Bill's Book Series
About…
Nearly all web sites have an About Us page. It stands to reason really. These days, almost anyone can put up a few web pages and claim to be an expert on a particular subject, even though they are talking gibberish or straight outright lying. So don’t you want to know a little bit about who they are? Maybe something that can be researched to show us if they really are who they say they are? Hence, the About Us page.
The reason this page is NOT called “About Us” is that there is only one of me. I figured that since this is about books and books should be grammatically correct, I should be grammatically correct too and leave off the “Us”. Of course, that would suggest I use “About Me” but that is too egotistical for me so I’m leaving it as the more mysterious “About…”.
Also, having stated that I believe the information in an “About Us” should be verifiable, not much of what I write about myself will be. Not unless you stalk me or hire a detective to look into my past. However, I assure you that most of it is true and, after all, why should I lie to you?
Here we go…
I’m Bill. I am an Anglo/American retired IT guy and I have three passions (other than family of course); soccer/football, golf and reading.
I have played and coached soccer/football all my life, with my last competitive game being when I was 64, and I am a huge Liverpool supporter, as that is where I was born and bred, and I attended most of their games until I moved to the US. So, you can see why soccer is a passion for me.
I was forced to stop playing soccer/football due to an injury that occurred when I was dancing. Yes, alcohol was involved. I turned to golf partly because I promised my dad I would when I stopped playing soccer/football, partly because it allows me to still feel like an “athlete” through my twilight years, but mostly because my boss asked me if I wanted to play in a golf league and skip two hours of work every Tuesday afternoon.
I might be slow but I’m not totally stupid so I know that two hours on a golf course is better than two hours sitting in front of a computer, even if it is raining (I’m from England where if you don’t play in the rain, you don’t play). So, why aren’t you playing golf now you might ask? The short answer is because it’s freaking snowing outside and it’s only October!!!
Reading…
I didn’t know I had the third passion which, in case you have forgotten by now is reading, until my wife started thinking about writing a blog. It was coming up to her birthday and I figured that creating a blog site for her would be a good present and, given my IT background, it would also be fun for me. So I bought Blogging for Dummies, became an instant expert on blogging and blogging tools, settled on WordPress as a cool sort of platform and started learning how to set up a site using that invaluable online learning tool, YouTube.
During the process of setting up a blog site for my wife, I got this sort of feeling (weird it was) that I might like to do some blogging myself. The problem was that I didn’t think I had any particular skills or knowledge that would be useful to blog about but, like a flash of lightning from the sky (but not as dramatic and far less deadly) it came to me that I had been reading at least one book at a time since I was a teenager. So, while initially I had just thought of it as a typical pastime that a lot of people have, I suddenly realized that I am absolutely passionate about reading! These days I usually have a hard copy book to read during the day and an e-book that I can read in bed without keeping my wife awake.
A whole lot of books…
Since it takes me about 3 – 5 days to read a good book and a bit longer if I’m not enjoying it, by my calculations I have probably read about 3,500 books in my life and I don’t believe I have ever started one that I didn’t finish or don’t intend to finish. That is a whole lot of books and something that I think qualifies me to write a blog about them.
Can I remember all the books I have read? Of course not! Which is a darn good reason for me not to review them individually. To do that I’d have to read them all again…yet, actually, that’s not a bad idea.
There are many books and even complete series that I have read at least twice. There has always been a few years between readings of course and I’ve always enjoyed it as much the second time as as I did the first, usually more so. When I think of when I first read the book and what was happening in my life at the time, I sometimes find the book(s) have influenced my life in ways I didn’t expect and sometimes I will even learn something new about myself.
As a very simple example, I read the James Bond novels when I was in my teens. Since I was very impressionable they had a huge influence on me. I mutated from being a teenage slob into a well turned out sophisticated urbanite. The fact that I lived in one of the roughest towns in the country did not deter me. I always carried a lighter and a clean handkerchief with me in case I met a woman who needed a light or wanted to cry. I opened doors for the fairer sex, got a JB haircut complete with Brylcreem and worked on my sardonic smile for hours in front of a mirror. I got slapped a couple of times by some less than appreciative “ladies” and bullied by my less erudite friends but, at the time, I thought it was worth it.
Years later I reread the whole series of Ian Fleming’s Bond books. There were certainly a few things that I learned about myself.
Book series…
For me, reading a book is a journey. The enjoyment of a book is not in the ending, it is in the reading. Don’t get me wrong, a good ending is essential in a good book. I like to read a book where once I’ve hit the last hundred pages I find it impossible to put it down. However, generally the good guy wins, as is evidenced by the fact that there are not too many best sellers around where the protagonist gets killed, especially in a book series! So, for the book to be good it must have had more than a good ending, it must have a good journey and you should always be disappointed that the journey is over.
The journey of a book is the adventure of experiencing another time and place. To stand with and amongst the characters that the writer has created. To experience what they are experiencing and to share in their frustrations and exhilarations as the story unfolds. If you are like me then once you have returned home from your journey you will miss the new friends you’ve made and the places you have seen and will want to go back as soon as possible. That is what a series is all about.
I mentioned the James Bond series earlier. That might have been the first series where I read every book in order. The first series from which I read books was probably the Biggles books by W. E. Johns. I still have not completed the series but in my defense it contains 98 books, some of which are very hard to find. The first book was published in 1932 and my favorite title, Biggles Sweeps the Desert, was published in 1942. The last book was published in 1999 although the author died in 1968. One day I will complete the series. I mention this series as it is the only one I will review without having completed it. It is the exception to my rule and it also has pride of place in the “logo” on the top left of each page on this blog site.
The blog…
When I first started thinking about writing this blog I didn’t think there would be enough material to sustain it for very long but after thinking about it for a while I think I may be able to keep this going for a couple of years. A high percentage of the series will be from the detective/mystery/thriller genre as that is what I read most but there will be series from other genres too. Many will be set in the various states of the USA; Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont, New York and California feature prominently. However, others will feature characters and authors from Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Holland, India and even Laos. Period settings will range from prehistoric times, through the middle ages, the modern era and possibly even into the future.
I hope you enjoy this blog and that you will contribute with lots of comments. I have never done this before so for me this is a work in progress and I am always open to suggestions and critiques of my critiques. I will review all replies before publishing so anything I think is offensive about me or anyone else using this site will not be seen. If you are interested in contributing a review yourself, contact me with your idea and we can talk.
I have designed this web/blog site from scratch so anything you don’t like about it is on me. I have kept it simple so I can get it up and running quickly but I hope to add functionality as I learn more about WordPress. In each series post I will include the titles of each book in the order that they should be read and, over time and with the help of your suggestions, will add features to the site and provide links to other information and readings about the series.
So join me on this journey and let’s see where we go!