O Ireland, My Country !

I found Ivan Illich's 'Deschooling Society' in the recycling centre. Published by Calder & Boyars, London in 1971, this copy had a footmark on the cover and the pages were quite marked, but it looked interestng and I brought it home.  Because it is quite an old book now, many of Illich's ideas have been superseded by today's technology. One example is his suggestion that rather than spend huge sums of money on television stations, a state should supply tape recorders and endless tapes and allow them to be borrowed at will by those who wished to learn and discuss. Obviously the possession of a computer, software and an internet connection is an improvement on this idea. Among his criticisms of the school systems which to his mind are the same the world over is that he feels they have a one size fits all mentality which produces education as it were in bundles, to be disseminated by teachers who all had followed the same road through education and are passing this unimaginative system on to their students; there is no creativity, the curricula are enforced, and students and teachers have to comply. He proposes that in fact the main function of formal schools is to create labour for the market and consumers for the goods in this same market. The practitiioners of skills cannot not pass them on unless they have the requisite teachers' qualifications.
Illich (dead since 2002) discusses many new ideas of his in this book He feels that schools, which need a vast financial investment on the part of a state, cater mainly for the better off in society. The sums poured into education, paying teachers, providing buildings and their necessary utilities, benefit the better off more than those who are disadvantaged. The disadvantaged often drop out of school for reasons to do with being needed to earn for the family, or because they cannot afford the hidden costs of schooling, or because they are alienated anyway from the whole system, or for any number of related reasons. . So even if the money invested purports to be equally for them as much as for others, they gain little from it.

Illich, in a development of his ideas, talks about roads, particularly in rural areas of so-called developing countries, and argues that they are not for the majority of the citizenry, but rather for the possessors of fast cars, or for lorries to ferry consumer goods to those areas which could be quite self-sufficient. He says lower speeds, and mechanical 'donkeys' would suit these populations far better and make their lives much easier. In other words, people can travel slowly but surely where they need to go. Another important point he makes is that such mechanical donkeys would be of necessity cheap to purchase and easy and cheap to repair, thus obliterating the need for another skill group to fix them, and giving independence to their owners. You may wonder what this has to do with deschooling society, but his point is that producing goods that only an esoteric group can maintain or repair is another way of institutionalising such knowledge too. Nowadays, looking at new motor cars with their complicated computers, no small deal financially or in terms of repair for their owners, (who can of course afford any maintenance or repairs needed anyway), we have to concede the point to Illich.

Personally I think that senior schools as we know them are in their last innings. Access to the internet and the web has made them redundant. Students are much maturer nowadays and would be well able to access their own learning from home, decide what and how to study, and as a result, be much better prepared for higher education. I'll bet that a grant to every secondary school age student to purchase a computer and towards the cost of broadband would cost the state a lot less money than the endless amount which is needed to maintain schools. Even the provision of a panel of mentors or advisors, accessible by phone or online for such students, would not come near the cost of providing the outmoded senior school system. All that is needed is one drop-in centre per area, where students can call in person if they wish, including a coffee shop for socialisation purposes and for participation in clubs catering for different interests. A laboratory attached to the centre, with a supervisor, would cater for practical experiments necessary for science courses. If you learn one thing from Ivan Illich's book, it is that nothing is set in stone. Every system can be changed for a better one.


