Indeed, what would I say here if not fuelled by some cold refreshment. Not much, I'd guess. And so it was that just when I'd settled on a new title for these idle thoughts, it seemed that the whole enterprise was threatened by a call back to the doctor's following a blood test. It said 'nothing to worry about' but worry one must, especially when worrying is listed among one's principle pastimes.
It may not be obvious to the reader that these pieces, or anything I post here, is much the sharper and wittier for the taking of a glass or two but, blimey, it seems a lot better to me.
But, there wasn't a big problem with the blood test, in fact there was a slight improvement and so, it is clear for another 12 months. On the other hand, a week of abstinence hasn't been quite as bad as it might sound, it's just that I'm not really me. Some might say that's not a bad thing. And so perhaps 55 is an age where some restraint might be advisable. It is downhill all the way from here.
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But Saturday should be exciting as I take delivery of two new bookcases. Exactly how they fit in remains to be seen but it did begin to be impressed upon me that the novels of Murakami, Alan Hollinghurst and Ian McEwan deserve better than to be kept spread among various random piles upstairs, out of the way and out of sight. The CD's have been lined up along the bottom of a settee for over a year now and I'm sure would prefer to be on shelves. The Shakespeare books will look fine lined up in some meaningful order and I can spend a little while in my long lost vocation of librarian as custodian of the library all of my own. The George Eliot section, newly curated, will be given some prominent position for easy access so that when the time comes for my seminal essay on her, they will be to hand.
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I never said that taking a refreshing glass as I wrote made this a compelling and essential website to read. I was only imagining what it would be like without it.
But next week we can look forward to some pictures of newly installed bookshelves, perhaps some pictures from a walk near Winchester, I might go to see the return of the Southern Countertenors in the Portsmouth Festvities on Tuesday and there is no limit to what else might be here so it's not all over yet.
David Green
- David Green (Books) is the imprint under which I published booklets of my own poems. The original allocation of ISBN numbers is used up now, though. The 'Collected Poems' are now available as a pdf. The website is now what it has become, often more about music than books and not so often about poems. It will be about whatever suggests itself.
