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Hello World

 I say “hello world” with expectation, based on previous blogging experience, that I’ll be lucky if two people actually read this!

I have started this blog to talk about something that has been very important to me for much of my 70+ years, namely reading books.

I hope to put some reviews in the blog and get some feedback from you (my reader) about what’s new and interesting in the world of books.

So a brief introduction to me. I am a retired teacher, headteacher (primary) and mathematics consultant. I have blogged previously on a Wordpress site on education but after retiring 12 years ago I left education behind and have settled into a (sometimes) relaxed retirement in southern Lincolnshire in the U.K.

I started a new lifestyle approach when I retired. I would begin  every morning, after walking my two toy dogs (a Bichon and a Toy  Poodle ) with watching YouTube. There was a lot of sport videos (I follow a famous North London football club that is not based in Islington) a lot of politics videos and then I discovered something called “Book Tube”.

BookTube was a revelation. The lady who got me started and inspired my interest was Jen Campbell. Here’s one of the first videos I saw:




The next great find was Olive Fellows whose book tube channel was “A Book  Olive”


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I have  to say that I really liked Olive’s enthusiasm  particularly for non-fiction which was a great interest of my own. I read a number of books on her recommendation. One that comes to mind as Tara Westover’s brilliant, harrowing book “Educated”. She has a passionate interest in wildlife and her advocacy of the book “H Is For Hawk” made me get the book and read it which has started a real interest in wildlife reading for me.

I’ve been fortunate in having the time to spend on reading and listening to audiobooks whilst retired. This blog is the means by which I can pass back my thoughts feelings and interests in the wonderful world of books in the hope that some of you may be as influenced to read or listen as I have been over  the past few years. 

I can only say that it is truly a fantastic  way of learning and changing yourself and your views about the world that you live in.






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You Are Here

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What a waste of time

 I started this blog in order to present my honest opinions on books or audiobooks. I have written two posts. An introductory one to say what I wanted to do and then a review of the excellent David Nicholls book “You Are Here”.  So far I have had a readership of exactly 0! This is because I no longer belong to Twitter aka “X” since it was taken over by the dreaded Elon Musk and allowed Donald Trump and his supporters to regain a platform for their version of the truth.  I used to have a blog which was helped by being advertised on Twitter where I had over 1000 followers. I of course lost all my contacts and followers when I took the fateful decision to quit a site I had learned so much from for so many years because I could not accept the outlook and attitudes of the man who would be running it. I am therefore left with no real means to advertise my blog and have to accept that henceforth I will be preaching to myself! If you are not me and are reading this due to some st...