I had a major flashback to being 8 years old when I saw this 1972 edition of the Collins National Encyclopedia in a second hand bookshop today!
Flicking thorough, I recognised the line illustrations and even some of the entries! I spent hours reading this book, memorising facts and trivia - it's why I was so popular in school! 🫠 🤓
But it's the image of Ed White's spacewalk and the specific shade of blue on the cover that really hit me 💙😊

Next up, Alan Garner's Red Shift: a time-slipping tale of generational trauma set in his native Cheshire, from the present day (as it was in 1973), to the English Civil War period, to Roman-occupied Britain.
Garner's love of astronomy is embedded in the title, and the opening dialogue about the relativistic motions of the planet, solar system, galaxy and local galactic cluster sets the scene for the permeability of space-time 🌌
#BookmarkMatching

Professor Dallerhyde spends his afternoons outside the London Zoo cage of a pair of Hackenfeller's Apes, Percy and Edwina, frustrated in his attempts to study their mating habits by Percy's dolorous indifference to his companion. Then Kendrick arrives, informing Dallerhyde that Percy has been requisitioned for a one-way experimental trip on a space rocket, and the Professor's morals and sentimentality mix to formulate an escape plan... 4🐒
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"Radiant and full-leafed, the Park was alive with the murmuring vibration of the species which made it its preserve."

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

I like the way the novel starts with a zoologist's-eye-view of creatures cavorting and disporting themselves in their natural environment, the identity of the animals shortly disclosed when it is revealed that some of them are playing cricket ?

"He enjoyed the sunshine on his face and the patterns of the white dust at his feet. The persistence of the aeroplane's noise, however, reminded him of an uneasiness in himself. Uneasiness seemed to be the background of all ruminations belonging to the twentieth century, just as all its landscapes were presided over, somewhere in the distance, by an aeroplane." ☀️✈️?️

"Once we acknowledge sentiment in other animals, we are bound to acknowledge what follows: their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
- Brigid Brophy

[Quotation not necessarily from the tagged book ?]

A 1953 satire about animal rights. The blurb says that Brophy's 1965 manifesto, "The Rights of Animals," kick-started the modern animal rights movement, so she has good credentials. Her other biographical details say she also campaigned for prison reform, gay rights, pacifism, humanism and vegetarianism, so I'm expecting to find "Hackenfeller's Ape" hitting my marks ??

I've read a couple of books and several articles about transformative justice (TJ), which focused on the wrongs of the current legal-carceral system, but didn't give a clear picture of what an alternative community-based justice system would actually look like This book does do that, using the anarchist groups from which it emerged as context and from which it draws examples.
It's honest about the difficulties in establishing community justice ⬇️

Next up, an anarchist zine collecting some essays on noncarceral approaches to crime and justice, mainly focusing on USA contexts and examples ⛓️‍💥✊🏴

#ClassicLSFBC
This is one of PKD's more surreal novels, one of his later ones leading towards the VALIS books, so the plot is minimal and ideas & archetypes are prominent.
The story begins in a future pseudo-socialist dystopia: Joe leads a pointless, unfulfilling life, filling his time with vacuous games played remotely with people he's never met. In an episode of mental crisis, Joe is saved from the secret police by a mysterious alien entity, ⬇️

Me, autistically eating my autistic dinner, thinking autistic thoughts about what a complete cnut Donald Trump is about autism, vaccines, and proven-safe medicines ?
Then, me remembering his other "medical advice" about protecting yourself from COVID by mainlining bleach, and wondering why anybody pays attention to his flatulant outpourings as his deliquescent brain runs out of his ears ????

About 50% through. A few quotes so far:

“Each living entity passes through periods of expansion and contraction.”

“There is no abstract way of determining the limits of one's force, one's ability to exert effort; it can only be measured in...a task which brings into view the actual, real limitation... Failure will tell me as much about myself as will success.”

“Failure is valuable...it tells us the limit of ourselves; it maps our boundaries.”

