Author: TravellinPenguin

The Week:  This week has been a bit of a write off but I did get some reading done. Just not enough to write about it.  I  stepped on a bug. I think it must have been a white tail spider because within 48 hours I was at the doctor’s with necrosis spreading rapidly across my big toe and onto my foot.  I was told if the strong acting antibiotics didn’t work I would end up in the hospital. I have heard about these Australian flesh eating insects but not really encountered them closely or appreciated what they are capable of.  I now have a new respect for their power.

I am happy to say the care of my GP and the wonderful antibiotics we have access to have done their magic and it is improving rapidly.  I couldn’t help but think though “what if we lived before the time of antibiotics”.  It really doesn’t bear thinking about and I wonder what the anti-vaccine people would think of this. We are fortunate we live in a time we don’t need to cope with the ailments and diseases of the past.

News: Feeling good today that everything is working out. Then I read Book Journey’s blog post and learned of the death of Sue Grafton. She writes of an encounter with this lovely lady and tells about it here.

Sue Grafton is the author of the alphabet murder mysteries. “A is for Alibi, B is for Burglary,” etc. I have read several of these and used to buy them for my mother for Christmas and birthday presents. She always enjoyed them. My mother got up to the letter R or T, I forget. Sue Grafton died 28 December 2017 after a long battle with cancer. I wish to high heaven a cure for that awfulness would be found. She finished the book “Y is for Yesterday” but sadly died before she could publish her book for “Z”.

Deal Me In Challenge: This week I dealt the cards and got the 6 of clubs for this weekend. That means I will be reading a short story by Sha Ding called The Magnet. Absolutely nothing comes up on Google for this author or short story. Since it is from the book Stories From the Thirties and this author is presumably Chinese it is probably in the land of obscurity now. If anyone out there knows anything about this author I would be interested to know more.

Other stuff: I have been doing a bit of photography reading and playing with Lightroom and Photoshop but not a great deal. Our challenges were due for our photo club this past weekend. The theme was “Cloudscape”. Lots of “cloudy” photos on our facebook page, all of them quite beautiful.

Crawling into this Book:

On a final note, I have just begun the Australian book Extinctions by Josephine Wilson. It was the 2017 winner of Australia’s premiere Miles Franklin award. The Sydney Morning Herald describes it as:

“Extinctions is the scrupulously structured story of Frederick Lothian, an engineer

specialising in concrete – “the J.D. Salinger of concrete”  – who has moved into a “retirement village” after the death of his American wife. He has a fractious relationship with Caroline, their adopted, Indigenous daughter now living in London where she is curating an exhibition to be called “the drama of extinction”,  and a virtually non-existent one with his son Callum, who is in care after suffering a cataclysmic brain injury in a car crash. Then Jan, the old woman who lives next door, comes into his life and the tectonic plates of their lives start to shift.”

So far I am enjoying it though I have had to turn back a couple pages here and there because there are quite a few characters and the story jumps from now to then frequently. I like the protagonist so far. The author, Josephine Wilson, stated she had to consult the thesaurus when she won the Miles Franklin award because she couldn’t find the words.

Well I guess that sums up the Week that Was… What has been your main focus this week?

Shaun Bythell is a bookseller. Not just any bookseller. He is wry, sardonic, sarcastic and sometimes just a rude man who owns a house that is his shop in Wigtown Scotland. Wigtown is in the southwest part of Scotland. I am sure it is a beautiful area. He has an appreciation for the trade though that has kept him going quite a few years.

His mentor seems to be George Orwell. He refers to Memories of a Bookseller, an essay by Orwell, quite a few times.  I want to read that essay as well as it too is very humorous. The two of them have a lot in common when it comes to the second hand book business.

If you are the type of person who does not deal with fools gladly you will love him. If you are a proper, upstanding individual who doesn’t appreciate rudeness when it is due you might want to read something else.

This is Shaun’s diary during 2014.  I found it to be very funny. There are moments when I laughed out loud.  The people around him are also very entertaining.  Shaun does have a soft spot for some people, though I doubt he likes to admit it. For example people who find a book they have been searching for everywhere for years. He discounts it or gives it to them.  Children whose eyes light up when they discuss books.

I also enjoyed his assistant, Nicky, a very eccentric, quirky young woman.

Every Friday Nicky raids the bin behind Morrison’s. (I assume that is a restaurant or bakery.) She finds goodies that are still wrapped but past their use by date. That girl will eat anything. Not only will she eat the stuff she scrounges she will offer it to others. She updates their facebook page and doesn’t seem to have a lot of boundaries. Their facebook page by the way is here.

