I'm not crazy, I just have another conciousness in my brain

Graeme isn’t going to be International!Graeme anymore. I will miss Graeme. I’m not sure how to watch cricket without Graeme. Although I hope he might be international commentator Graeme sometime soon. Graeme helped me recover from the trauma of England and Geraint and Hoggy and Ashes 2006. He introduced me to the game ’South Africans being exactly the same as they are in my head’. He’s the only sportsperson to have ever made my ‘hero’ list, (man, that 154 still makes me cry). He ate Tacos and cheated on bleep tests and yelled and pointed and had captainly hair and was a frontline spinner and batted without functioning arms and humiliated Australians and coveted trophies and got half the runs.

Thank you, Graeme, for the inspiration and for giving me my love of cricket back.

( a summary of Graeme’s scores )

And, just to remind us all, Here were my suggestions for what to do to observe National Graeme Day:

1) Hit things really far
2) Get angry at administrators and have to be restrained by a colleague
3) Clean a cricket bat with nail varnish whilst half naked
4) Encourage your pretty young work colleagues to text you when they miss you
5) Injure both your arms and still insist on doing something that requires the use of both arms.
6) Eat a taco really quickly before anyone else notices
7) Be much larger in real life than people expect
8) Tell the truth even when it pisses off important people
9) Be svelte
10) get a huge crowd of Australians to cheer at you
11) Be statuesque
12) Covet other people's chips
13) Complete the to do list you have pinned to your fridge
14) Look surprisingly good in pink
15) Cheat on your fitness test
16) Have captainly hair
17) Point at people until they move
18) Be much better and significantly less whiny than KP
19) Covet shiny things
20) Try to touch your nose with your tongue when you're bored

Everyday should be National Graeme Day from now on

I've missed a few days, due to being lazy. So here's the catch up. I've also added a day on so that I'm on the same day as fringedweller. For the sake of order.

Day 10 - Book from your favourite author
I've mentioned Andre Brink already, author of my favourite book and some fantastic others as well. I've mentioned Dave Eggars, who I will buy the hard copy of anything he writes as soon as I can get to the shop. Neil Gaiman probably deserves a mention here as well, as his is a name I'll search in shop in the hope that something's magically appeared. However, I think this award will have to go to Terry Pratchett as I have been known to drive 30 miles out of my way to ensure I can get a new release on the day of release, and then finished it in the same day. I love Discworld, Young Discworld (and Nation whch doesn't fit anywhere but is superb), and have The Bromlied trilogy as a never-read back up in case there is ever a virus that kills off all writers and there are no books ever again. It's extremely hard to pick a favourite Discworld, although The Witches and The Watch are all at the top. However, I'd have to go with Jingo because basically it's Terry Pratchett does International Politics.

Day 11 - Book you once loved and now hate
A difficult one this, but I think I'd probably have to say Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. I loved this when I first read it (way before the flm and hype) but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone now.

Day 12 - Book that a friend recommended
"Life of Pi" by Yann Martell. My friend Angie gave me this and, whilst not a triumph of literary genius, it's a good read and one I'd read and give again. Mostly I picked it because of Angie. Angie is the only person I trade books & book recommendations with as we're utterly on the same wavelength. All my other friends are deeply disappointing to me in the book department (in terms of what they offer me and that I can't share my loves with them), but Angie loves whatever I send and I get incredibly excited whenever a book-shaped parcel arrives from her as I'm sure to love it.

Day 13 - Book that makes you laugh
Terry Pratchett gets a mention here, but he's been mentioned several times already (and will be again) so I'll give the floor to someone else. Mark Steel. I'll read anything he writes, and every single one of his books has made me laugh out loud in public at some point.

Day 14 - Book from your childhood
With the exception of the Famous Five books (which I hoovered up as soon as I could hold the books myself as my brothers had them all), I wasn't into a lot of the usual children's books. Mostly because girls in them were pretty pathetic and/or posh. (I know Georgie in Famous Five was posh, but she owned a dog and had an *island* and pretended she was a boy which is what I did, and so was therefore exempt from my already burgeoning class scorn).

The predominant books of my childhood weren't children's books at all, they were the Derek Tangye series. A 30+strong set of books detailing the real life story of a man and his wife and their escape from London to remote Cornwall. I devoured these books, used to dream of owning a little cottage on a cliff and a donkey and being snowed in in winter, and of course, owning the same series of cats that featured strongly in every story. I got to meet Derek Tangye too when I was 11. I went to the actual Minack and had tea with him (a lovely, inspiring sweet old man) and there's a picture of me stroking one of the Minack cats.

( what could possibly be coming next? )

Day 9 - The first book you ever read
I don't know what this was. Being the youngest of four, no one really taught me to read, I just sort of picked it up. With my brothers being 10 and up when I would have been rooting around in their books, it was probably something utterly inappropriate. There were a lot of Brambley Hedge books and other anthropomorphised woodland animals in my early childhood and Tiptoes the Mischievious Kitten featured heavily, but the first book I remember loving and reading to myself repeatedly was "A Surprise for Dumpy" by Molly Brett
( Spoliers. Seriously, if you haven't read it, this will totally spoil the ending )

( next on the longest meme ever )

Revisionist Day 6 - Book you can never read again
Okay, I know going back and altering this is setting a bad precedent, but predictably today I thought of two books I could never read again.

The Far Pavillions by M M Kaye - Boy, this was a hard read. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't put myself through it again. The only reason I got through it this time was for the reason outlined below.

Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack - This is a georgeous, terrifying book and I love it, but the thing I love most about it is the thing that would prevent me from reading it again. A Cyperpunk-style story charting a teenaged girl's transition to adulthood in a dystopian near-future world, one of the main devices the author uses to chart change and the impact of the environment on her is the girl's own language - it's cleverly and subtley done and by the end I found myself thinking in that language. I don't think I'd get that impact second time around, so I wouldn't want to try.

Day 7 - Book that reminds you of someone

The Far Pavillions, by M M Kaye - This book reminds me of a wonderful work colleague, Sabar. A 57 year old devout muslim man with whom I formed an unlikely comedic partnership in my last job working for The Man. In my first week we got talking about books, Far Pavillions was his favourite and urged me to read it. Then he brought in his hardback copy to lend to me and it sat in my hallway, mocking me, for 13 months. Every few weeks Sabar would ask me how I was getting on and I would come up with ever more ridiculous excuses as to why I was failing or when I would get around to it. When I left last May, the office bought me a paperback copy (one of the excuses was that it was too heavy to read at the gym)signed by them all and I started reading that night.

( coming up )

Day 6 - A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
This is a weird one. There are thousands of books I can't remember well enough to recall them right now, so obviously I wouldn't read them again, and there's loads that don't get chosen for a second read because something else does. There's also loads of factual books I wouldn't read again because the information is in my head now.

But, as a rule, if I'm not enjoying a book within 50 pages I don't waste my time reading it. I have never ever felt I have something to prove through reading so am not one of these people who will plough through books so they can say they've read it, and neither am I someone who will read anything and everything just for the sake of it. There are a few authors who, after I've wasted hours ploughing through something or other and felt utterly cheated, I won't touch again without some serious incentive (China Mieville deserves a special mention here).

I keep thinking something is going to leap out at me and I'll think 'oh, that's the one I won't ever touch again. But there's nothing. If I read it once it was worthy of passing the 50 pages test and so would probably pass it again, but they'll always be something new and exciting on the horizon which will likely bump it off the top of the pile.

There's a book I can't read without crying and so I rarely touch it (Goodbye Mog, by Judith Kerr. I'd like to say this is a childhood memory, but I was bought a copy when I was 24, the year my beloved Arthur died, and that's why I cry)

I'm open to suggestions. Tell me which books I should never read again. I may have to read them first, so that I can say 'I'm never reading that again'.

( Coming next: )

Day 4 - Book you hate

Wuthering Heights, and pretty much any other period drama-type, tbh. On the first day of a A-Level English I was handed this book. I switched to biology that break time and never looked back.

A special mention also has to go to that BookAboutTheRabbitsThatShallNotBeNamed. An awful, awful book, but trumped by the awful, terrible, traumatising film, so the book can't take the blame.

Coming next:
Day 5 - A Book you can read again and again
Day 6 - A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day 7 - Book that reminds you of someone
Day 8 - Book that reminds you of a certain place
Day 9 - The first book you ever read
Day 10 - Book from your favourite author
Day 11 - Book you once loved and now hate
Day 12 - Book that a friend recommended
Day 13 - Book that makes you laugh
Day 14 - Book from your childhood
Day 15 - 4th book from the left on your shelf
Day 16 - 9th book from the right on your shelf
Day 17 - Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day 18 - Book with the most beautiful cover
Day 19 - Book that you never wanted to read
Day 20 - Book that you read at school
Day 21 - Most stupid book you read at school
Day 22 - Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day 23 - Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day 24 - Book that nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day 25 - A book where the main character is almost like you
Day 26 - Book you would read to your children
Day 27 - A book where the main character is your idol
Day 28 - Thank God this book was made into a movie
Day 29 - Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day 30 - First erotic book you ever read
Day 31 - Book series you are collecting

I'm doing this because giving up on Day Two would be lazy. However, I'm having a minor breakdown owing to two weeks of work being eaten by the computer

Day 2 - The book you want to read next

Storm of Swords - Part Two - Blood & Gold. Once I'm reading a series I have to finish the series

Next - unless I throw my computer out of the window

Day 3 - Your favourite book
Day 4 - Book you hate
Day 5 - A Book you can read again and again
Day 6 - A book you can only read once (no matter you love or hate it)
Day 7 - Book that reminds you of someone
Day 8 - Book that reminds you of a certain place
Day 9 - The first book you ever read
Day 10 - Book from your favourite author
Day 11 - Book you once loved and now hate
Day 12 - Book that a friend recommended
Day 13 - Book that makes you laugh
Day 14 - Book from your childhood
Day 15 - 4th book from the left on your shelf
Day 16 - 9th book from the right on your shelf
Day 17 - Close your eyes and get any book from your shelf
Day 18 - Book with the most beautiful cover
Day 19 - Book that you never wanted to read
Day 20 - Book that you read at school
Day 21 - Most stupid book you read at school
Day 22 - Book on your shelf with the most pages
Day 23 - Book on your shelf with the least pages
Day 24 - Book that nobody would expect you read/loved it
Day 25 - A book where the main character is almost like you
Day 26 - Book you would read to your children
Day 27 - A book where the main character is your idol
Day 28 - Thank God this book was made into a movie
Day 29 - Darn, why did they make this book into a movie?
Day 30 - First erotic book you ever read
Day 31 - Book series you are collecting

Meme gakked from fringedweller & sweet_exile

Comment to this post, and I will list seven things I want you to talk about. They might make sense or they might be totally random.Then post that list, with your commentary, to your journal. Other people can get lists from you, and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
( questions, questions )