Get a grip

For a brief moment this morning I sat down at my computer and wished I was back at work. At least it puts a structure on the day, enforces it even, and today seems to be one of those shilly-shally days when I'm not going to settle to doing anything much. It might be the weather. Yes, let's blame the weather. After a cold, bright weekend with sunshine all day Sunday that enticed us out, we drove over to Wallington and walked the riverside walk, which was lovely. Today, though the temperature is due to go up from -4 to 8, it is grey, damp, and miserable. I'd prefer yesterday, please.

I don't really want to be back at work. I have far too much to do without that. Maybe a cup of coffee will perk me up a bit, spark the old grey cells into action.  I tell myself I'm really lucky that dh just made me a cup of fruit tea. It's days like this that I lose hope of ever securing an agent and Twitter seems full of comments denouncing e-books as rubbish. But really, it's like printed books - there's a range, in every genre, from the very good down through  Ok to the downright boring - and to be fair, I must admit there is a segment of the e-book world that most would claim should never have seen the light of day. That, naturally, is what the nitpickers focus on. But they forget that agents and publishers have selected and printed books that simply bombed. we simply don't talk about them. I worked in libraries, and know which authors sat unloved on the shelves, and I'm sure booksellers know which titles never went through the tills.

There are faint noises to suggest that even the so-called rubbish might have a readership. For some time we've had reports of growing struggles with reading among the younger generation in the US and probably other countries as well. If those with reading difficulties read the so-called rubbish, then surely that's better than reading nothing? For those brought up in the visual age - tv, film, etc - then they could entertain themselves without bothering overmuch with reading. The habit never caught on. With the idea of reading on a phone, tablet, ipad, reader or Kindle it seems they might just find their way in, and if they want to read the simpler, wilder end of the market, then let's not get snobbish about it.