Real Books

I grew up with books. Paper and print. For years I would scour the second hand and antiquarian bookshops of Britain and later the charity (thrift) shops until my home was groaning under the weight of overflowing bookcases.

But then in my later years it all changed. My special collecting area resulted in rooms full of material that was deteriorating without proper storage and the thought that if I popped my clogs what would happen to it all? I donated the rarest items to the parent religious group, sold off the bulk for gratifyingly huge sums on eBay  - so storage became someone else’s problem – and now I rely on scanned copies on either the computer or my eReader.

My other special collecting area was obscure Bible translations and I still write for specialist publications on these. But alas, they are not scanned, so those shelves still stare out at me. However, that’s a subject for another day.

I went away on vacation recently determined to research and complete several articles but there was no internet access in our trailer. The advertising blurb promised that the internet was available, what it did not say was that you had to travel to a noisy café on site full of other people’s children, to struggle with an intermittent service.

So the articles didn’t get written. The research didn’t get done. So I caught up with some paper and print reading that had been languishing around for some time. The last few vacations I took this material away with me, but my predilection for eBooks and computer screens meant that it always went on the back burner. Not this time.

I completed fours books. And when not tramping around nature reserves and gardens and shopping centers I read and read. And Mrs O did embroidery and stuff. It was a change of pace. Actually it quite a restful throwback to how things used to be before the internet.

So what did I actually read and complete?

“The Kingston Trio on Record.” Who? They had five LPs (albums) in the American top twenty all at the same time. No-one else, not even Elvis or the Beatles, achieved that. They introduced the American college kids to a smooth kind of folk music that paved the way for the gritty folk boom of Bob Dylan and others, leading to folk-rock and the whole concept that popular music could carry serious lyrics that made you think. It was a good book that could be quite critical when the authors thought it necessary, and which had a whole chapter on John Stewart. Stewart sang with them for six years before going solo with over forty albums. My daughter Amy has just issued a tribute album of his songs that has achieved considerable interest in the States.

“Below the Fairy City – The Life of Jerome K Jerome” by Carolyn W. de la L. Oulton. From a very young age when my former tutor tried to read Three Men in a Boat and burst into laughter in front of a class of bemused nine years olds, I have collected Jerome. And written on Jerome for magazines and anthologies. It was nice that this biography also quoted from me. Yup - footnoted fame at last. Where it scores is that it takes its historical subject IN CONTEXT. As I specialise in writing on historical subjects this to me is a crucial aspect of research. You cannot fairly always judge 19^th century writers on 21^st century attitudes. Context of the times must be taken into account. Oulton does this admirably.

“Laurel and Hardy” by Randy Skretvedt – all 630 pages. Again, this is a subject that is one of my lasting passions (much to the bemusement of Mrs O). As a child I used to be shipped off to an outfit called Junior Holidays (the British equivalent of summer camp) and my lasting memory is seeing Laurel and Hardy films on 16mm, and watching our “supervisors” (that’s actually what they were called) trying hard not to cuss in front of their young charges when the equipment invariably broke down. Ther are whole clubs devoted to the art of Laurel and Hardy where middle aged men dress up in costume and impersonate their screen mannerisms. And no – I don’t actually go THAT far. Yet. But here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into… I was a paid up member of the British Film Institute for many years and studied silent film and early comedy. There were the four greats – Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton and Langdon. Of the four Keaton always stands out for me. But, and it is a big BUT – over a hundred years since their first encounter on the screen, Laurel and Hardy still MAKE ME LAUGH.

“Acta Comparanda.” This was a conference on a religious group to which I was invited in Belgium in 2016. I didn’t go but helped two contributors with their material and as a result was sent a copy of this extremely expensive paperback. I do like the fringe research, in some cases the lunatic fringe. Human nature and the extent of self-image coupled with self-deceit are fascinating issues for me.

So, I read more paper and print in one week than I had done for a considerable time before. But I am looking forward to picking up the pieces of research now I am back home in civilization and the internet. How did we ever manage without it?