No not the place, but the activity. If you know me, you know I don’t read. I can read, but I don’t read for leisure. Sure in my life I have sifted through many many technical manuals, but as for just reading a book it didn’t happen (though there was a Novella included with the game ‘StarGlider’ which I read though it was very short).
Why? Well I did get thinking about it a few years back and put it down to my old school trying to help. You see, back in the 80’s when Amazon was a river and Kindle was something you used to start a fire when you wanted a book what did you do? Just in case you’ve forgotten you actually left your house and bought one. As I was around 9-10 at this time this really wasn’t an option, so for children everywhere schools had a book leaflet for you to select a book from – then get your parents to pay for it – then you wait a week or so and it would turn up.
So I chose the title that appealed to me the most. It was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (I won’t insult you the reader because you know who wrote it), the reason – well mainly cos it had just recently been on the TV and I liked it. Being my first educational purchase I rightly pleased. Then came the thing that I think pretty much messed it all up for me.
The teachers didn’t think it was appropriate for me as it was too adult in content. After being allow to watch said TV adaptation of it I was disappointed. Still being young I moved on from this trauma only being psychologically scarred.
The next literary encounter was probably one of the best presents a friend ever bought me. It was book called ‘Shuttle’ based on a fictional space shuttle type aircraft which seemed to drag it’s launch vehicle in to outer space with it. A thoughtful present as Bod (Trevor) knew I liked the space shuttle and associated gubbins that went with it. I started to read, but really couldn’t into it, not sure if it was the book or just what I suspect the lack of reading from earlier in my life meant I couldn’t concentrate. At 40 I still find it difficult to lock out all the sounds around me and get into a book. The get around my concentration levels I did find playing classic music helped me get through a Citrix Metaframe book (prior to taking and passing a CCA exam – go me!), but never followed it up with a non-manual book (if that makes sense).
Anyway I’ve jumped forward a few decades so need to jump back around 27ish years. Around my 3rd year of senior school I was very surprised to receive a merit award – to this day I’m still not overly sure as to why I got one, still like noticing a £5 note on the floor I wasn’t going to ignore it. The prize consisted of a book up to the value of £10.
You’d have thought this might have spurred me to buy a real book, but no the plane spotter in me meant I selected an aircraft reference book. I still have the book, with merit prize glued inside.
So forward to now why post this? well since I have an iPad it means I also have a e-reader and I have decided to turn back the years and buy Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Which after a week or so I’ve managed to read, and yes I enjoyed it. Partially as it bought back memories from the TV show, but mainly cos it was a funny book. So where from here, well, just getting over bloke flu so once I recover from brain mush I shall read episode 2 (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe). Then if all goes well then perhaps the other 3.
As for the teachers, they aren’t the villains of this piece, just doing what they thought was best. After all I did count a few shit’s and couple of Bastard’s. Though considering it was the 80’s I probably heard worse on the Sweeney.