Norfolk's Great Big Read

This post is part-reproduced from Norfolk County Council's own website advertising the Great Big Read.
 

Selfies, blog posts and film clips are just a few of the ways people can share their favourite book with others as part of Norfolk’s Great Big Read.  Norfolk’s Library and Information Service is inviting people to take a selfie with their favourite book, write book reviews and send them to the Norfolk Loves Books blog.

Every County Council library in Norfolk is taking part in the campaign, which ends on Saturday 25 April, and is aimed at getting everybody to borrow a book, read it and share a love of reading.

The Norfolk Loves Books blog will be a one-stop shop for information throughout Norfolk's Great Big Read. It will include details of Community Reads arranged to encourage as many members of local communities as possible to read the same book and share their thoughts on it.

A number of Shared Reading sessions, aimed at bringing people together to share stories and poems and discuss them in a friendly group setting, will also be held at libraries around the county.

World Book Night on 23 April will bring the event to a close with a Murder Mystery evening at the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library from 6pm to 7.30pm. For more information email Norwich.admin.lib@norfolk.gov.uk

It’s free to join the library and free to borrow books, ebooks and magazines. DVDs, console games and CDs can also be borrowed at reasonable prices. For more information about library services, how to join and events, ask at your local library or visit www.norfolk.gov.uk/libraries or Facebook.com/norfolklibrariesuk or Twitter.com/norfolklibs

I Aten't Dead

It's been too long. Too long since I wrote something new on here. But fear not, gentle reader, for the blog is not dead yet, and neither am I.

I've had a week off work but it has passed in the blink of an eye and I face a few short hours of fitful sleep before the rigmarole of modern life hits me like a freight train once again. In case you haven't guessed, this development doesn't thrill me, but there you go. That's how it is.

With November coming round, my thoughts turn once again to Nanowrimo and the challenge of forcing myself through 50,000 words in 30 days with the aim of doing most of the legwork in completing a debut novel. I've eschewed my traditional sci-fi standard position by going for something with a heavy literary foundation - but it is also something relatively controversial and comes with a separate topic that I'd like to discuss in the next few days. Hopefully I'll get to it before November begins, because the chances of me doing anything for the blog at all over November are remote to say the least.

I'm feeling a little cut-off at the moment - I am not doing enough for financial and personal reasons to keep my mind stimulated and I am not seeing enough of my friends and loved ones to feel alright about that. But I guess I'll have time to worry about that in December!

I've started playing Red Dead Redemption. I love it, espcially just getting to wander the desert with a six shooter in the moonlight. I always wanted to be a cowboy.

I have also bred my cherry barbs, which is of minimal interest to the world at large but a great personal victory for me. I'll hopefully get round to posting something about how I did it soon, as even Google seems to be woefully devoid of information about how to do this successfully.

Tank Life!

Just a quickie tonight that probably won't interest most people, but a bit of blatant self-promotion never goes amiss in my book (or blog, or whatever.)

As those of you who read the blurb at the top of the blog will know, I am a keen amateur fishkeeper and it struck me that given the speed at which things change in the two (soon to be three) cycled tanks that I own, it would be nice to keep a record of those fish that I had, to remember those sold or given away, and track the progress of those growing at any time. The things that I see every day, the stories that develop in the most unlikely fashion, are as absorbing to me as any soap opera.

But I digress. I have a new blog: http://thatsmytank.blogspot.com. If you're interested at all in my hobby or just want to check out how things are going with my fish, from now on that will be the place to look.

Tweet

The response to my last blog post was heartening, even if neither of the people who commented on it on my Facebook page read any more than the two line summary. I also added myself to Twitter (@KrisHolt1, seeing as you asked) and contacted the excellent Ari Rabin-Havt about the killings - he hasn't replied and I'm telling myself that this is because he's busy, and not at all that I'm inconsequential.

Twitter is actually trememendous fun. It's like having the mobile phone numbers of every famous person you ever wanted to speak to. Fancy telling Dr Brian Cox how much you'd love to share his universe, or point out to Frankie Boyle that actually he does look like both of the Proclaimers? Easily done. Add them, send the message, and out it goes. If you're lucky (or interesting, as some other people apparently are) then there's a chance they may reply or even add you to their own lists of followings.

I've limited myself to fourteen people (including Norfolk's own Stephen Fry, comedian Dara O'Briain, political commentator David Frum and gorgeous-but-uber-brainy poker-player-and-presenter Victoria Coren) because otherwise there'd simply be too much to read. I've learned a few things about each of those people. Stephen Fry was disappointed at Norwich City's exit from the FA Cup. Victoria Coren exited the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure with a pair of 7s against Ace-King. David Frum summarised my own comments from yesterday far more succintly and professionally than I ever could. It's amazing to me how the things they are talking about are a microcosm of the things that you and I do (the Caribbean aside, so far at least) and really brings home to you how real their lives are and the things that we as people all have in common.

I was going to do a piece today about the how the Arizona killings compare with attacks on MPs in Britain, but I'll save that now for next time. I have to go and tweet about how I've just done the washing up.

Hiatus

It's been a while! I'd love to pretend that there's lots going on, but truthfully, I just have a bit more money in my pocket and a new project, so this blog has fallen by the wayside a bit.

I hope those of you who have been reading this will indulge me - the sports have already moved off and I'm now moving politics to a new professional blog under a pseudonym - essentially, despite what the quality here might suggest, writing a blog does take time and it would be nice if, to a greater or lesser degree, the time I spend writing could be made to pay for itself.