I'm not one for ghost stories or conspiracy theories. But you know the shocked feeling you get when you open a newspaper and see someone you know has hit the headlines for some undesirable reason or other? You know that feeling? Well, that's what I felt when I came across Greg Palast's 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy' on the recycling centre's shelf. Published by Robinson, London, in 2002, the first chapter was very interesting, describing a scenario we all know about now, the 'disappearing' of Texan Democrat voters, mainly black, off the voting register at the time when George Bush Junior lost an election which brought him into the White House, to paraphrase Palast. No surprises there, then. But it was the chapter entitled '   Sell The Lexus, Burn The Olive Tree' which shocked me, as I read the first pages and recognised a portrait of Ireland, my country, in disguise perhaps, but definitely Ireland. Oh, she was called Argentina and Bolivia and Ecuador, but it was Ireland, I recognised her immediately, and I recognised the Grim Reaper at her back. Our Taoiseach is right when he says we partied as a nation during the boom years, on money we didn't own. Anyone who doesn't see that is in denial. Also in denial are the many thousands who voted for 'that other party' during those same years. We took the sweets at the school gates, not recognising them for the drugs they were, and we were hooked. Okay, there's a lot of “Who we, Whiteman?” going around, and yes, there was always a particular party in those countries as well as our own that let down the drawbridge, but howsoever, it happened, and in their usual way, the World Bank, the IMF and the ECB (so much for Europe) walked in and insisted we pay the pushers. Palast describes the steps which then occur, including mass privatisation and selling off of a country's resources, wage cuts, cuts in public spending, the breaking of labour contracts and , overturning of minimum wage agreements and so forth, and how it's all in the cause of 'Globalization'. Which basically means, “What's yours is mine and what's mine's my own”. History repeats itself....the Trojan Horse with its unseen passengers got inside our gates....and it is going to be a hell of a job to get them out again. If you can face it, read this book. And, if you decide then that you want to read more of Greg Palast, here's his website: http://www.gregpalast.com/ 

O Ireland, my country !

While you're at it and if you really want to be scared, you could take a look at this too:

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/185?search_text=teachers unless of course you are already a GATS expert.

Did you notice the proliferation of books on cake making recently, and the endless newspaper articles on cupcakes – one well-known Irish author, Marian Keyes, saying that making cupcakes cured her depression?   'Any one can Bake' is an unusual one from the recycling centre, published in 1929 by Royal Baking Powder Co., U.S.A. I wonder who treasured this book and how it made its appearance on the recycling shelves? I myself can manage to bake quite well, and sustained my family on the results all the years they were growing up. What is particularly appealing about this book is that the cakes are all drawn and coloured by hand rather than photographed. I'm not sure why I like this, but I do. They have the honest and irregular shapes that mine used to have, maybe that's the reason. But all these cupcakes, during a recession and at a time that we have lost our economic sovereignty, why do I keep thinking of Marie Antoinette?

A Sturdy Constitution

I found “The Public Speaker's Treasure Chest – A Compendium of Source Material to Make Your Speech Sparkle” by Herbert V. Prochnow, in the recycling centre. It was published in 1959 by A. Thomas & Co., Preston, and is full of jokes, epigrams, and phrases to help make a 'sparkling speech'. There is a section with enough biblical quotations to confound any proselytizer who might come to your halldoor, that is, if you are the type of person who enjoys such engagements. Nowadays the world and his wife are used to public speaking, judging by the numbers who ring in to radio talk shows and discuss just about anything without a seeming tremor of embarrassment. Perhaps that is why someone chucked this book into the recycling centre, where not many clamoured to reclaim it. Here is a joke I found and enjoyed, although perhaps you may not share my amusement, since I am considered to have no sense of humour:

'Heard at the Zoo

A huge elephant and a tiny mouse were in the same cage at the zoo. The elephant was in a particularly ugly and truculent mood. Looking down at the mouse with disgust he trumpeted, “You're the puniest, the weakest, the most insignificant thing I've ever seen!” “Well,” piped the mouse in a plaintive squeak, “don't forget, I've been sick.” '

There I also found “Bunreacht na hÉireann – Constitution of Ireland” published in 1990 by Irish Government Publications, nestling companionably beside an Irish Labour Party publication of James Connolly's “Socialism Made Easy”. Perhaps some socialist has passed on to a more just world, or someone has followed a political disagreement by disavowing all connections with his/her former comrades, Whatever, I brought them home. I think everyone should have a copy of the Constitution, and I will be able to give this to someone who hasn't. James Connolly's little book, published first in 1909, I would keep if only for the fact that he was so ignobly shot while crippled and unable to stand, following the Easter Rising of 1916. It is very well-written, in concise and persuasive English. I know where I stand on such things, I believe all should have a reasonable amount of land for themselves and their family, to do with as they think best provided that it is used and not left as a danger to health. I do not believe that large tracts of land should be allowed to be in the hands of just a few, and passed on down through generations of their families, to be used for their own personal gain. Mine is quite a simple outlook, simplistic, I know some would say. But there is one belief of mine that I never see in books on economics or anywhere else, unless I am reading the wrong books: I do not believe in the charging of interest on money loaned. I believe it is at the bottom of all financial troubles, and that it is morally wrong. However, very few ever mention this, but take it as a law of Nature that interest should be charged on loans. It is a dreadful evil which exists almost without question in the western world. Anyway, here is a quote from Connolly's little book:

“.....the question to be settled by Socialism is the effect of private ownership of the means of production upon the well-being of the race;........Personally I am opposed to any system wherein the capitalist is more powerful than God Almighty........No worker is compelled to enter a church and to serve God; every worker is compelled to enter the employment of a capitalist and serve him.”

