Maybe you don’t wanna know

Thought you might want a bit of post-punk anger to get you through the mid-week doldrums, so here’s a fabulous 80s classic, Never Take Me Alive by Spear of Destiny.

1987 was really the year I discovered music and I’m pretty sure that this single was one of the first ‘modern’ things I bought, having spent all my time before that buying up stuff at the flea market in Bury, and living off copied cassette tapes that my friends had done for me. I can’t say what it was that I particularly liked about it… but something obviously appealed to me. Perhaps I was a young and lawless renegade wannabe, back in the day?! I’m also certain it was the first thing I bought without any other influence, be that influence friends or family or old guys at the flea market telling me what I should listen to next. It’s great to have people share their passions, but there is something most wonderful about discovering things for yourself.

I think 1987 was the year I really became the seed of the adult I became as well. I was 14 for most of the year and it was the year I read IT by Stephen King – it was my introduction to King and I spent the next year devouring everything I could of his. I still remember reading Salem’s Lot in my bedroom late at night when I was about 15. That’s how terrified I was. I couldn’t even say where I got the book from. I don’t think I borrowed it from anyone – I still have the same copy. And I don’t think I bought it. It is a complete mystery as to how it ended up in my possession.

It is quite something to have so many keys to memories – like U2 last week – most of my books are such hard-won possessions (or at least, the early ones) that I can remember exactly when I got them and who bought them for me. It makes me laugh when people make connections to literacy rates and homes with books on shelves. We might not have had loads of books at home, but I had a library card and I certainly used it! It was on my way home from school so I would usually pick something up then, or on Saturday afternoons. Happy days. Nothing makes me feel as happy as the smell of a library.

If the truth be told, I would be very happy living in a caravan, but the only hindrance to that is the fact I would have no place to put my books. No matter how I try, I cannot part with so many of them and even if I got them in electronic form and stored them nicely on a Kindle, I’d still feel a bit bereft.

Anyway, today is a busy one so I better get on with it. No procrastinating by thinking of books!