The Steps of Balamand University

I was on Twitter (or X as Musk would prefer it) this morning when I came across this picture.

The steps of Balamand University, Lebanon.

How original and clever. Wonderful. 

Don't really need to say much more.

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.

Going For a Walk, and the Satisfaction of Picking Blackberries

I'm fortunate in that there is a local park just across the road from where I live.  It is a country park where you are invited by the local council to walk through woodland, grassland, wildflower meadows and open water. It's home to many varieties of birds, where the ducks, geese, and swans will come and greet you in the expectation that you might feed them. A local canal and river also runs through the park.

 

There is something else about this time of year on the park. It is fantastic for blackberry picking. From around July to the end of August there is a feast to be had, if you like blackberries that is. I do, as a healthy option for breakfast or in a smoothie, and they are free. They are just starting to ripen now, although the full on black ones are still hard to find, every day there are more and more. 

That Friday Feeling…

Here are three things that we may never see again.

1) A pay packet with actual money in it (but not much money).

2) England winning the World Cup.

3) House prices this low (I think this one is a certainty).

And they were still being built with a chimney!

But I suppose how low pay was - see number one, five grand would have been a lot back then.

These Boots Are Made For Walking: Something Wild and the Law of Attraction — Part two

A few days after I found my “new” walking boots, I was looking through my book collection for something to read.  I say collection, it's not that large, perhaps two to three hundred books. It is mainly the ones that have survived various culls over the years. Books that I have read, or unlikely to read, I often give to charity shops.   

Books can take up a lot of space.  When I was a young boy, I lived near a couple of neighbours who had large book collections, all in book cases that covered the walls of a room in their house.  Between them, they could have opened a bookshop. I wondered if I would ever have the same, not a bookshop, but a house with a room or a study with lots of books.  The answer has turned out to be no. The books I have tended to be housed in different places, some stored away, hidden away.  Occasionally I would remember to go and look at them and pick one to read.  

This time I settled for one that had been sitting in a pile of books for some time.  It was in used condition and I had probably picked it up at a charity shop or car boot sale. It was something that I had looked at many times and put down, never quite being in the mood to read.  It was a book by Cheryl Strayed called Wild. Part memoir and part travel adventure, it tells of her journey to walk the Pacific Coast Trail.  I thought to myself, it's about time I read this, or at least a few chapters to see if it is worth reading.  I can usually tell after two or three chapters if a book has got me interested, and I really want to read more.

These Boots Are Made For Walking…and The Law of Attraction — Part One

About a month ago, I was out walking when the thought came to me that I really needed a new pair of walking boots.  The walking boots that I was wearing, more of a walking shoe really, had seen better days.  The sole was beginning to show wear and tear, clearly damaged from years of pounding the pavements and walking country paths.  I had put in the mileage on my footwear, and it was time for a new pair.  

I knew that a new pair of walking boots would not be cheap.  A good quality pair with a decent hard wearing sole is always likely to cost a little more.  The ones with softer tread on the sole never last me that long.  They may look good, but they don't last.  As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, but I do like to get a bargain.  That is not so easy in these Cost of Living crisis times.  Mind you I've always lived a fairly frugal life and when it comes to footwear I've usually managed to find a bargain, either from a charity shop or a car boot sale (flea market in the USA).  I couldn't rely on that happening this time, but I wondered if my current walking boots would hold out until a bargain came along. 

The need for a new pair of boots was on my mind.

And then something strange happened.  Really strange.

Gone Fishing: "What's Your Tomato?" A Book Review

The first thing to say about this book is that you do not need to like fishing or be interested in the sport of fishing to read it.  As you would expect from the title it is about fishing, but it is actually more about the two men doing the fishing, the British comedians and comedy actors, Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse. It is as much about them as it is fishing.  They share something in common in that they both faced a serious heart health issue. Whitehouse had three stents put in, while Mortimer had a triple bypass.  The book, and the BBC TV show that has now been running for five series, is about their friendship and Life, both before and after having been close to death.  

They are both in their sixties now, an age I know something about. They are perhaps aware that they may be on, as the saying goes, borrowed time, and so they are making the most of it.  Fishing has become a big part of that for them, and I suppose they are fortunate in that they have been able to make the TV series as a job of work.  In five series, they have travelled around the UK and occasionally overseas to fish and ponder life.

Both still have a child like approach to life, especially Mortimer.  Working in comedy has probably given them the chance to never grow up or be overtaken by the seriousness of life.  Whitehouse is very serious about fishing and its history, and this comes out in the book. While it is an easy read, it does go through the history, traditions and technical side of fishing.  Those chapters are written by Whitehouse, who has been a lifelong fisherman.  His knowledge comes to the fore, while Mortimer is like the apprentice, taking it all in.  

Except that Mortimer doesn't always take in what he is being told. You can see this quite often in the TV series as Whitehouse shows frustration with his apprentice.  “Don't wind” as in winding the caught fish in, can frequently be heard from Whitehouse.  There is an art and technique to landing a fish, and overuse of winding the rod to pull the fish in is not part of it.  Mortimer is always caught winding, his innocent reply is always “I'm not winding” with a cheeky grin on his face. The fish regularly escapes as Whitehouse holds back his disappointment. I'm tempted to say anger, but they remain mates.  Bob is like a child at heart.

So, if it's your thing read the book, but if you don't, you can watch some episodes of the TV series as they are on YouTube.  If you like TV with scenery, a nice view, travel to different places, it's wonderful, calming, and funny.  Funny as in silly.  As Mortimer asks, what's the tomato in your life?  I suppose we all have a tomato in our life, or perhaps we are still looking for it.