I could not possibly give you Connolly's ideas in one small review, nor would I want to. If you are interested, please find his book for yourself. But to most of us nowadays, these are truths and are self-evident. But still, not much changes, and the majority of workers are still counted among the poor, both categories usually being spoken of as interchangeable.....and with good reason.

I found Cyril Connolly's “Enemies of Promise” in a secondhand bookshop, stamped all over in red ink for fear that the reader might return it for resale. This practice always mystifies me, since even if the book is purchased secondhand, if it is well looked after, surely it could just as easily be resold with further profit. I have never read anything by Cyril Connolly, and the first page I opened was sad, I was touched by his words:

“The new school my parents chose for me was on the coast. At first I was miserable there and cried night after night.My mother cried too at sending me, and I have often wondered if that incubator of persecution mania, the English private school, is worth the money that is spent on it or the tears its pupils shed. At an early age small boys are subjected to brutal partings and long separations which undermine their love for their parents before the natural period of conflict and are encouraged to look down on them without knowing why......I have never met anybody yet who could say he had been happy there. It can only be that our parents are determined to get rid of us!”

I realise that children in England or Ireland rarely are sent to these schools now, but I have often wondered what the difference between them and orphanages could be. I speak as one who actually disapproves of most forms of schooling, and who believes that we should keep our children about us and educate them ourselves, as the law allows us to do. Particularly in these days of internet, there should be no need to farm our children out to the care of others. Of course that would not suit those who need women to work outside the home for wages far below those paid to men, as is still generally the case, according to research published in the last few days. I'm sure you will be able to find it for yourself if you search online. Now here is a link to just one of many websites which you will be able to use to home-educate your children if you so desire. For literacy and language, they need only simply read books: http://www.khanacademy.org/ will take care of all other subjects. You will save money on school textbooks, school uniform, shoes, and school transport, there will be no need to ferry them to and from school, and you will not need to pay an au-pair or housekeeper to look after them. This could save your sanity and your marriage.

“How to be a Nigerian” is another little book from the recycling centre, written by Peter Enahoro, a journalist in Lagos, and published by The Daily Times of Nigeria Limited 1966. It is written in a light-hearted way, and from it I learned, guess what, that Nigerians are just like the rest of us, except for one thing, tribalism. Nigeria, Enahoro explains, was a country invented by Europeans for their own use and benefit, but it is actually an area in which live a large number of tribes, and all the members of each individual tribe unite for the good of their own people. He says:

“The Nigerian society is strictly organised into a variety of tribes. So consuming is the devotion to tribe that if St. Peter were a Nigerian, four-fifths of us would be wasting our time in church and Heaven would soon spill out The Gatekeeper's tribal group of Nigerians. Tribes transcend individuality.” When a Nigerian names a certain person as being a member of a certain tribe....”the reference to his tribe already points to the kind of man he is certain to be. The gentleman in question may never be known by name throughout the conversation, but the fact that he is Yoruba, or Ibo, or Efik is sufficient to identify him.” I cannot say personally if this is all true, but if so, I presume Enahoro is talking about types rather than actual personalities, as it has a racist ring to it otherwise. Other than this assertion about tribalism, it seems to me that there is no difference between ourselves in Ireland and people in Nigeria. Some of the drivers are terrible, some of the customer service people are rude, some who work in service industries are corrupt, what's new?There does seem to be corruption in government, certainly more overt than in these islands. I suppose there will always be areas in which countries differ to a greater or lesser degree. Personally speaking, I had Nigerian friends years ago, and spent evenings in the Overseas Club in Dublin playing cards with them, and they were genial and funny companions. I often wonder how they fared later in life.

Finally, straight to you from the junkyard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdSQQo_5el0

Have a good week, all!

