Good afternoon,
Wot I sez is this 'ere ... there are two sides to a piece of sandpaper, the rough and the smooth, and so far I have had to take a lot more of the rough than ... Oh, sorry, wrong speech ...
I thought that today I would simply introduce myself. My name is James, and I am a civil servant, working in the Ministry of Justice, trying to further the cause of prison reform. Before I go any further, though, I should stress that any views I might express are my own, and should not in any way be construed as reflecting the Ministry's policy.
As it happens, I don't expect to say much about prison reform. A lot of my colleagues, and the external stakeholders with whom we engage, know far more about that than I do. I expect that most of my blogs (if I ever manage to summon the mental strength of spirit to write a second or subsequent one) will refer to books.
I read a lot of books. Since I started keeping a formal list on 1 January 1980 I have read more than 4,500, and generally seem to cruise along at a rate of ten or eleven each month. Most of them have been fiction, although in recent years I have found that I am reading far more non-fiction (generally history or politics) - probably about a quarter of the books I have read so far this year have been non-fiction.
Within those 4,500 there have been some absolute gems that have moved me, and that I have found myself rereading again and again. There have, of course, also been some absolute howlers that I loathed. As I grow older (and I am now 55), I find I have far less literary staying power, and whereas thirty years ago I would force myself to persevere through even the most abysmal book, I have now become quite ruthless, and will jump ship from any book that fails to grab my attention and interest within the first twenty or thirty pages.
I make a point of reviewing every book I read, and publish my thoughts through the pages of LibraryThing.com, which automatically copies them to Twitter. M current intention is to start posting those review through this blog, if, indeed, I decide to continue. I am always happy to discuss books, so do feel free to comment, or challenge my views, or offer any recommendations of your own.
I think that that is about it for now - after all, I am in the office just now, and have stolen a few minutes away to kick this blog off.
A bientôt!
