to review or write about Harry's book, as I have not read it.  Instead, I write about it in the context of my own memoir writing experience, which coincidentally meant that my first book, Son of My Father, was more or less published at the same time.  

Actually, my book was published as an e-book on Amazon the week before Christmas, 2022.

Now, the first big difference between my book and Spare is that mine was self-published with no fanfare. Self-publishing used to be called vanity publishing and not encouraged.  The traditional route, if the book is any good, is to go through a publisher.  That can be a lot of hard work.  Many a good author has had their work rejected only to eventually find success. Self-publishing was the easy option for me, and Amazon (and others) do make it reasonably easy to do that.

There is one big drawback to self-publishing.  Your new book is one of thousands. How do you get it noticed?  I did not publicize it at all.  It sat there in the Amazon store waiting for someone to take notice and buy it.  Compare that with the 400,000 copies Spare sold on the first day.  No surprise in that given all the publicity it received and the fact that this was a book spilling the beans on Royal life. The BBC report that it has become the UK's fastest selling nonfiction book since records began.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64226729

I would have been happy with forty copies sold on the first day.  Over the moon.

I will have more to write about Son of My Father in due course, but for now here is the Amazon link.

Son of My Father