Great Big Books

 I think very large books that are not dictionaries or cookery books are often thought of nowadays as coffee table books. Are all coffee table books very large? I tend to think of books so described as being shiny and new, usually unread, but toning in with the décor of their surroundings in such a way as to make them more ornamental than anything else. Who would want to be the first to put a mark on them? Certainly you can put them out on your coffee table without fear that they will be 'borrowed', because they are much too heavy. I would never have enough coffee tables for all my large books. However, I prefer smaller books, for reasons of portability, ease of reading and holding. I googled the term 'coffee table book' and found that they have certain characteristics in common: they are large, illustrations are of prime importance, text is usually sparse; the paper is high-quality, and finally, they are usually much more expensive than normal books.

The large books I am discussing today don't fulfil all those criteria. Although they are lavishly illustrated, there is a lot of text also. They are definitely for reading as well as for looking at. The first three are in the same series. They are “Vanishing Ireland”, published by Hodder Headline, Dublin, 2006, “Further Chronicles of a Disappearing World” published by Hachette Books, Ireland, 2009, and the most recent one “Recollections of Our Changing Times, also published by Hachette Books, Ireland, 2011.

These all are by photographer James Fennell and writer Turtle Bunbury. They follow the same basic arrangement, personal stories of elderly people in Ireland, with their photos alongside Most of the contributors are surprisingly much older than their images would imply. Their stories are simply fascinating and yet they describe in the main quite ordinary events. The style of writing is easygoing, the photographs are so lifelike that you feel as you read that you really know these people. Most of those within these covers are living in or near their original family home; in their lives they were not adventurers, nor keen travellers. Their lives are the lives of everyday folk, and yet there is something enchanting about them. My husband bought the first book in the series, and flew through it in a day. I bought him the other two for Christmas. If you buy them for yourself, they will definitely be very sought-after in years to come, not alone because they are so enthralling to read but for their value to social historians. In the photographs, besides the amazingly interesting faces of the subjects, you can see their kitchens and living rooms, the old fireplaces, the ranges, the pictures on the walls. Here is Paddy Gleeson, a farmer from East Clare who was born in 1904, talking:

'Once, I was coming to school and I met two fellows leading a three-year-old bullock with horns. On his horns was a placard -'The Land for the People and the Road for the Bullock'. And beneath the bull, they were dragging a man who was after evicting a poor widow woman from her home.' The widow's home had been knocked but 'the local people seen how fast it takes to build a house but they did it faster. She was evicted at ten in the morning and she was inside a house that night they built for her in the day! Timber and galvanised!'

In the second book, Denis Galvin from Kerry, born 1945, responds to an enquiry about his age:

'Stop a minute, if I were hung by a rope since I was in my early fifties, I'd be pretty quare looking by now.'   Well, it doesn't do to give too much away, I suppose.

In the third book in the series, Sam Codd of Wicklow, bonesetter, farmer and horse breeder, born 1926, talks about his cars:

'The first car I had was a Morris Minor and I never had anything else,' he says. 'I used to travel around a lot, as a bonesetter, and I do be in a lot of the old farmer places and all that craic. I had two cars here one time, one for taking the girls out on Sunday and one for everyday'.

As far as I can tell, it was the bones of animals he set, but who knows! He talks about the dances held in farmhouses after the threshing:

'They were great auld craic. I remember one lad, a fecker for doing tricks, who wasn't asked to the dance. So he got a ladder up to the house and threw a grain sack over the chimney and smoked out the people inside. He said “They asked me to the threshing, but they didn't ask me to the dance.” '

These books are indeed too beautiful to risk getting coffee rings on them. And if the surface of a coffee table is not available to someone to rest a mug on, I would imagine that mug rings would be an ever present danger. They are also fairly expensive, almost thirty Euro each where we bought them, but they are worth every cent.

Model and Miniature Railways, edited by Patrtick B. Whitehouse and John Adams, published by the Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited in First New English Library Edition dated 1976, turned up in a church book sale. It is full of photographs of miniature railways running through gardens, houses, countryside. There are tiny trains and ones big enough for children and even adults to sit on. Towards the back of the book are detailed plans of the little engines and carriages. When I saw this book I immediately thought “Sheldon would love this”. I don't know if you have ever watched the American situation comedy “The Big Bang Theory”, but Sheldon Cooper is one of the main characters in it. I never used to watch TV, but one day by chance I watched this, and now I know what it means to be a devoted fan. I watch every episode of it that I can. All the characters in it are wonderful, but most of all I love Sheldon. I saw an interview on Youtube with the actor who portrays him and it is amazing how different the actor is from his character. I think Sheldon probably has a type of Asperger's Syndrome. I find his character totally enthrallling, and the joy of the show is particularly in his relationships with the other characters. One of his many hobbies is model railways. If you get a chance to see this show, do take a look, and you will understand why this book would suit Sheldon. What a pleasure it would be to give it as a gift to him, and get one of his strange, grimacing smiles in return.

