Book Worm

My other half has been away for three days over the last weekend from Friday until Sunday tea time on her religious jaunt to Leeds for a conference where she acts as one of a number of carers to the predominantly aged audience in case of an emergency.

This gave me a weekend to myself, more or less, after having waded through the list of 'things to do.' So a Saturday lunch with two very good friends which lasted over an hour and a half was a wonderful distraction to domesticity and an even greater distraction was spending an hour browsing in the local Waterstones book shop which was packed to the gunnels, followed by a cappuccino and for a treat, a slice of carrot cake (£2 a slice).

Books are still such an important part of my life. I have hundreds of books and I give most of the fiction books away once I've read them to friends or my sister in law who then passes them on to her husbands workplace 'library.' I have tried to read on-line and it's difficult to sit at a pc and read - I soon get distracted. I have a few audio books on my iPod which is okay, if you can find a good book read by someone with an interesting voice. One audio book I have is Jerome K Jerome's Three Men in a Boat read by the hugely entertaining and highly versatile Hugh Laurie. Not only is the book good, Laurie makes it captivating.

On the other hand, I got Melville's Moby Dick as an audio book and the voice of the American actor who read it was droll, boring and monotone which spoiled the enjoyment and characters remained bland an uninteresting as a result. Reading the reviews given by fellow purchasers on iTunes is very useful indeed.

I read the blogs of a couple of local writers and they are very interesting indeed, entertaining too, but I guess that's something to do with the characters of the bloggers themselves as well, but reading local books is just as important as reading a well known and established author.

What did I buy in Waterstones? I bought a Penguin book of Pocket Jokes - no, not jokes about pockets. I bought an AA CityPack guide to Las Vegas and one for San Francisco (we're going there in October for four days in each place). Two CJ Sansom novels based at the time of Henry Vlll with Matthew Shardlake as a lawyer and private detective, Dark Fire and Dissolution. Although I've read the Lord of the Rings triology about three times (apt) I've never read Tolkien's The Hobbit, which I should have read first so as that was on a 2 for 3 offer, I picked that up too.

My final purchase was Simon Hughes, And God Created Cricket billed as an 'irreverent history of the greatest game on earth,' which, after watching one of the most boring games of football for ages during the World Cup Final, I am sure is correct.

So there we have it. Plenty to go at for the next few weeks.

I was reminded today of two Les Dawson jokes:

'The wife's mother said, "When you're dead, I'll dance on your grave." I said, "Good, I'm being buried at sea!"'

'The wife's mother said, "How would you like to have a chat with me?" I said, "Through a medium!"'

Enjoy the week.

Chat soon

ta-ra.

How tickled I am...

I wonder what on earth possessed the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall management to call off the Ken Dodd show after just a few people had said that Ken was no longer funny enough for 2009. I know he may be getting on, but there's no doubt he provides excellent value for money often performing until the early hours of the morning.

I am fortunate enough to have seen Ken Dodd twice, once at the Futurist Theatre in Scarborough 25 years ago and again about 10 years ago at the Bridlington Spa Theatre and I have to say he was damn funny both times and his act had changed substantially over the years. If you've ever seen 'An Audience with Ken Dodd' from the ITV production, that about sums up this great man's career: well respected, funny and topical. The last time I saw him at Bridlington, my three children, all in their teens fell asleep and we carried them out of the theatre about midnight and Ken had by no means finished.



Les Dawson was another favourite and again I saw him in Bridlington on his comedy stage show and at the Hull New Theatre in a Ray Clooney farce, 'Run for your Wife' in which he showed how good he was at stage acting. He sadly died soon after.

I only saw Tommy Cooper once, again at Bridlington Spa. Even before the big man started to speak, just standing at the microphone gave the audience hysterics. I always remember after the interval, there was just a grand piano on the stage. He appeared in tuxedo and began to play 'Autumn Leaves.' An odd leaf fell from the ceiling and fluttered down onto the piano as he was playing. Then another leaf. And a few more; then, quite a few leaves were falling around him and finally a torrent of leaves falling, covering the piano and to cap it all, hessian sacks with 'Leaves' written on the sacking were thrown from the ceiling and the whole house collapsed in painful laughter as he looked so serious and surprised as he peeped out from the pile of leaves. Good stuff; simple, perhaps adolescent - but fun.

All three men were of their time and they were unforgettable and we have to look for new talent and there doesn't seem too much around to compare. There are a few good stand ups performing but Cooper, Dawson and Dodd were unique in their approach - well known themes, tried and tested for the audience of the time. Perhaps modern younger audiences would not find them so funny these days because those classic comedians challenged the values of their day and we have moved on - sadly.

There were others: I saw Morecambe and Wise at the long gone ABC Theatre in Hull and Bob Monkhouse at the now defunct Westfield Country Club in Cottingham. I am privileged to have seen all those I have mentioned.

"I wouldn't say my mother-in-law was a big woman, but she went to the cinema the other night in a white dress and they showed the picture on her back."
Les Dawson

Chat soon

Ta-ra!