I have COVID! 🦠🫩
I thought it was a cold, so I continued to work last week while socially distancing as much as possible.
Feeling fairly awful this morning, I thought I'd dig out a lateral flow test and, Bingo! Hopefully I'll be up to work tomorrow. I've txtd my boss for the current work policy on being in while testing positive.
I've been tired and not reading as much as usual this week, but I guess I now have a valid reason for that! 🤒😄

? "Bookstack With Sleeping Cat"?‍⬛

#Deshelving these as part of a gradual attempt to fit all my books into designated space!

Numberland is my son's which he no longer wants.
Breathe I accidentally ordered 2 copies of, so keeping 1, donating the other.
The books on the English I never got round to reading, & doubt I ever will (well, I definitely won't now!)
Parallel Worlds & The Later Bourgeoise World are both good, but I won't re-read.

"His father had been a pot-healer before him."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

I didn't read last month's #ClassicLSFBC selection due to a library delay, but I am reading this month's (not least because I nominated it, so I really should! ?).
I had an uncertain feeling that I had a "Potteries" bookmark that would be an appropriate match, and I was right - in my uncertainty! I don't have one. So the pictured is not the best example of #BookmarkMatching but it shows elements from the baked clay Minoan Phaistos Disk ⬇️

I really enjoyed this exploration of monsters & their psychological & cultural roles. Lawrence takes a chronological overview, from prehistoric cave paintings & sweeping through the classical, medieval, early modern & modern eras, ending with Godzilla.
The focus is mainly European & Near Eastern & when she does range further afield she uses a European lens, however, this is acknowledged within the text: Other Mythologies & Cultures Are Available!

"The 'Woke T.Rex' debacle in April 2022: one episode of Prehistoric Planet featured a male T.Rex taking care of his offspring - going for a swim and hanging out together. This was based on cutting-edge scientific findings, but tabloids such as The S*n sneered about 'PC-Rex'. To The S*n's readership a male on babysitting duty - especially a male of the most macho of dinosaurs - looked like the 'woke' agenda pushing progressive gender roles. ⬇️

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

🎵 Cosmic Dancer
🧑🏻‍🎤 Marc Bolan and T.Rex
💿 Electric Warrior
▶️ https://youtu.be/524swxaTJ1c?si=7tcchSE8tq7h4Xep

Keep a little Marc in your heart 💖

"When a fragile civility is inside [borders] and all else is wilderness, these boundaries have to be defended to reinforce the image of a safe and ordered space, where danger and brutality are suppressed. But that made the wild an even darker and more dangerous place, where Grendel and other 'border-steppers' existed"
- From Chapter 5, Grendel

Beowulf: 1000 (at least) years old, and still psycho-politically relevant. I'm really enjoying this book

I've pre-ordered this newTolkien work, described as a satirical fantasy on town planning in Oxford, so I'm guessing no Dark Lords, elves or hobbits need apply!
The blurb says it was the last project Christopher Tolkien was involved with as editor and, given its stated fragmentary nature, it's bulked up to 144 pages with an essay by Richard Ovenden.
These are the leavings Tolkien fans can expect from the master's pen, and I'm not complaining 😊

"Have you ever been scared by a monster?"
- Introduction

"Two years before the outbreak of the First World War, brothers Max and Louis were on an autumn adventure together."
- Chapter 1

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

A graphic history of the development of drawing from prehistory to the present sounded like it was right up my street, but having persevered through 132 pages (58%), I was bored and bailed.

One from the library: collecting a 2022 six-issue mini-series, the cover artwork is gorgeous, though I didn't care much for the cartoony interior artwork. The story covers the ten-year span leading up to the destruction of Krypton, focusing on Jor-El's unsuccessful attempts to save the planet (I assume that this cannot be a spoiler to anyone! 😊).
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Next up, an examination of how mythical monsters have sublimated, symbolised and expressed human existential angst across history and culture.
Much as I love Classical and Scandinavian mythology, I'm hoping the author also ranges further afield for her examples.

A lovely little book of the author's photographs in and around the Rhinogydd mountains of the Meirionnydd area of Gwynedd, North Wales, along with her descriptions of walks she's made.
The chapters focus on Neolithic sites, the history of the cattle drovers, some of whom emigrated to the USA in the 19th century to become cowboys, gold and slate mines, and lakes and rivers.

