some recent books

Some books l have recently read. I seem to have gone through quite a few autobiographies lately. All from charity shops.

toodle pip

al perman found in a book plus david essex and the stray cats

It's funny what you can find stashed away in old books bought from charity shops. 

Here's a recent example - a photograph of a singer who looks a bit like David Essex in 'Stardust', but the back of the photo has 'Al Perman 1966' written on it. That could be the photographer or the singer, as l have no idea. I tried a quick Google search but with no success, so it is likely to remain a puzzle.

Here's David Essex playing Jim MacLain with The Stray Cats in 'Stardust'



Here's David Essex's 'Rock On' (a favourite of mine)



And here's the later day Stray Cats doing the 'Stray Cat Strut'



toodle pip

alex james - bit of a blur - signed

Now this is how l end up with stuff that l had forgotten about.
As well as a load of other books and bits of crap, I bought Alex James' autobiography  'A Bit Of A Blur' in a charity shop recently, and it was only when l went to read it that l noticed it had been signed at Waterstone's by Alex himself.
In the past, this would then have been stashed away by me, unboxed years later, and then l would be left desperately trying to remember going to Waterstone's and meeting Alex.
No wonder l confuse myself

toodle pip

old school football

I was flicking through some old football magazines and annuals the other day, and thought about this front cover of Charles Buchan's Soccer Gift Book, featuring Bobby Charlton of Manchester United. Look at the determination to get the (old leather) ball, despite being blocked off. Nowadays someone in his shoes / boots would be writhing around on the floor, clutching their face and pretending they had been elbowed, trying to get the other player sent off.
Pah! Modern bleeding footballers with their fancy coloured boots, beats headphones, tight shirts etc.
Don't get me started.

Also, despite me not liking Liverpool football club, here's the annuals back picture, featuring Billy Liddell. who used to play for them. He was my father's favourite player, and despite my advancing years, it was well before my time so I am unable to bear witness to how good he might have been, but l have heard others praising him over the years.

toodle pip

charity shops heaven

Oh boy Oh boy - l struck lucky last week with my charity shops visit. Some of these books l have already read or have in different translations, and a lot of the cds l have copies of, but l nearly wet myself with excitement at finding this load of goodies.

As usual, all l need now is more time off work, and a bigger house to store all of my crap.

If only l could find this kind of stuff every time l went a searchin'.

                                             

toodle pip

new years fitness regime with ozzy osbourne

I went to read a second hand copy of Ozzy Osbourne's 'I am Ozzy' a couple of weeks ago, and this fell out of it. Somebody's fitness regime for the New Year in 2012. The places they describe are very close to where l live, so l might even know the person who wrote it, and I'm curious to know whether they stuck to it.

I think l left my fitness regime in the pub

toodle pip

shaun ryder on ecstasy and god's copper

Amongst the many books l've read recently, one was Shaun Ryder's autobiography, 'Twisting my Melon'. In it, he repeats what l (and many others) have been saying for years about ecstasy making people friendlier and it doing away with most of the football violence and general fighting on a night out. As he states, it's now a cliche as it's so well accepted amongst any right thinking folk.

Sadly, as the big clubs and raves are dying out, ecstasy use is being replaced by other drugs such as cocaine, and the football violence is coming back. Time for a revival methinks.

Also, the Anderton he refers to was James Anderton, the chief constable of police for Manchester, who was known as 'God's Copper', due to him stating that he had a direct line to God, which affected his views on morality.

Tosser.

toodle pip

count the bananas

Come on kids - it's easy!

How many bananas?

toodle pip

bruce springsteen bargain box set

If you are a fan of Bruce Springsteen, as any person of sound mind should be, this CD collection is a box set motherload.
It arrived yesterday, and l've been ploughing through it today - 15 discs worth of 5 complete 1978 shows, which have all  been heavily bootlegged over the years, but now yours for a bargain £13.99!!!
I'm in Brooocie overload at the moment, as l have also nearly finished reading his 'Born to Run' autobiography.
Marvellous stuff!
Look here

toodle pip

johnny hart's bc books imitate life

I'm still sorting out the bleeding garage, and earlier today l found a load of old Charlie Brown / Peanuts and Johnny Hart's BC / The King Is A Fink books. Some l've had to throw out as they were water damaged, but flicking through this BC book, it was as if someone had been spying on me and Mr Parrot.

toodle pip

happy bedtime reading

Happy bedtime reading for kids at the Charlie Brooker household.
The children's version of Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist'.

From his twitter feed, which is here

toodle pip

tune in - the beatles - all these years

Well, l finally got round to finishing the first of Mark lewisohn's biographies of The Beatles, which l've been reading on and off for a few weeks. 

The attention to detail, is, as expected, staggering, and although l've just ploughed through nearly 1,000 pages, the book only goes up to the end of 1962, so there's plenty more of the same to follow.

Hurrah!

I'm just the sort of sad git that loves projects like this, and relish as much information as possible (as long as it is correct).

Now it's the long wait until the second book is finished (there's going to be three).

toodle pip

strange yale university library book

There's a strange old book in the library at Yale University from the mid 1880's that was donated by Hans P Kraus. It has many drawings of fauna, but lots of weird text and other illustrations that cannot be fathomed out. 

Obviously the work of a dedicated madman (or genius).

I wish l had half of his (or her) drive to create. I've certainly got the rambling thoughts in my head, although, maybe with some of my thoughts, it's best they were kept where they are. 

toodle pip

bob dylan's nobel prize for literature, plus idiot wind, hurricane and it's alright ma (l'm only bleeding)

Although l do think that novels, poems and songs are different, l also think that Bob Dylan receiving the Nobel prize in literature today is well deserved, not just for the amount of outstanding and influential work he has produced, but for the amount of people around the world he would have turned on to lyrics, books, prose and poetry, as well as activism and political thought (including me). Some of Dylan's output, especially in the early years, was staggeringly good, and he sure knew how to construct strong images and stories with only a few words (and often many, many more). But (and there's always a but), as far as literature in book form goes, although entertaining, Tarantula was not exactly earth shattering, and his Chronicles autobiography has been shown to be pilfered or 'inspired by' old obscure sources in many places, with no credits being given. There's an excellent and informative article about the book and Dylan's apparent plagiarism here, but l'm more than forgiving as far as Dylan is concerned (hence my collection of his later works), so hearty congratulations to him.
Praise him now while he still alive - if anyone warrants it, he does, and l am just thankful that l saw him while he was still producing the goods live.







toodle pip

self help books by lynda field, and paul mckenna making you happy

More stuff found while cleaning up. All of which belonged to the FPO. Some of the exercises in the self help books have been completed, but l'm not putting that information up here. I've had a quick scan at the self help books, and, probably to no ones surprise, think they are exploitative crap. Then again - l've got issues, but obviously not the only one. Can't comment on the CD, as l've not played it, but if l was a betting man, l would stake a pretty high wager that l never will.

toodle pip

autographing books

This is something that had never occurred to me, but it makes perfect sense. When an author signs a load of books, they do not necessarily have to do it book by book, as l thought they did. They can, as Joey Barton has been doing here, just sign the fronts, which go into the books afterwards.
Who knew? Not me, that's for sure.

toodle pip

protect and survive booklet

As promised in the last post - here's the governments 'Protect and Survive' booklet from 1980, on how to survive a Nuclear war, something which, at the time, would not have been too unexpected.

toodle pip