General Observations in a Book Shop
Results day is looming and it has now been almost a month since my course finished and I have been enjoying reading interesting novels. As some of you may well remember, a while ago I stated that after my course finished I would look at some other courses in order to better myself and try and save some cash.
This week I have been looking online for some useful courses to take up but so far I have not been able to find anything that is on in the evening or doesn't cost a small fortune to do. So I have decided to go down the teach yourself route for the time being.
My mum has already been kind enough to lend me a learn at home Spanish CD set (me and Luke are off to Spain later this year) but I really want to start learning how to use a sewing machine and learn how to stitch things up. I decided I needed to learn sharpish as I bought a faulty dress recently (I knew it was faulty - I got extra money off as a result) and need to know how to repair it and quickly.
After realising that Amazon is not that great if you don't really know what you are looking for, I ventured over to WH Smith at lunch time in order to check out what books are available and see which would be easy enough to follow.
I managed to find two which I probably will order from Amazon as they will be cheaper. I started wandering round the shelves to see what else was about when I made a few general observations about WH Smiths that made me think and some that made me laugh.
Firstly I noticed a lot of books on Transformers which reminded me that the movie is out next week. I can't wait as for an hour and a half I will be able to behave like a child again and remember how much I used to love playing with my transformer toys, how excited I was when I got Ultra Magnus, how bad I felt for my Optimus Prime toy as he was no longer at the top of the toy charts (bit like Woody in Toy Story), how sad I felt when Optimus Prime died in the TV series, and how cool Dinobots were (they had heat sensitive stickers that you had to press in order to find out if they were an Autobot or a Decepticon).
From the Transformers I walked past the self help section. Two books stood out for me here - 'Getting the Buggers Fit' a motivational text book on how to get motivate students (I guess it was a book for teachers) and 'I can make you thin'. The first I thought would probably be full of PC stuff on how to get lazy arsed children motivated without hurting their feelings and preventing any lawsuits and was probably therefore pretty ineffective. The second was penned by Paul McKenna. There was something about the photo on the front that made it look pretty creepy. The sheer volume of weight loss books made me wonder if anyone seriously considering losing weight would get confused and exasperated by the choice that they would merely give up on their quest and instead pick up a novel to read.
I them moved onto the Crime section and found one of the Genre headings to read 'Royalty and True Crime'. It amused me that the two subjects were mixed together as if they are in some way linked. Draw your own conclusions from that!
Next were the Autobiographies (well more than likely Biographies in most cases). Richard Branson's was notably published by Virgin Books (It would have amused me if it was published by Bloomsbury or someone else). I love all the gimmicky titles that they have. I also love the fact that some stated which programme I would have seen the author in so I actually know who the hell they are such as 'Pete from Big Brother'. I'm not knocking all autobiographies as I have read some interesting ones over the years, but I did notice that there were a hell of a lot that surely no one ever reads. They certainly seemed to have a lot of copies of Chantelle's 'Living the Dream' on the shelves. Clearly she has now lost her celebrity status since separating from Preston.
The last book I saw one the way out had me puzzled. It was entitled 'Merde Happens'. For those of you who don't know, Merde is the french for Shit. Now I know that you cannot use swear words in advertising due to indecency laws, but what I was wondered is does the same laws apply if the swear word is written in a different language? Also if this is allowed, why is it different from having an english swear word on the front of a book? Answers on a postcard please.
Generally ramblings, I know. Sorry if I have just bored you.
This week I have been looking online for some useful courses to take up but so far I have not been able to find anything that is on in the evening or doesn't cost a small fortune to do. So I have decided to go down the teach yourself route for the time being.
My mum has already been kind enough to lend me a learn at home Spanish CD set (me and Luke are off to Spain later this year) but I really want to start learning how to use a sewing machine and learn how to stitch things up. I decided I needed to learn sharpish as I bought a faulty dress recently (I knew it was faulty - I got extra money off as a result) and need to know how to repair it and quickly.
After realising that Amazon is not that great if you don't really know what you are looking for, I ventured over to WH Smith at lunch time in order to check out what books are available and see which would be easy enough to follow.
I managed to find two which I probably will order from Amazon as they will be cheaper. I started wandering round the shelves to see what else was about when I made a few general observations about WH Smiths that made me think and some that made me laugh.
Firstly I noticed a lot of books on Transformers which reminded me that the movie is out next week. I can't wait as for an hour and a half I will be able to behave like a child again and remember how much I used to love playing with my transformer toys, how excited I was when I got Ultra Magnus, how bad I felt for my Optimus Prime toy as he was no longer at the top of the toy charts (bit like Woody in Toy Story), how sad I felt when Optimus Prime died in the TV series, and how cool Dinobots were (they had heat sensitive stickers that you had to press in order to find out if they were an Autobot or a Decepticon).
From the Transformers I walked past the self help section. Two books stood out for me here - 'Getting the Buggers Fit' a motivational text book on how to get motivate students (I guess it was a book for teachers) and 'I can make you thin'. The first I thought would probably be full of PC stuff on how to get lazy arsed children motivated without hurting their feelings and preventing any lawsuits and was probably therefore pretty ineffective. The second was penned by Paul McKenna. There was something about the photo on the front that made it look pretty creepy. The sheer volume of weight loss books made me wonder if anyone seriously considering losing weight would get confused and exasperated by the choice that they would merely give up on their quest and instead pick up a novel to read.
I them moved onto the Crime section and found one of the Genre headings to read 'Royalty and True Crime'. It amused me that the two subjects were mixed together as if they are in some way linked. Draw your own conclusions from that!
Next were the Autobiographies (well more than likely Biographies in most cases). Richard Branson's was notably published by Virgin Books (It would have amused me if it was published by Bloomsbury or someone else). I love all the gimmicky titles that they have. I also love the fact that some stated which programme I would have seen the author in so I actually know who the hell they are such as 'Pete from Big Brother'. I'm not knocking all autobiographies as I have read some interesting ones over the years, but I did notice that there were a hell of a lot that surely no one ever reads. They certainly seemed to have a lot of copies of Chantelle's 'Living the Dream' on the shelves. Clearly she has now lost her celebrity status since separating from Preston.
The last book I saw one the way out had me puzzled. It was entitled 'Merde Happens'. For those of you who don't know, Merde is the french for Shit. Now I know that you cannot use swear words in advertising due to indecency laws, but what I was wondered is does the same laws apply if the swear word is written in a different language? Also if this is allowed, why is it different from having an english swear word on the front of a book? Answers on a postcard please.
Generally ramblings, I know. Sorry if I have just bored you.
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