Why I Love Books

It’s Valentine’s Day so I thought I’d write about my love of…books! When I say I love books, I really do – I have an emotional attachment to them and cannot imagine my life without them. I love everything about them – how they look, how they feel, even how they smell. I love how they look stood together on a bookshelf and one of my proudest ever purchases was my recent shiny white IKEA bookshelf, where finally after years of being anonymously stacked in cupboards and any free spaces, I now have a space to admire my book collection.

 Image: my book (and music) collection proudly displayed on my IKEA shelving unit

One of my dreams is to have a house where there is a massive wall that has built in shelves full of books. It would take a lifetime’s dedication to book buying to fill it but that sounds good to me. I regret selling, giving away and lending (to people who never returned them) many of the books that I have read – my current collection is of course only a fraction of all the books I have ever read. A person’s bookshelf tells you a lot about them – mine has everything from sports and music biographies (lots of cricketers and 90s musicians) to modern classics (1984, American Psycho), football programmes (games I have been to and some from the year I was born) to educational books (from website management for my job to the brilliant Succeed For Yourself by Richard Denny).

I love exploring other people’s bookshelves and whenever I visit my mum I usually find myself picking up a book she inherited from her mum – the Modern Housewife's Encyclopaedia. Published in the early 1950’s, it is a brilliant instruction manual for the ‘modern’ housewife – well the housewife from the 1950’s. There are instructions on how the modern housewife should behave towards her husband and even better there are illustrations to explain the point. My favourite of these is of the husband mowing the lawn and smoking a pipe whilst the wife is in the kitchen wearing a pinafore and getting dinner ready. I think it is beautiful. It is a historical document of how people lived (or at least were expected to live) but more than that it is a physical piece of history. When I pick up the book it is like I am connecting with my nana. I am holding something that she once held. The orange staining of the pages is from the cigarettes that she smoked. It is the closest thing I have to being able to travel back in time and understand how my nana lived her life.

A few years ago I discovered an even more precious book than this. After my nana died, my granddad carried on living in their council house until his death 10 years later. My uncle then took over the tenancy until he then died 8 years after that. Helping my mum to clear out the house I found a very exciting discovery – my nana’s diary from 1983. I don’t know why my nana kept a diary in 1983, and as far as I know she never kept one from any other year, but I am very glad that she did. I burnt my arm in 1983 and thanks to her diary I am now able to know exactly when it happened. More importantly I have an insight into my nana’s life – daily trips to the shops, cooking every day, worrying about her son (my uncle) and the hard work that she did every day to keep her house in order. It sounds like a very boring existence and it probably was. I felt quite sad for my nana when I finished reading it.

My love of books is down to my mum and I will always be grateful to her from that. She read to me and encouraged me to read. Most significantly my mum used to work part-time in a library. Being a single mother my mum was unable to organise or afford to pay for anyone to look after me when she worked during the school holidays so instead I used to hang out in the library all day. The children’s book section of Gainsborough Library in Ipswich was like a home from home to me in the early 90s and I read a lot of books there. I also learnt about categorising books and even the Dewey catalogue system, I used to stamp books for customers and helped put the books away correctly. The most memorable book I read from this time was called Jeremy Blew It. Naturally I picked it for the title but I enjoyed the story – from what I remember it was set in America and was about Jeremy and his friend Yo-less (so called because he never said ‘yo’) as they negotiated their way through the challenges of High School.

Children’s books are magical things as they open up the wonder and beauty of books to children. If I ever have the pleasure of having a child of my own then I will make sure that they have a bookshelf with as many classic children’s books as I can fill it with. From Spot Says Woof to Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and C.S. Lewis I would get great pleasure out of passing on the love of books to the next generation. 

Blyton’s Secret Seven and Famous Five Books and Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books really connected with me when I was a child. The books were regrettably probably sold at car boot sales for pennies – I wish I had kept them instead as would love to pick them up again today. One of the few children’s books I still have is called the Book of Myths and Legends. It was a favourite of mine in my early teens and has been read so much that the spine and cover has completely fallen off. Picking it up again takes me back to my early teens and reading the book at a time that I should have been asleep. Over the years I wrote little notes in it so it’s great to look at it now and get an insight into my younger self.

Because that is the thing that most connects me to books – their physical presence. That’s why I can’t get into e-books. I have tried – I have Kindle installed on my iPad and have downloaded some of the classic novels that you can get for free. But I just can’t get into it. I want to hold a book, I want to feel the pages as I turn them, and I want to feel a connection with it. I just don’t get that with e-books. I think they’re a great invention but they aren’t for me. That’s because I love books. Not just reading. I love books and I wouldn’t want to live in a world without them.