If anyone has been waiting for comments, updates, etc. I do apologise. This is not the end - while the sky is blue, birds fly and fish swim, there will still be things that amuse me or just downright piss me off, and I will be returning when they do!

TTFN :)

Better in Our Day

I never know how to begin these things. I don't even blog that often but I'm becoming acutely aware that my blog entries are haphazard and on occasion, utterly disjointed. This is a source of perturbation for me. I have postgraduate qualifications in creative writing, but not only have I not yet written a best-selling novel, I can't even construct a coherent blog entry within an hour of starting. Proof if it were needed that Coke Zero is not good for the little grey cells.

Okay. I'll try and focus now.

England won. You know this already, if you care. I allowed myself a little smile as Don Fabio gurned his way through an ecstatic post-match press-conference talking about how beer was the secret to England turning round their form in the World Cup. If this is true, the great unwashed that I shared the pub with on Wednesday afternoon could probably win the event themselves without even trying.

The last few weeks have seen a number of the couples I know splitting up. I mention this only because it's a backdrop to a sea change in relationship dynamics that I've noticed and feel is worth mentioning. The older women at work comment on this a fair bit, smug as they are in the comfort zone of marriages that have lasted longer than I've been alive. Nonetheless, they have a point, and it goes like this.

Young people can't communicate. It's a human instinct, but basically, we're becoming increasingly awful at it. Sure, I can blog, and you can reply to me via Facebook or even text message if I really piss you off, but the chances are that you're not going to confront me in person. I could spend the rest of this blog entry pointing out how ugly your mother is, and at worst you're going to ignore me. We have lost the ability to talk to one another, and with it go essential life skills such as the ability to empathise and compromise. What interaction we do have tends to have little to do with actual communication and instead apes the overly-dramatic scenes in Hollywood and Eastenders. We are all attention-seekers now.

There are many peculiar side-effects to this insidious aspect of modern life. We have fewer friends, and are not as close to the ones we do have. We share less, care less, and know nothing at all about our neighbours (apart from the fact that BNP Man across the road owns a labrador I refer to as BNP Dog, for want of a better name, and is always being arrested for being drunk and disorderly at 5am.)

This puts a particular strain on our personal relationships. I know a number of people my age who have simply given up on the likelihood of ever finding a long-term partner (generally, they are the ones who decide that cats and dogs argue less and therefore make better companions.) However, we still yearn to bond with others and typically find this bond in a single uber-close friendship, the kind of which seems to transcend gender and sexuality.

What does this mean for the future of our generation? Are we in a hopeless position, like my colleagues seem to think? Hardly, I feel. People still meet, fall in love, decide to have children and commit their lives to one another. Yes, we are more cynical about our future, and more prone to outlandish gestures at the expense of genuine feeling, but time is on our side, and we can look to learn from the example of those in the older generation who have withstood the pressures of untold years growing together. Above all, we should look to embrace the way that modern technologies allow us to stay in touch with the people we might otherwise lose, while being smart enough to do more to show we care for the friends we see every day.

A new blog!

It's amazing what I can find to do as an alternative to something unpleasant.

Against the advice of at least one friend, I have decided to start writing a blog. I have no idea, frankly, if I have anything interesting to say, but there are a couple of reasons for my decision.

Firstly, I have an accounting essay to hand in on Thursday of this week, and therefore anything is currently looking preferable to sitting down and composing a risk matrix. Yes, it has to be done, but I have study leave on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and I can probably justify spending at least some of that time finalising my dull, fictitious account of the team that I work with.

Secondly, I have several friends who write occasional blogs on various topics, and while I always knew that they were intelligent and interesting people, it is still surprising to me just how knowledgeable and observant they are. This isn't intended in any kind of condescending way, but when you spend your time with friends drinking too much and making jokes, it's easy to forget the massive range of bizarre experiences and talents that make them who they are. This will only drift further from the point the longer I go on, so in short, having smart, interesting friends makes me want to be smarter and more interesting, and I strive accordingly.

Thirdly...and this is shameful to admit, but I love blogs. It's like having a diary that's a bit (but only a bit) secret. In addition to the friends above (who individually do such interesting things as work with prison inmates, love animals, are interested in morris dancing, play far too much poker than is healthy, are writing books and so much more) there are a million different blogs out there.

Before I created this, I was worried about whether I could find enough material to write about in a blog. Testing the water, I came upon the blog of an obese American family who seem to have made it their life mission to test out and rate every small town diner in their fine country. There are even pictures of the eternally grinning, rotund couple and their adorably chubby children, giving thumbs up to the camera while sweetcorn relish dribbles down their respective chins. I suspect that you haven't fully appreciated your life until you realise that other people really sit down in their free time and write their opinions on chicken fingers and chilli dogs. I should probably stress that this isn't sarcasm on my part. I'm going to bookmark them, because their smiling faces make me feel a little bit better about the world. Also, a ready made diner guide will probably be very useful if I ever get around to visiting America.

Well...this is it. Post one, I guess it was always going to be the hardest. And now, maybe no-one will ever read it and even if they do, they'll probably realise that everything they ever thought about me is true (and distressingly, it probably is.) Either way, I've actually surprised myself. I really could have written much, much more.

Oh, one more thing. When I was setting up this blog, I was given the option of filtering adult content (i.e. should I allow myself the luxury of an occasional swear word.) It may lack class in so many ways but I wouldn't be me if I didn't abuse this privilege. So here goes. Fuck arse cunt shit bollocks. There.