Posted on by qscrisp

Ha ha

I had to laugh at this. I just signed into Amazon. I found some very peculiar recommendations for me. While I have read some of Francis Wheen's rant in the bookshop, I've never had any intention of contributing anything to the Wheen coffers. However, I looked up his book on Google (and Amazon) again recently (just in order to slag it off in the comments section of a recent post), and that must have influenced the recent recommendations. Apparently, people who bought the revoltingly titled, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World also bought – so I'm told – the following:

Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

Hoo-hahs and Passing Frenzies, by Francis Wheen

Irrationality, by Stuart Sutherland

There were thirteen 'pages' of this stuff, including Christopher Hitchens's The Portable Atheist, no doubt for all those atheists who need to know how the atheist should behave in everyday situations, such as buying a sandwich, the hilariously titled Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell (which makes me want to write a treatise called Why I Am Not a Campanologist, expressing, in great detail, my complete lack of interest in campanology), Bad Thoughts, A Guide To Clear Thinking, by Jamie Whyte, and so on. How does it feel to be pigeonholed? Well, there were one or two titles that looked interesting, but anyway…

Draw your own conclusions.

10 Replies to “Ha ha”

  1. And what, pray, is wrong with campanology? This is a good question. The truth is, I was trying to think of something that didn’t interest me that other people might perhaps also be able to understand as a cipher for ‘dull’, but I couldn’t think of anything! I honestly find almost everything interesting in theory, except for one or two things that, to most people, are synonymous with excitement. If I think of dull, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Hollywood action film’. Perhaps I should have put that. But what’s the noun? ‘Why I’m Not a Hollywood Action Film Fan’. It doesn’t have the same ring as ‘campanologist’, if you’ll excuse the pun.(Of course, when I mentioned campanology here, I remembered my recent mention of La-Bas by Huysmans, which deals with campanology in a very interesting way indeed.)

  2. Peter A Leonard writes:

    Me again!Sorry to go on but I just remembered a quote from J P Donleavy’s book “An Author and his Image” which you might feel some sympathy with:”Upon having a manuscript rejected.Dear bunch of Editors,You stupid bastards have just turned down what will be one of the great best sellers of the last half of this decade.Yours sincerely, The Author”All the bestPeter

  3. Peter A Leonard writes:

    And what, pray, is wrong with campanology? I feel sure Quasimodo would be deeply hurt by your comments, if he should chance upon them in this place – in fact he’d probably do to you what he did to Frollo, and hurl you from the heights of Notra Dame!Shame, we’d all say. Terrible shame.But Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer, would probably just shrug and return to the protection of the deformed bellringer in the belfry of the Cathedral. While he sits astride his bells like the subject of a Dürer print filling the world with the beautiful sound of his bells.RegardsPeter

  4. Self-help books are wonderful, aren’t they? Have you ever encountered J P Donleavy’s old book, “The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners”?I haven’t, I’m afraid. I’ve occasionally considered writing a self-help book, purely as a hoax/money-spinner/pot-boiler. I’m not sure what angle I’d take. My favourites are the self-help books that tell you you don’t need anyone else’s help but your own. Well, I suppose that’s what self-help means, isn’t it… I remember a conversation in a room when I was present that stuck in my head. A fellow was saying why the Baha’i faith was great, something as follows:”I think Baha’i is a good religion, though, because you can make up your own mind what you think and believe.””Well, what’s the bloody point of that? ‘I joined this religion because they let me think what I like’.”So, I suppose ‘self-help book’ is a contradiction in terms, because you aren’t helping yourself, you’re relying on the book. Unless it just means the author is helping his or her self to the proceeds from the book.Maybe.

  5. Peter A Leonard writes:

    “Christopher Hitchens’s The Portable Atheist, no doubt for all those atheists who need to know how the atheist should behave in everyday situations”Self-help books are wonderful, aren’t they? Have you ever encountered J P Donleavy’s old book, “The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival & Manners”? It gives splendid advice on various subjects pertinent to us all: “What to do when stung on the knob on a golf course”, for instance, advice that’s essential to any of us who wish to comport ourselves in a socially acceptable way; “Ass kissing and other types of flattery” which, of course, doesn’t come naturally to all of us; “ Upon Marrying a Lady for Her Money” good, solid advice here for those of us who desire a more health bank balance (and a good counter to the damn credit crunch, I must say); “Stripping and streaking” explains how to keep one’s end up while jogging wildly across the pitch during the latest Rugby International; “When the Overwhelming Desire to Goose a Lady Cannot be Suppressed” self-explanatory really, but demonstrates how to accomplish this in a “socially acceptable” fashion.PeterPS Sorry my last post has appeared twice? Didn’t know it was that good?

  6. Peter A Leonard writes:

    And what, pray, is wrong with campanology? I feel sure Quasimodo would be deeply hurt by your comments, if he should chance upon them in this place – in fact he’d probably do to you what he did to Frollo, and hurl you from the heights of Notra Dame!Shame, we’d all say. Terrible shame.But Esmeralda, the gypsy dancer, would probably just shrug and return to the protection of the deformed bellringer in the belfry of the Cathedral. While he sits astride his bells like the subject of a Dürer print filling the world with the beautiful sound of his bells.RegardsPeter

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