If a customer rings Shaun wanting the name of a book he/she saw earlier on a shelf he won’t tell them. When they ask why he tells them, “You’ll only look it up on Amazon and buy it from them.”   “I know what book you are talking about. We have it here. I can put it aside for you.”  They usually hang up on him.

If someone carries a book around the shop, coveting it so to speak, but Shaun won’t lower the price on it, they leave it behind. When they return later in the day or the next day and decide to buy it they will find the price has gone up a couple of pounds. They often leave in disgust.

Shaun fights a continual war with Amazon.  There is a lot of factual information he offers about Amazon that helps the reader understand why. Though most of us know the reasons why.

He has a kindle hanging in the shop that has been shot. You can see the bullet holes in it.

I loved this book and it is something I would read again.  I have already listened to the same parts of it more than once.

I bought the book but I have the audible version as well and I read it as I listen to it. The narrator of the audible version is Robin Laing. He does a brilliant job of voicing the conversations of the customers.

I would recommend this book highly. But only if you need a good laugh.

Sample entry follows:

“Monday, 12 May

Online orders: 5

Books found: 3

After lunch I was accosted by a man in a cagoule with a terrible lisp, who came over to my side of the counter, uncomfortably close, and asked ‘Now what do you specialise in?’ to which I replied, ‘Books’, which was, I admit fatuous. Predictably, he was not impressed and replied, ‘Do not be smart with me.’ In a pointless continuation of my previous fatuous comment I replied, ‘Why not?’ Needless to say, the conversation did not end well. In fact, he became so odious that I had to pull rank and make Nicky deal with him. 

Till total £84.50

14 customers”

Noted on a Century of Books challenge- 2017

The 4 of Hearts came up for the first Deal Me In Challenge of the year.  I had not heard of this story by Charles Dickens.

This short story had the Penguin and I visiting a ghost. I have not read a ghost tale since those scary tales by Edgar Allan Poe in Grade 12. It is not a genre I am drawn to.

The characters in this short story are few: The Narrator (a man), The Signal Man who works on the railroad and the ghost.

The Narrator is out walking one day. He looks down at the railroad tracks and sees the Signal man along the tracks. He calls out, ” Halloa! Below!”. The Narrator wants to go below and visit the Signal Man.  The Signal Man freezes but finally talks the Narrator down the zig zagged track below.

He is a very nervous Signal-man. Why?  Because he believes he has seen a ghost by the tunnel near where he is standing.  The ghost has said that very same phrase to him, “Halloa! Below!”  while wildly gesticulating, waving his arms. It is a warning.  He has see this a couple of times and there have been deaths related to the train after each appearance.  He hasn’t told anyone about these experiences.

At first the Signal Man doesn’t say much to the narrator because he is nervous of him. He is not sure he is a real man instead of a ghost.

When the Narrator asks if he can visit a second time the Signal Man reluctantly agrees. But he tells the Narrator to not call out upon his arrival.  Just show up, no announcement.  The Narrator doesn’t yet know the greeting he used before is the one the ghost uses.

On the next visit the Highway man, after much small talk in front of the fire in his shed, finally discusses what he has seen with the Narrator. He finally explains why he was reticent the night before to talk to him.

“One moonlight night,” said the man, “I was sitting here, when I heard a voice cry ‘Halloa! Below there!’  I started up, looked from that door and saw this Someone else standing by the red light near the tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice seemed hoarse with shouting, and it cried, ‘Look out! Look out!’ And then again, ‘Halloa! Below there! Look out!” I caught up my lamp, turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, ‘What’s wrong? What has happened? Where?’ It stood just outside the blackness of the tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone.” 

The story continues and it becomes clear the Signal Man knows he has seen a ghost. The Narrator does not believe in ghosts at all and is very sceptical. He thinks the Signal Man may be losing his mind and wonders if he is safe to work for the railroad. He thinks about reporting the incident to his superiors but he holds off. He wants to meet with the Signal Man again before making a decision.

In researching this story it appears the themes around it are do we only, as humans, believe in what our five senses tell us or is there another plane where things happen that can’t be explained.  There are people who believe in the supernatural completely while others shun it all together. Personally I don’t believe in much that can’t be seen, felt, smelled, heard or tasted. I am a complete sceptic though every once in awhile I have had experiences that I cannot explain. So who knows.

Read on only if you want to know how this story continues as it is a spoiler. You can read the full story here if you’d like. I really enjoyed it and was delighted to have found it. When I think of Dickens I don’t think of him with his short stories.  I will stay tuned in the future for more I might come across.

But…….-S P O I L E R   A L E R T-  here:

(The Penguin leaves the room)

I remain to see what happens.

The story continues…

Continue reading “The Signal-Man by Charles Dickens” →