Yes, indeed, your favorite blogger - who snorted? - wearing his carpet slippers but powered by steely determination has finally shuffled into the 21st century. Oh yes, um, I'm, er, with it, man! (Waddya mean that expression went out of date circa 1972?) Look, just take it as a given that despite 'SoD' constantly referring to me as 'an old fart' the fact is that I'm right up there at the cutting edge of 21st century technology and to prove it I can proudly announce that I am now the owner of a Kindle! Yes, I know, you are truly amazed, aren't you?!
Of course, rather like Ed Balls trying to rewrite what he has said concerning the economy for the last four years, I, too, have had to quietly airbrush certain of my sneers and insults aimed at those I saw clutching those ridiculously titchy 'wafers' when they could have been keeping themselves super-fit by carry around, say, Margaret MacMillan's The War That Ended Peace for which a rucksack is required when traveling with it.
Anyway, the 'Memsahib' gave it to me as a gift for our recent anniversary and then enjoyed watching me try to find the on/off switch - which I managed perfectly well - after a couple of days! Honestly, why do these so-called 'high tech' companies produce bits of kit in black and then make the on/off switch both microscopically tiny and equally black? I have written a long letter to Kindle offering my services as a product design consultant and suggesting that in future they should have a big arrow painted bright yellow on the back of their device pointing to a large red button, with the words 'ON/OFF' displayed on it. Thus, elderly Brit gents would no longer be tempted to see if the Kindle can fly by hurling it through the nearest window!
Anyway, having mastered that bit of the machine I then checked out some of the 'books' they were offering and let me tell you, people, I have discovered yet another 5-star corker! Allow me to introduce Mr. Lee Goldberg - and, no, me neither until I decided to try one of his pulp fiction tales offered on Kindle for the somewhat less than princely sum of - £1! It is called King City and I snorted, giggled, chuckled and laughed out loud all the way through! The 'Memsahib' is already regretting buying me the device - particularly as it is registered to her Amazon account so she pays for my books - heh-heh-heh! Back to Mr. Goldberg. Having thoroughly enjoyed that book, I then ordered up two more of his which came in at - £1.90 combined! That's cheaper than my charity shops where I buy most of my pulp fiction.
Let me explain that it is now clear to me that Mr. Goldberg is a wildly original and wickedly funny satirist. I see from his Wiki entry that his working life has been spent almost entirely in and around the TV film studios in Los Angeles. You would imagine that they are beyond parody but not when you read what Mr. Goldberg has done to them! Studio owners, directors, TV executives, 'luvvies', the whole lot of them are put up and then knocked down like clowns batting each other in a circus. It has nearly had me weeping with laughter. If I tell you that one of his hilarious inventions are a couple of knuckle-dragging stunt men who suffer with 'repetitive accident syndrome' you will get the flavor of it.
So go on, get out there and buy Mr. Goldberg's books, er, but don't forget to buy a Kindle first, such a neat little machine, honestly, why people carry around all those hardback books, I'll never know, sooooo last century!