Two books by The Diagram Group, both on the subject of games and sports, well justify their size, and could easily sit waiting to be consulted on any kind of table or shelf within reach of the sports pundit or card player. These came from a Christmas sale in the local Community Centre. The first is “Family Fun & Games”, published by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. New York, dated 1992, and the second is “The Official World Encyclopedia of Sports and Games – The rules, techniques of play and equipment for over 400 sports and 1,000 games”, published by Paddington Press Ltd., New York & London, 1979. Although I am certainly no expert, I would guess that there is hardly a game not catered for in these books; card games of all sorts, parlour games, board games, all the rules for these are here in addition to, in the encyclopedia, the rules and regulations for every sport under the sun. I would say these books would settle many an argument for sporty types, and are worth their weight as reference books alone. They are in lovely condition; gone are the days when people donated torn or stained books to such sales, I am happy to say, and at a Euro each they were definitely a bargain. This is the sale where I heard a prissy seller say “My goodness, I didn't realise so many of the village people read books.” After hearing that, I was quite pleased to find two quite old and rare books, one signed by a rather famous author, in the boxes under her nose, and to realise that she didn't know an antique book when she saw one.

A highly colourful book full of easy to follow text and terrific diagrams and photos is “How Everything In The Home Works and how to take the sting out of repair bills” published by the Reader's Digest Association London 2003, Every machine and piece of home equipment you can think of is included, from electrical machines such as washing machines, kettles, breadmakers, ovens, to wheeled machines such as bicycles, scooters and roller skates. All kinds of cameras, analogue, digital and video cameras are covered, DVD players, CD players and so forth. The emphasis is on maintenance more than repair, the point being that if you understand your device and take care of it you won't need to call the repairman very often if at all. It tells you whether the job is one you can deal with yourself or is one that you should leave to the professional. The beginning chapters deal with safety, masks, goggles, how not to kill yourself, in fact. Reader's Digest books are ones that I think are very much taken for granted; I thought about this especially when I heard that the company might be in some difficulty caused by the financial recession. They are among the most useful books you will ever come across, just think of the Reader's Digest Book of the Car, or their gardening and houseplant volumes. Their digests and books are published in many languages; my sister and I became very competent at reading French in our teens, when our mother bought a boxload of French Reader's Digests at an auction. So it seemed natural that when I found “How Everything in the Home Works” sitting on a shelf in the recycling centre, I would make it mine immediately. It is in lovely condition, with not a single crease on a page, nor even a mark. I can't help wondering why it was discarded. The books to be found at the recycling centre in general call up that question. I don't wait too long for answers, for I'm away home with my new treasures.

Happy New Year, everyone. I've been at the shelves again...

The first book today has memories for me.  I found it in a little bookshop off the main street of a nearby town, the proprietor of which wore a single earring and had a baleful expression permanently fixed on his face.  He responded to questions about his stock in monosyllables, all the while adopting a threatening stare.  Having received a particularly terse response to a query re. the location of his language section, I decided to forage alone, only to hear another browser I had noticed earlier tell him that his rudeness was insufferable and he should apologise to me.  I instantly grabbed the nearest book I could find in which to bury myself, which proved to be Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish.  I have always loved Spanish, having studied it in school with a sweet little nun who was only two years older than myself.  The convent which ran the school recruited novices for the South American missions, gave them basic lessons in Spanish and set them loose on a class for teaching practice.  I recall clearly the day this sweet little nun was told she was going out to Chile...she spent the hour with her head on the desk weeping, while we sat as quiet as mice and absorbed our verbs in -ir.  I sometimes wonder about her, did she really go, is she still there? ... you know the way you wonder about people and things in the past. I don't wonder about that particular bookshop owner, though.  The economic recession carried him and his shop into oblivion...it's a pity really, there were great books there.  However, I may well have come across some of them again at the recycling centre.



