Lost without Mid-World

I have a terribly empty feeling.

Before TDT (The Dark Tower) I had no particular expectations when leaving home/work; sitting at the bus stop / on the tube / passing time waiting for physio appointments; etc etc etc as Yul Brynner might say. Every moment "wasted" was a moment gained, a moment more I could spend in Roland's world.

No more. I have come to the clearing at the end of the path. I know where it ends, and where indeed it begins again. And now when I go home at the end of a long day at work, I have no tale of Roland's ka-tet to look forward to - and it feels really weird

And honestly, what book do you choose to follow that? Andrew has lined up Gerald Durrells A Zoo in My Luggage, and brilliant though it will be, it just isn't the right book to read next. I am tempted to start Tolkeins's Rings series, which I desperately want to begin, but I worry the story will be - how shall I say - less accessible, compared to the most compulsive pen of mister king.

Wish me luck.

Lost in Mid-World

How did it get to be nearly two weeks since I last posted? Overtaken by work again? Partly. More likely I saw mum the weekend before last, and borrowed the last in Stephen King's Dark Tower epic series... so I am afriad my nose has been buried up to the hilt at every waking opportunity!

Its an enormous book, but I take it on the tube every day. I sit up till way past bedtime reading. Half my waking weekend is spent buried in it. Thats what I call a great book, and great writing: when you can happily lose whole tracts of time lost in another world. And it's so very relaxing.

I heard on the radio this morning (yes, R2: I'm a TOG) that no-one knows how to use apostrophes anymore. Check that. Even having read Lynn Truss's Eats Shoots and Leaves, a really good book, I still have only a middling concept. Actually, I think I'm worse. I used to rely on what looked right: now I'm just paranoid and get it wrong even more than I did before. No one who knows me will be surpised about that.

So; I had a tale of redemption to tell about online shopping at Boots .com, except now I am too tired to tell it. Suffice to say the redemption came from a certain Boots employee in the huge Oxford Street branch, not the online version. When will companies learn that online customer interactions have twice as much power to destroy brand perception and engagement!?