the great book debate- featuring mr wodehouse

I don’t know about you, but I have always had an unhealthy fascination with books. There are some people in this world that I know of who could, if all the books that have ever been written were destroyed, simply move on with life. But there are also some who can’t.

Since birth I was surrounded by paperbacks, novels and picture- books and it does relate to the nature vs. nurture debate- do I read because I choose to do so of my own free will, or has the smell of freshly turned pages and newly printed ink on paper been forever etched onto my skin from the beginning by my parents- or specifically my father, and his frank infatuation with the classics?

I’m inclined to prefer the latter. He has for as long as I can remember employed the phrase "You should read it someday" about some novel or other he’s read- be it detective fiction, autobiography or a classic that he has stuffed away in some remote corner of the alphabetically ordered study. And many of my books that I now call my own are hand me downs from him. I must confess that the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories has somehow migrated its self from the study all the way to my bedside table. As has PG Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories- which I will write a little more about later. 'How quaint' you’re probably thinking 'father and daughter book bonding'.

However there has been a sharp twist in the tale.
For now, from this day forward there will probably be no more of this malarkey of stealing sharing books around the family circle. Because...Dad has got a Kindle. If you’re a techno geek, stop reading here, because I officially DETEST IT. There, I said it. I’m past the point of no return.

There are some things in life you will avoid- maybe a type of food, a colour of clothes you just don’t suit, a certain pervy guy perhaps, but we all of have something we avoid like the plague for one reason or another. Mine is all types of e- books. Kindle, iPad- any sort of electronic book reader. Don’t get me wrong- I’m all for the advance of technology- the steps made in space science and medical equipment are staggering- but in books? Really? Where’s the rustle of pages, the weight of a novel, especially second hand novels, where some previous owner has folded over the pages of their favourite chapter and underlined quotes in a shaky hand in faded ink? Where’s the bent back, sellotaped up spine of a book clearly well loved and full to the back page with character- not just written inside its pages but outside. The places its been taken to on holiday, the time it got dropped in a puddle and had to be lovingly dried page by drenched page on the radiator and now is full of that crinkled stained paper.

Technology is taking over the world, but surely we can make some allowances for that old time past time of reading? And it’s not just the book itself- it’s buying it too- bookshops are doomed with this new fangled online buying scheme. That smell of fresh paper mixed with coffee from the cafe there always is inside a good book shop will be completely unknown and unsmelt by the next generation. Is it just me? Or will anyone else miss the bygone days of real books in 10 years time?

Apparently Kindles can make not a bad packetful on eBay...so Dad, please- SELL THE DAMNED THING!

Now moving on. I mentioned PG Wodehouse earlier. And now he’s going to make another appearance. For those morons and intellectually immune people who are outsiders to the world of Wodehouse, there is a website you may like to glance over here.

I don’t know when I was first introduced to this master of words, but he has only recently come back to haunt me with his brilliance. The first books I read were the Jeeves stories, and though more recently I have started to work my way through the brilliant Blandings ones, Jeeves and Bertie are my forte for this post.

Words cannot express the respect and admiration I, and I know many others have for this genius, a genius whose books are still being read decades after being published. When I first opened the pages of these immortal books I had no idea that words could be so beautifully placed and each one bursting with character- no word goes to waste.
Even though the stories of Jeeves and Bertie are firmly set in the 1900’s, there is an undeniable sense of timelessness running through the canon. Maybe telegrams aren’t in use and servants aren’t a staple part of society anymore, but the themes and issues of the world of Wodehouse are inextricably interlinked to those of today and can be easily connected to, along with a sense of philosophy and humour. We have all of us been misunderstood at some point in our lives- maybe not quite as much to the extent of Bertie, but I will eat my hypothetical hat if there is someone who claims to have never been mistaken for another person, given someone the wrong idea or suffered unintentionally any other personal inconvenience.

All the haplessness of the world has been thrown together in the character of Bertram Wilberforce Wooster making us empathise, laugh and smile with him, making him one of the most loveable characters in British comedic history.

Jx