Margaret Thatcher and Hitler are in a lift…

"Margaret Thatcher and Hitler are in a lift. You get in. You’ve got a gun but only one bullet. Who do you shoot? Margaret Thatcher."

- Primary school playground joke, Ipswich, circa 1989.

I was about 8 years old when a boy came up to me in my primary school playground and told me this joke. I didn’t get it. How could the leader of our country be hated more than the worst person in history? That question is what got me interested in politics.

The boy who told me the joke had no doubt heard it from his parents but it sums up how passionate people were about politics in the 1980s that such a joke was told by children under the age of ten.

The 80s was about extremes: the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, the decade when capitalism undoubtedly defeated socialism for good in the western world. The person most responsible for that in Britain was Margaret Thatcher – this is why she is loved and hated in equal measure and with so much passion.

Divisive is the word that best describes Thatcher.  In the last decade those extremes of feeling were buried deep in society, long forgotten until she died on Monday and they bubbled back up to the surface again. The range of emotions from the British public is as extreme now as it was when she was in power 30 years ago – it’s either ‘a great lady has died, very sad’ or ‘ding, dong, the witch is dead!’
 

The response in the British television and print media has largely been favourable – you only remember the good bits when someone dies of course. It is good timing for the Conservative-led government as it has distracted public attention and media coverage from their recent welfare cuts to the poorest people in society. Cameron is only likely to benefit in the short term from association to this mainly favourable media coverage around Thatcher.

Social media is this decade’s fundamental form of communication and it’s funny that there is a third kind of response to Thatcher’s death:  who’s Thatcher? I was one of ‘Thatcher’s children’ – children born into a Britain who have only ever known Thatcher as their leader. Now of course, there are millions of Twitter and Facebook users who were born after she was kicked out of Number 10 by her fellow Conservative party members. The best tweet I’ve seen about this was “Why is everyone saying that Cher’s dead? #thatchersdead”. 

A genius response to the Twitter generation’s lack of knowledge about the Iron Lady was by @beardedgenius who has produced Thatcher for One Direction fans:

There are of course many jokes doing the rounds, my favourite being the coal related ones:

‘Margaret Thatcher’s final wish was to be cremated. Unfortunately, we’ve no coal left.’

‘Mrs Thatcher arrives at Hell and is greeted by Jimmy Savile who says to her “Now then, you’re here for screwing minors too?”’

Thatcher pretty much destroyed British industry, privatised everything and taught us that the most important thing to be in life is to be greedy. The quote that sums her up the best is by her in 1983:

 "There is no such thing as society". 

In other words, look out for yourself, don’t care about anyone else, do whatever it takes to get to the top.

Many people admire what they see as the beneficial parts of this philosophy:  the single-minded, determined, go-getter mentality that will get you far without any interference from the State. An equal number of people hate the negative parts of this philosophy:  if you’re not able then you don’t matter, you’ll be left to yourself and if you can’t make it on your own then the State isn’t going to be there to help you.

Thatcher is a woman who created a country of extremes and of divisions. Britain in 2013 is as extreme and divided as it has been since the 1980s. That is why Thatcher’s recent death has provoked such a diverse reaction from society (if of course, it exists).

Part 13: Injured

The idea behind this blog was that I’d write a weekly update on my progress in learning the guitar. It would be an account of my experiences and hopefully provide inspiration for other beginner guitarists. This lasted for about 2 months. For the last month I have written sporadically, if at all. For the last 2 weeks I have hardly picked up the guitar.

I was playing 5-a-side – the solitary moment of fitness in my life. I hadn’t played for a year and was frustrated that I was slower, less fit and less skilful than I had been a year ago. I was pleased to go in goal, so my more able and fitter work colleagues could take to the pitch. The ball was on the edge of the area and the opposition’s best player lined up a shot at my goal. He hit it to my left and hit it hard. With poor goalkeeping technique, I stuck out my left arm and the ball hit me on my gloveless left hand. I blocked the shot and denied the goal but this achievement was instantly replaced by a horrible pain in my left hand and wrist. The power of the shot had damaged my left hand – as soon as it happened I let out a ‘fuck’ to acknowledge the pain and the knowledge that this would affect my guitar playing. Over 2 weeks later, as I type this, my left wrist still hurts and I am still wearing a wrist support.

When I got home that evening I tried playing the guitar to evaluate the damage. I had up until that point I had almost mastered the classic Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash.  The pain in my hand as I tried to strum the famous opening riff told me that I wouldn’t be playing the guitar for a while. It took a few days of ice and Ibroprofen before I had full movement again. After 2 weeks I started playing again, fed up of waiting more than anything. The pain in my wrist as I played was almost matched by the pain in my fingertips – a fortnight without playing plus swimming in the sea on a short Egypt holiday had destroyed the hard built callouses on my fingers.  I started by playing notes, then chords. After a weekend of practise, barre chords are still well out of the picture – I still don’t have the strength in my thumb to push against the back of the guitar.