The first interesting thing about Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish is that it teaches Spanish through identifying the parts of it which are close to English, taking English nouns and substituting Spanish endings for the English ones, turning them - Hey Presto - into Spanish...at least that's what happens in the early chapters of the book and I haven't gone further than those at the moment...there is a by-the-way subtle introduction also to words which are quite unlike English ones, which the student absorbs along the way. it seems a pretty good system, with a modicum of the grammar you can invent endless sentences using your English nouns converted to Spanish.  I would imagine it would be particularly good for those who are aiming at a reading knowledge of the language.

However, there is another, even more interesting aspect to this book: illustrations are by one Andrew Warhol.  I went online to investigate, and yes, it seems that this is the famous Andy Warhol, who earned his bread and butter in his early days as a book illustrator.  The illustrations appear at the start of each lesson, and they are like nothing so much as little doodles e.g. a guitar, pipes (for smoking), a postcard.a bicycle...  The only ones I can find in colour (or color, since this is an American book) are the three sombreros on the front cover.  The book was published by Doubleday & Company Inc., New York. and the last date on my copy is 1953. I do not recall what I paid for it but inside the front cover £1 sterling is marked in pencil.

I have to thank the local public library sale for the next two books.  The drawback to books bought at such sales is that they have labels or the remains of them, as well as stamps on some pages.  I have seen first editions of books, signed by their authors, sadly defaced by these labels or their remains.  No effort is usually made to remove them gently, and the inside covers, back and front, bear glue or paste marks, traces of white paper, and that dreaded 'withdrawn from stock' stamp which legitimises the purchase.  However, if you have had a favourite book which you have borrowed again and again, as in my own case, there is a high chance that you will eventually be able to call it your own. 

"Games with Pencil and Paper", by Denise and Norman Williams, came from one of these library sales.  From what I can see, you only need a pencil, paper, and sometimes a die to amuse yourself and your companions with the games from this book published in 1951 by the Blandford Press. London.  It is a product of pre-  personal computer or laptop days, of course, but its very simplicity without any need for an electric socket or various cables, let alone a keyboard or monitor, to my mind makes the contents vastly appealing.  But I am old-fashioned.  Still, if ever batteries become unobtainable and electricity in very short supply, this book will have a particular value if Scrabble or Monopoly pall.  In the menu, sorry, Contents, good old Battleships and Noughts and Crosses appear among many other games.  Actually, on looking at the rules for the games in general, and the necessity for 'supervisors', as well as the rules for players and teams, time limits, scoring  and the totting up of results, I feel exhausted already.  Many of the games involve being able to spell also, and being aware of a certain amount of acquaintances who can't write even a brief note on computer without the help of spellcheck, I have a feeling that this book would have a limited appeal.



"The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin" was donated to our local library by The Sufi Trust, and I am very glad it was.  The author is given as Idries Shah and the publisher was the Octagon Press, London.  My copy is dated 1995, and since I have it a few years now, it didn't stay too long on the library shelves.  In fact now I see it was admitted to the hallowed walls of the library in 2001, firmly stamped on the back of the title page. It is in beautiful condition except for that stamp and the dreaded 'withdrawn from stock'. Basically it's a volume containing many really short anecdotes relating the adventures of the intrepid Mulla Nasrudin.  The inscription on the outside of the back paper cover tells us that "Nasrudin is an international folk hero of medieval origin but timeless appeal.  ...Whether his anecdotes are studied for their hidden wisdom, or enjoyed for their pungent humour, they are an enduring part of the world's cultural heritage."  I'll go with that..I have read many of them, and enjoyed them, laughed at some of them, and been struck by the wisdom of a lot of them.  So now, a short example...



"You may have lost your donkey, Mulla, but you don't have to grieve over it more than you did about the loss of your first wife" "Ah, but if you remember, when I lost my wife, all you villagers said: "We'll find you someone else"  So far, nobody has offered to replace my donkey".
 
Well, yes, of course the book may well be one you might have to acquire a taste for, as I have.

At the end of my first week blogging, I will take a photo of the books I have mentioned, so if you are really interested, you can see what they look like.  I am sure they will be no more nor less photogenic than the rest of us.