A Booky Wook

It's quite sad to see that the physical book is dying out. Sure it will be many many years before they completely disappear, but no doubt due to the technological movement and environment books will gradually disappear from our society. 

What with the Kindle, iPad and a multitude of new Android tablets due for release next year,  there will be more electronic books in circulation than physical ones. Although I can't see how children's books will be replaced as easily, there's nothing like a big bright colourful book to raise the interest. But I know that fewer and fewer parents are even buying their children books and encouraging them to read. It's far easier to buy them a Nintendo DSi and let them play with that than actually read a book with them. 

A friend pointed out that when they were in a pizza restaurant recently there was a family on the table next to them and all 3 of their children were playing with their DSi's whilst the parents ignored them. Don't get me wrong, Isabella has a DSi and no doubt Ellis will also have one in a few years, but we monitor the time she spends on it. But I'm proud to say that she has probably hundreds of books that we've collected over the years, some were given as presents, others picked up in charity shops. 

When I was younger I had no greater joy than reading a new book. I got into horror books at a very young age, and used to love reading the most gruesome and gory books and using my imagination. One of my personal favourites was the endearingly titled 'SLUGS'. They slime, they ooze and they kill. The perfect combination!

I generally used to go through a book in a couple of days, and used to love searching and hunting in the library for the next great horror or fantasy book to swallow me up and take me to a faraway place. I'm only surmising, but I expect its because of my constant need to read books from a young age that my vocabulary and communication skills are what they are today. For me there's no greater enjoyment than delving into a book, and soaking up the atmosphere and relishing every page. I have read a few books electronically, and it just doesn't work for me. 

Also I worry about the public library. A wonderful British institution that just oozes stuffiness, awkwardness and the only place where people with glasses truly feel at home. In fact anyone who doesn't at least wear glasses, a cardigan and some corduroy slacks would be out of place. But it's perhaps this reason that libraries get a bad rap. I wish that more parents would encourage their children to go to the library, and as an adult I still love to roam the shelves looking for that hidden gem, or a book I haven't read for many years. If I had as much time as I did when I was younger, then I would still happily read 2 books a week, but unfortunately the draw of technology is too strong. 

I'm a great believer in technology for improving our lives, but I just don't think that electronic books really do that. I know that they cut down on paper wastage, free up much needed shelving space, but really - you just can't get excited about downloading the latest John Grisham rather than picking it up in your local WH Smiths. I urge everyone to go to your library, sign up and start reading again.

Life without the stuffy book will never be the same again. I hope it's hear to say for many more years to come. Now to pick up a copy of the new Alan Sugar autobiography that looks like it's the size and weight of a small house. 

Trick or Trick...

So that's Halloween done for another year. One of the many new wave of holiday event days that has suddenly sprung up in the last 10 or so years. When I was a lad, all we did was watch Halloween I, II, III or IV and get scared by Jason. We never went trick or treating, it was such an American thing, that you only really saw on E.T. and other films from the old US of A. 

But as with everything that started over there, we've now inherited this totally pointless holiday. Don't get me wrong, it was lovely for the kids to dress up and have fun. I also really enjoyed carving a pumpkin and making a delicious pumpkin, sweet potato & leek soup. But the whole trick or treating malarky is rather amusing. 

Apart from the fact that it seems to be an unwritten law in the UK that you don't EVER knock on your neighbours door unless in a complete emergency, it's also rather strange to see how your neighbours live and why they lock and bolt their doors at 5:30pm on a Sunday afternoon. We're not exactly living in Beirut. 

But what I find most peculiar is as parents we are encouraging our children to take sweets off of and talk to strangers. Never forgetting what Charlie said, this is a VERY BAD THING. 






So our children toddle up to the front door, ring the bell and demand that stranger give them some confectionary, preferably the type with a lot of sugar that will make them fat. Is it me, or is this all a bit mad?

But the most annoying part, is the stroppy teenagers who ring our bell and demand some high quality sweets or indeed there will be a bad trick. So it's ok to feel threatened in our home because it's Halloween. No wonder so many of our neighbours kept their lights off and their doors locked shut. 

So why is it ok to encourage kids to eat sweets and chocolate on this day, and yet we spend pretty much every other day trying to control their intake? It's the madness of clever marketing is what it is. If Halloween consisted of children going round collecting fruit from strangers, it would never have got off the ground. Quite simply because there would have been no money in it. 

As a cynical old hack, it's not difficult to find all this commercialisation so distasteful. I went into my local Sainsbury's and found a whole isle of sweets and chocolates that only appear for Halloween. So it's now turned into Easter in the Autumn. All those Big Food companies are rubbing their hands with glee as we buy chocolate witch fingers and chocolate eyeballs. So just another example of how it's impossible to escape all this sugary madness. And we wonder why so many kids get fat and crave sweets. 

I had no problem grabbing loads of sweets when i was younger,  and I didn't need some extra pointless holiday to encourage me to eat more. The Halloween spirit was summed up for me, when I was in the queue to pay for my bag of carrots and apples (naitch) in front of me was what looked Augustus Gloop and his family from hell. Piled high in their trolley was the following:
- Monster Munch variety pack x12
- Kit Kat x24
- Mars/Snickers variety packs x 2
- Tizer
- Lucozade
- Coke (non diet)
- Variety of Mr Kipling caked goods

Stripey tops definitely make you look fatter. FACT.

...and  that was just what was on the top that I could see. The family consisted of a huge mother, equally huge father, boy probably around 9 who was as big as me and a girl who couldn't have been older than 4 sitting in a pushchair that was buckling under the weight as she sucked on a Yazoo 1/2 litre bottle of banana milkshake. Well it's got milk in, so it must be good for you!

And sadly this is probably the norm. I don't know if this was a special Halloween shop, or simply their need to top up their sugar fixes, but it made me feel ill just watching them fight over the bags. Seeing them was enough of a fright for me to last into the next Halloween and beyond thank you very much. 

So now we can look forward to Fireworks Night, where we can encourage our children to hold lit flames and watch things explode at a not very safe distance. Hurrah for mad Holiday's. I for one can't wait for Slapsday, where we get to slap random strangers who just annoy us.