Books Which Keep On Giving

Apparently self-help book sales are at an all-time high in Ireland.  This is not surprising, given the current recession.  Well, the genre of the books is not surprising, although considering the cost of new books at the moment,  it is curious that so many can afford to buy them. .  However, the fact that people buy them does not mean that they succeed in changing their lives as a result.  If they did, if even a few did, there would not be such a market for all the many many others, would there?

However, it takes a different type of book to really help people to be happy. What is really needed are books which give something to the reader which endures long after the covers are closed,  ones that can be kept and loved, and that every time they are opened again, offer either the same feeling of inspiration or a newer well of ideas.. So-called self-help books on the other hand all seem very much the same -  written by the same sort of people. They all purport to solve problems, but let's face it, they can only try and solve the problems of people in general, and since each one of us is unique, how can these works solve difficulties which may be manifested quite differently in different people?  I have only come across one exception, but I do notice one thing - not alone are such books sold by the thousands, they also find their way to the recycling centres in like numbers.  They don't seem to be the kind of book one would want to keep.

.  I don't own the self-help book which I did find to be very good, but I can heartily recommend it to you if you are a sufferer from panic attacks, as I was many years ago.  It was called "Self-Help for Your Nerves"  by Dr. Claire Weekes, and I took it out from the library after seeing her on a TV show.  Her answer to panic attacks was very simple, but you may not understand it if you have never experienced one.  However, for those who have, what you do is, as soon as you feel that horrible sinking feeling, that sensation of being trapped, that racing heart, weak knees, total fear, that urge to run and hide anywhere - what you do is simply say to yourself "Let it happen, bring it on", and you don't try to run away, or hide, and you ignore the perspiration and the horror, and, guess what happens, the dreadful approaching wave which seems about to engulf and kill you suddenly becomes a quiet, ebbing tide, the crashing waves become calmed waters, and no matter how often it happens again, it never has the same power, and you deal with it in exactly the same way, and eventually, you realise that you don't have those attacks any more.  It is as simple as that!  I know because that is how it worked for me.

Here are some books I love which keep giving and giving:

"The MacDonald Encyclopedia of Bonsai" by Gianfranco Giorgi, with photographs by Enzo Arnone, was published in 1990 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A Milan, and was translated by John Gilbert. It is a smallish book in cardboard covers, and it tells you everything you could want to know about Bonsai trees, styles, how to pot them, their origins and above all what trees are the best or the most usually grown that way.  I  borrowed this book from my local library many times several years ago, and was delighted to find it again at one of their sales.  After I read it I collected my own little seedlings from all around the garden, as well as a couple of very neglected trees from a nearby nursery, potted them up, pruned them much as I would full-size shrubs and trees, while pretending I was about the size of Mary Norton's Borrowers, and I still have most of them now several years later.  One of my trees, a cotoneaster, is heading for thirty years old now, because the owner of the nursery told me it had been there since they had bought the place ten years previously and she thought it was probably quite old stock at that time.  When I took it home I realised why it had been avoided by buyers - it had a colony of scale well established on it.  How long they were there I couldn't guess. I managed to get rid of them by totally de-leafing the tree and cleaning it of its pests, then keeping a stern eye on it for months.  It has flowered every year since I bought it, but never has berries like the ones in my little book.  I guess it needs a partner somewhere in the vicinity to work this miracle.  Still, it is most precious, and almost like a pet, and I owe it and its companions to this little book.

Here is a book from another sale: "101 Incredible Experiments For The Shed Scientist, Fascinating Fun with Everyday Objects". It's by Rob Beattie, and was published by Ebury Press in 2006.  I haven't tried any of the experiments - my sheds are stacked to the ceilling with garden chairs, garden implements and most importantly, books - but the experiments do indeed seem incredible to someone of my vintage, at which you may only guess...experiments such as  The Balloon Hovercraft,  The Levitating Olive,  Extracting DNA From Food, Create A Cloud, Make A Water-Powered Fuel Cell, Build A Hovercraft, Collect Miniature Meteorites, Fireproofing......it is a totally fascinating book, and who knows, I may even try an experiment myself some day, but meanwhile, I own the book.Tee Hee...