I’m playing again, which I ‘m happy with. Perhaps even better still, I’m writing about it again. The setback has been annoying and frustrating though and I doubt if I’ll ever play 5-a-side again. One of the few things I’ve ever wanted to do with my life is play a musical instrument, specifically the guitar. I want to be Mick Jones, John Squire, Graham Coxon, or Brian May – the reality that this will never happen is very clear, however that doesn’t stop the dream of the possibility of it happening.

In the last few weeks my love of The Clash has grown massively. I like Mick Jones because of his skill but also because of his present day charm. The below video of him play Should I Stay or Should I Go at his Rock and Roll Public Library is beautiful. Best of all he is playing my favourite looking guitar – a Fender Telecaster in sunburst with a white pick guard – just like my Encore rip-off version. I watched the excellent documentary Westway to the World with great fascination and what struck me the most was how the band members regretted blowing it all away when they were at their peak – a similar sadness that I associate with the Italia 90 and Euro 96 English football teams. 

I don’t want to regret never leaning the guitar. Which is why I’ll continue to fight through the pain and keep playing….

VIDEO: Mick Jones performing Should I Stay or Should I Go at his Rock n Roll Public Library exhibition

Part 12: It’s my birthday and I’ll play guitar if I want to

I stopped writing this blog for a few weeks – hence the briefness of the last entry and the need for this multi-week entry.  I have a natural creative drive – hence my passion for music, reading, writing and now playing the guitar. When the passion is strongest I can come up with a lot of ideas – songs, blogs, articles, theories and guitar riffs. When it is weakest I find it hard to come up with anything – I don’t read, I don’t write, I don’t listen to music and I don’t spend much time playing the guitar.

During the week I practise the guitar towards the end of a long day – generally about 14 hours after I have got up. As such I am usually incredibly tired and find it hard to concentrate. Thankfully my determination to learn the guitar has meant that for all but a handful of evenings, I have practised the guitar every day for the last 3 months. This week contained one of those handful of days – I just got home, sat on the sofa, ate my dinner, watched TV, had a shower and then went to bed. I didn’t even think about playing the guitar.

The next day’s guitar lesson was performance-wise one of my worst ever. I was tired, out of practise, stressed out and in the process of developing a cold. My confidence was next to zero but thankfully Max recognised this and was encouraging. This week’s practise was Smoke on the Water – one of the most famous guitar riffs ever and one that millions of people have played on the guitar. Whilst it is instantly recognisable and easy to play, it’s not really the sort of thing I want to be playing. I don’t want to learn the guitar to play famous rock riffs – I want to learn the guitar so that I can write my own songs. I understood why Max gave me the track though; it is mainly 2-note power chords, then some 3 note power chords, a simple picking riff and then finally the return to the famous riff. The reason why I was given the piece was because although I could play all the parts on their own, I now need to be able play a whole song from start to finish. 

I left the lesson with instructions from Max to practise a couple of the Rock School pieces I liked against the backing tracks he had given me. The aim of this is to improve my timing – something I particularly struggle with – and to therefore improve my playing so that I can play a whole song from start to finish, not just parts of it. I tend to fumble through the more difficult parts of songs, so that I can soon get back to the bit I can play well. Like it or not, if I want to get any better I need to practise the parts I can’t play well, and also practise moving from the easier parts to the harder parts and back again.

Two weeks ago it was my birthday – hence the title of this blog piece. For a while now I have been a man who it is hard to by presents for – I don’t want anything and anything I want I have got already. Now I have a pretty serious hobby, it’s no surprise that the vast majority of my birthday presents were guitar related. Of these I got a guitar stool/stand (I have needed another stand since I bought my acoustic guitar), the Justin Sandecoe beginners songbook (which I asked for – it has simplified chord only versions of popular guitar songs), and a pack of chord cards (my favourite present). The chord cards are great and I highly recommend them to anyone learning the guitar. The 52 chords show a different chord, the fingering positions, and very helpfully what chords they go with.  I have spent a lot of my practise time over the last week and a bit practising different chord sequences and alternating my strumming – my favourite one currently is A minor, C, A minor, C, D minor, G, E minor, A minor. I also enjoy strumming along to A, D, G, E.

The other thing Max showed me this week was a slightly simpler but more complete version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. I had struggled with the first version a few weeks back and gave it up due to frustration. The hardest thing for me is the timing of the famous riff – I really struggle with that and so Max spent quite of this week’s lesson getting me to play over again until I played it in time.