"It is a stern fact of history that no nation that rushed to the abyss ever turned back. Not ever, in the long history of the world. We are now on the edge of the abyss. Can we, for the first time in history, turn back? It is up to you."

The three short stories in this collection are sad and strange, the protagonists living liminal existences which alienate them from the rest of humanity. There's a feel of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in the changes that the characters undergo: surreal and tragic.
The longest (but still fairly short) story, "Nami, Who Wanted to Get Hit (and Eventually Succeeded)" is the saddest, dealing with bullying, child sexual exploitation and abuse, ⬇️

"Asa lived with her mother in a small rented apartment."

#FirstLineFridays @Shybookowl

Mrs B loves Bodnant Garden, so being close we couldn't not visit. My photos can't do justice to the plantings: it's a beautifully thought out "garden" (there's eight miles of pathways!) set in beautiful Welsh landscape. The formal rose beds look and smell beautiful, and the mature trees are majestic. Loads of habitat for birds, bees and butterflies (this one is a small tortoiseshell?). Well worth a detour!
I'll get back to book posts, now ?

#BookHaul
Our last stop off in Wales was Bodnant Gardens, which, as many National Trust properties do, has a second hand book room, where I picked up these treasures ?
Shop Fronts is a book of interesting store facades (the word "interesting" could be doing some heavy lifting there!).
The Tolkien study was more to compare to other ME guides I have, but I find that Duriez is an Inklings scholar, so it may be better than I'd anticipated.
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And now, for something completely different!

Three short stories, large font to make it look more substantial than it is 🧐, but it looks pretty, so, like Dr. Frank N. Furter, we'll forgive it.
I bought this RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute) bookmark today. It doesn't fit the criteria for #BookmarkMatching , but there it is, anyway 🔖

3.75?
Most of the stories were good and fit the stated theme of strange places in new corners of the galaxy, though not the last two. These were "The Live Coward" by Poul Anderson, which read a legal conundrum dressed up as sci-fi, but if you set the parameters of the problem yourself, there's little credit in talking your way out of it. Also, the attempt at humour didn't work for me. The last story was "Still Life" by Eric Frank Russell, a ⬇️

Just to prove that the sun does shine in Wales, our shadows on Benllech beach 🌞
We started the day with a boat trip around Puffin Island, though at this time of year all the puffins are out at sea! We did see guillemots, shags & a lone gannet, along with lounging Atlantic seals 🦭
We've also seen herons, red squirrels & a great spotted woodpecker, along with more common birds, including a harem of mallards on the lake by where we're staying 🦆

Our last full day in Anglesey, and I picked up a few little books and a couple of bookmarks (negligently, only one shown in the photo).
I spent the other night updating the Library Thing entries for Anglesey's independent new and used bookshops, which sadly entailed marking them all as defunct 🫤 Obviously, there are books to be had on the island, but they are touristy & small charity shop fare. But for beautiful scenery and nature, it's lovely 😌

J. F. Bone's story, “Insidekick“, from the February 1958 edition of Galaxy magazine, is a light-hearted interplanetary spy caper, which deals with heavy subjects involving corporate tax fraud and the capitalist/colonial exploitation of indigenous communities. Throw into the mix an alien symbiont and the development of agent Albert Johnson's psionic powers, and you get a fun, interesting journey. Good one 😊

While Mrs B has gone out to get her remaining steps in for the day (1400 - 700 out, 700 back, not a step more! 👣😄), I'm staying in with a book, wild garlic Cornish Yarg cheese & a splash of wine 📖🧀🍷
We spent some time today at the Pili Palas, a small nature park with a heated room, where the free-flying tropical butterflies are magical. I had a hand-sized brilliant blue butterfly settle for a few seconds on my nose, which was amazing! 💖🦋💖

Imagine, if you can, what interstellar colonisation might look like if it was organised by an authoritarian, sexist global government that considered only men capable of doing the work of settlement, while women, with their weak bodies being susceptible to adverse alien environments, only allowed into colonies once *one million* men have established themselves, when *one* woman will be sent as a planetary Eve. If that's hard ⬇️

Second story, "Big Sword" by Paul Ash (aka Pauline Ashwell, actually Pauline Whitby) was a really enjoyable First Contact scenario with a unique and well thought out alien species.
Human/alien and human/human miscommunication leads to interesting situations involving potential extinction, reproduction, gender, evolution and intergenerational relationships.

