The electricity is off, so I can’t go online so I am being forced to listen to music from my phone – yes it can do that :-P and spend some time thinking.

It occurred to me that my the few books and dvds on my window sill do a pretty decent job of summing me up, I mean they should shouldn’t they? I bought them right? Except at least 4 are gifts and of the ones I did buy another 3 or 4 are random purchases from charity shops or Fopp (they do cheap books, so sometimes I go in and just browse for something). Plus I’m not a big fan of having books and dvds just sitting around, once I’ve read it or watched it I rarely want to go back to it, clearly there are exceptions to this. In any case, as I’ve moved around these are the things that sit on my window sill. Not really a curated collection, more a sort of accidental sifting as I’ve moved around and I’ve moved my room around, something I tend to do a lot.*

There’s 21 books. 6 novels, 2 by Douglas Coupland because I constantly love his turn of phrase. 2 more I bought in Fopp and have never read, a science fiction novel that I love for it’s language which is mostly baffling and because I’m never entirely sure I know what’s happening – sample lines:

The doorman clutched his speech in bare teeth. ‘Gorillas!’ he said, and
immediately said it again louder. He was the sort. Boot you in the gob and
bye-bye accent. Luckily just then a few strays whistled out of a vent and
tore off part of his forehead. Who had the whip hand on these mothers?
Not me. Gave me the heebie-jeebies. Cosmic sepsis, ghost-stream,
jellyheads – well that’s all right if you can stand the pace. Everyone
reckons spirits are a right laugh to flurry and snort over the houses –
don’t you believe it.

There’s a book about a wizard who works for the government that is brilliantly readable but far, far too short for my liking.

I’ve got a collection of A Softer World comics, some of which are just perfect. A book called a 101 Lists for Primary Teachers that has influenced my teaching more then many meetings and books I’ve read, mostly because he takes on the important things and is almost scornful of lots of things that detract from that. Two poetry books, one that’s Kates and one I got from Oxfam on a whim. The dictionary I got when I left primary school 18 years ago. A book called Enough that Jenn bought me and which appeals to my desire to focus on the things that really matter. A booked Ally bought me called ‘This is for you’ – which is a sort of story told through paper cuttings that is a little poignant and cute and lovely. There’s a map of Greater Manchester that I used for when I doing day to day supply. Two children’s books – The Smelly Sprout and When I’m big and two books about Mauritius. Finally there’s a book on meditation called Mindfulness in Plain English – which I would really recommend if you’re curious about the subject.

The DVDs are of the two series of Spaced, the 40 Year Old Virgin, Garden State, Super Troopers and one of Bill Hicks doing stand up. The computer game is World of Warcraft.

Anyway, yes I feel like it covers a lot of things I like or that are important to me, of what I do and where I’ve been and where I come from.

* Which is something I was talking to little brother about yesterday as we moved my room around (I much prefer it now!). When we were growing up I have many memories of always moving rooms around. In the house we grew up in there was enough bedrooms for one each but the three rooms were entirely different sizes. The biggest was easily 3 or 4 times the size of the smallest. Yet, I don’t remember there being any issue around this. Though I may be wrong, mum? We would occasionally just swap rooms for no real reason then to change.

October 25, 2011

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