Something I have learnt from learning the guitar is that I am not a naturally gifted musician. I love music and have a creative brain but music does not come naturally to me. This is why my three previous attempts to learn the guitar and my one attempt to learn the keyboard have failed pretty quickly. Now I am older and having faced what I call my quarter-life crisis, I have the determination to finally do something that I have always wanted to - to learn the guitar. But it’s hard work.

Thankfully despite the many negatives there are many positives. I am getting better –particularly at playing chords – and this has been recognised by my girlfriend. The improvement is very gradual and impossible to notice on a day to day basis but I’m heading in the right direction. It’s hard to recognise that sometimes, especially when confidence is low and tiredness is high. But thankfully I do – I’m not going to give up on my ambitions just yet.

Part Eleven: Riffs and ruts

In sport, you’re only as good as your last game. I’m only as good as my last guitar lesson and unfortunately I wasn’t great this week. Admittedly I was very tired and found it hard to concentrate, but also even though I had practised every day for the last week, I hadn’t spent a great deal of time (just 5-10 minutes some days) practising, and I think it showed. I managed to mess up a Rock School piece that I played quite well last week and I left the lesson frustrated – a common feeling for someone learning to play the guitar. 

The strange thing is that some days I can play something quite well and other days I can’t. Again, this is likely to be a common situation for anyone learning a musical instrument.  There are a lot of factors – tiredness, distractions, practise time, feelings – I suppose like anything it is all about getting yourself in the right frame of mind to start with.

So that week I ensured that I practised at every available opportunity. That week’s homework was blues riffs based around the E5, A5 and D5 2-note power chords. I picked this up fairly quickly and enjoyed being able to play these recognisable riffs.

Other than that I continued to practise my 10 or so traditional songs – I can play Camptown Races without having to look at the tab now – and continued my chord changes and strumming practise. I find the practise of alternating my strumming with 3 or 4 different chords very relaxing and enjoyable.

Top Tens: My top ten tips for a beginner guitarist

1.    Buy an electric guitar. They are easier to play than an acoustic as generally have thinner strings and a lower action (this means you don’t have to press down on the strings as hard). You can get a decent beginners kit with amp, lead, spare strings, bag and a tuner for under £130.

2.    Use YouTube and JustinGuitar.com to learn the basics – how to hold the guitar, how to hold the plectrum, how to play your first chords – D, A and E. Your fingers will hurt a lot at first but keep playing and you’ll develop harder skin and it won’t hurt any more. You’ll soon get bored of strumming the same chords, so learn some more – G, C, A minor and E minor. Keep practising strumming and chord changes. Add some up strokes in between the beats.

3.    Learn guitar tab. Go on UltimateGuitar.com and look up a simple song you know. Tab is very easy – 0 means play the string open, x or nothing means don’t play the string, 1 means play the string on the first fret, 2 means play it on the second fret, etc.

4.    Learn a tune – it’s a great feeling being able to play a tune that someone can recognise. Use JustinGuitar.com to learn a beginner’s song with the chords you’ve learnt, or go on UltimateGuitar.com and look up traditional and children’s songs. Three Blind Mice was the first tune I learnt.

5.    Make a note of your progress – like this blog or an old fashioned piece of paper. By doing this I can keep track of my development and it has helped learning the guitar to become a large part of my life.

6.    Your guitar is a musical instrument, not a toy – keep it in tune and clean. It will sound much better if you do. Have fun but don’t mess around by strumming aimlessly – you want to learn!

7.    Think about music when you’re not playing the guitar. The pressures of modern life mean that you probably won’t have as much time to practise as you’d like, so spend as much time as you can listening to and thinking about music. Try and work out the chords or notes in your favourite song, for example.

8.    Get a teacher. I think it’s probably a waste of money to get a teacher when you first pick up the guitar, as a lot of the basics can be learnt online for free. But once you can play a few chords then it is definitely worthwhile. Having weekly lessons gives me the motivation to keep practising every day so that I improve every week.

9.    Practise every day. It is very important that you practise every day. 10 minutes a day, every day, is much better for leaning than 2 hours once a week. The ideal setup for practising is sitting on a straight back armless chair in a room on your own.  If you are reading from a book or sheet music while you’re playing then buy a music stand. They are cheap and it’s much easier to practise than balancing the book on your lap. Learning the guitar is a solitary exercise, so shut yourself away. Basically you want to remove or at least minimise all distractions.

10.    Keep  practising! Learning the guitar is painful, frustrating, time-consuming and solitary. It is also very relaxing, enjoyable, fun and rewarding. The only way to get better at the guitar is to keep practising. It is often very frustrating as a beginner and it is very easy to give up. I gave up many times in the last 18 years.