The first story in the collection, "The Red Hills of Summer" by Edgar Pangborn, had its initial publication in the September, 1959 edition of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and I think the cover art illustrates this story.
300 colonists from a dying 21st century earth, many of whom have grown up aboard ship, arrive at the planet Demeter, a pilot mission of four crew landing to check habitability, with no rescue option available ⬇️

#TuesdayTunes @tiedyedude
I came upon Japanese composer/musician Stomu Yamashta due to director Nicholas Roeg's inclusion of his music in the soundtrack to the film "The Man Who Fell to Earth," finding his avant-jazz tracks the most interesting on the album.
His stuff is hard to find, but I did track down his album Raindog a while ago, and recently this one, Sea & Sky, a 1985 album variously categorised as ambient jazz, orchestral jazz, ⬇️

Plas Newydd is a stately home on the Anglesey shore of the Menai Strait, established in the 15th C, its current form being late 18th. The 1st Marquis distinguished himself at Waterloo, earning the title, despite being out of favour with Wellington as he'd had an affair with the Duke's sister-in-law, who, to be fair, the Marquis went on to marry.
I feel conflicted in stately homes: I love the history and art, while deploring the elitist privilege.

#BookHaul
Yesterday, I bought "Introducing the Medieval Dragon", "The History of Wales in 12 Poems", and a couple of bookmarks from Beaumaris Castle. I already have a couple of ?s from BC, but not *these* ones! ?
Today, at Plas Newydd, seat of the Marquises of Anglesey, I replaced a previously owned and given away copy of "Mist Over Pendle" with this 2nd✋? copy, and got another ?

I'm reading Weird Walk #5 while in Anglesey, & although the island doesn't feature, it has made me come over all Neolithicy, so I took the opportunity to visit Bryn Celli Ddu burial mound. It's the only solar-oriented monument on the island, & in fine fettle for c.4000 years.
Amongst the butterflies on the walk up, I spotted this pretty speckled wood ? It was nice, too, to meet another "henge-whore" for a few minutes pleasant talk about stones.

I snuck in a Murderbot 🤖❤️🩶🤍
This one was something of a murder mystery 🫆 & I enjoyed it, but it didn't have quite the same degree of characterisation, and being set in a place we've come to know fairly well, Preservation Station, there was little exploration of strange new worlds. It definitely wasn't bad, it just didn't strike the same chord for me as the previous books. Still a pick, & I'm looking forward to reading the next, & final, book.

Holiday reading 🚀🌌
If the stories are as groovy as the cover on this 1966 sci fi short story collection, I'll be ok! 😎

We're away in Anglesey 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 for a few days to celebrate Mrs B's birthday with our children and their partners. Chilling out in a lakeside lodge, with food, wine, music and boardgames (we really know how to celebrate! 😅).
I love Anglesey, but it has a dearth of bookshops, so I'm not likely to be posting any book hauls, which is probably a good thing!

"I opened the telegram and said, "He's dead -" and as I looked up into Graham Mill's gaze I saw that he knew who, before I could say."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

"Time is change: we measure its passing by how much things alter. Within this particular latitude of space, which is timeless, one meridian of the sun identical with another, we changed our evil innocence for what was coming to us."

"Some men live successfully in the world as it is, but don't have the courage to even fail at trying to change it."

Wikipedia tells me that Gordimer was a white South African of Jewish heritage who was a tireless anti-apartheid campaigner, political activist and HIV/AIDS advocate. She was an ANC member who advised Nelson Mandela on his 1964 defence speech, and was one of the first people NM asked to see upon his release from prison. No suprise, then, that this was one of the #BannedBooks under the apartheid regime.