Here is a rather tattered book from the recycling centre, called "A Meal in a Minute".  I have noticed that lots of cookery books end in the recycling - I can't help wondering, does someone throw them out when the meal goes horribly wrong?  Or do they want to hide successful recipes from others? Who knows!  But this book, by Annette Wolter, published in 1974 by Thomas Nelson, London, and translated from the German of Graefe und Unzer, Munich, by G. and H. Jacobi, has one clear virtue, it tells you how to produce meals in a very short time, and looking at the recipes, it seems that they might turn out to be quite edible too.  One puzzle is the title, because I cannot find a recipe in it that can be prepared in a minute...perhaps it's meant in a similar sense to  the shop assistant's  "be with you in a minute", we know that minute can stretch a bit - however, there are recipes which can be produced in five to ten minutes...such as various soups, bread rolls with scrambled eggs, toast and different accompaniments and of course sandwiches.  Here is one meal which takes 5 to ten minutes and which I haven't come across before:

                 Rapid Rarebits

4 teaspoons butter or margarine
4 slices toasting bread
250 g (9 oz) grated cheese
4 tablespoons light ale
2 teaspoons mild mustard
1 teaspoon Worcester sauce

Preheat oven to 260oc (450oF, gas mark 8) or grill to maximum temperature.
Heat butter or margarine in a frying pan and fry the 4 bread slices in it, but on one side only. Mix cheese with the beer, mustard and Worcester sauce and spread the resulting mixture on the 4 slices, which you grill for 5 minutes.

Mock Goulash Soup (recipe on page 23) is recommended to follow.  Oh, and I wouldn't drive for a while after having this for lunch...

There are many more meals which take only the same amount of time, followed by pages of 10 to 15 minute meals, and then the last category which offers meals which take no longer than 25 minutes to prepare.  Sure what would you be doing anyway!

"Drink Your Own Garden" by Judith Glover means just that.  Published in 1983 by Book Club Associates by arrangement with B.T. Batsford Ltd., London, it is beautifully illustrated in black and white drawings by Juliet Stanwell Smith.  It tells you how to make wine, mead, beers and other drinks - checking these other drinks out I find they include sangria, punch, ades such as cherryade, fruit syrups, cordials and barley water.  The wines include cranberry, elderberry, sloe and loganberry, apple, rhubarb, wine from vine prunings, beetroot wine, even lettuce wine, about which the author says "Not an outstanding wine, but a worthwhile way to use up a glut of lettuces."  There is a recipe for potato wine, with the warning that it should be made with care because it is one of the most potent of home-made wines - yes, I'm thinking poteen here, though of course that's a spirit and also a book with a recipe for that would no doubt be almost unobtainable for reasons of demand outstripping supply, as well as most likely banned.

A book which has given me much joy over the years is actually a work of fiction.  I cannot say that about many novels, perhaps a little more often about short stories, but I am very hard to please in so far as works of fiction in general are concerned.  I have found that novels which start very well and leave one longing for more frequently go downhill rapidly afterwards.  If I do manage to get through a novel, I am almost always disappointed with the ending, which in many cases seems to have been rushed (perhaps to meet a deadline) or the finish is in some way inappropriate - it just doesn't fit.  I include in this category most of the novels of Jane Austen, which were, after all, conceived initially as stories, not works of literature which it is sacrilege to criticise as I am doing.  The author seems determined to tie up all the ends, when, as everyone knows, life just does not happen like that...life poses more questions always than it answers...

This paragon of novels is "Of Human Bondage", by W. Somerset Maugham.  My edition is in the series Twentieth Century Classics, by J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. and the date seems to be 1936, that is the only date I can find on it, but it is in amazing condition, with just a little foxing between the back pages and cover, so perhaps it will prove to be a more recent publication.  I have another modern paperback edition which I keep purely to lend, because after I have sung the praises of this book, I like to share the experience.

I am not going to tell you anything about the story, which is very long - 565 pages in this World Classics edition, but I have read it several times and intend to re-read it again shortly.  Believe me, it is the riveting story of a young man's journey from childhood to manhood, and the many vocations and personae he tries along the way, until life allows itself to be discovered by him....that is all I am going to tell you about it.  One thing I would say, do not be mislead by any film version into thinking that you know what this book is about...you will be very much mistaken.

With whatever you are reading, I wish you joy.  If there is no joy in it, look elsewhere.  You will be glad you did.