Book Bang-A-Bang

Lulu's great isnt it? Especially the one she does when she sings "Shout".... HAHAAHAHA - like the musical singer Lulu, do you see!?! SHUT UP. I don't mean that at all, as well you'd know if you went through my bedside drawers, which are presently home to two books self-published via the print service of the same name. I've published several magazines using it (for more info on that, click here) and even though its based predominantly in America thus making shipping expensive, it really is a terrific service for what it does.

I encourage many people I meet to try and write - even if its just rubbish one liners on beermats - but self-publishing has long seemed to be the province of dull beardy men (hi!) in thick glasses and even thicker jumpers sharing multiple volumes of their personal beer brewing notes or 3000 page spats over ridiculously convoluted mathematical theories only visible to the human eye through a prism, a sponge and a rusty spanner. But sites like Lulu are helping shift that balance.

Granted there's some right old fucking tut available - "How to Care For Your Milk Carton Surrogate Baby", "Pomegranate Molestation For Beginners" and "Ben Baker's Now Here's A Funny Thing - 500 Humourous Quotes The Famous Say When They Want You To Get Out Of Their Garden" but there's also some great stuff. Here's two books that very much require your attention... (right click on the titles and open the links in a new tab to be taken to the Lulu page)

The Garbage Pod

Its hard to be a Red Dwarf fan in 2011. Partly because its been off TV for so long (special? what special?) that its become consigned to past programming, partly because it meant so much to so many at undoubtedly the geekiest and most socially awkward times in their lives and of course, partly because the last few runs were just fucking awful. So, why recommend an entire book about the damn series? Because we're not alone in thinking about any of this...

Indeed, fansite Ganymede and Titan has been running through almost entirely new Dwarf-free times which has provided both the distance and the opportunity to revisit the episodes with enthusiasm, as well as looking at what made the things that worked great, and those that didn't, shockingly weak. There's a pleasing lack of slavish dribbling over the show but its the enthusiasm for the positives that actually won me over in the end. Granted it gets a bit sixth form prose and needlessly sweary in places but its done charmingly enough and is easily preferable to them using "smeg" every five seconds instead.

Its a breezy and easy read that not only is for a great cause (any profits go towards Amnesty International) but will also have you scurrying back to the adventures of Lister, Rimmer, Barrington and Carpool for another fix of what made it such an enjoyable watch in those first six series.

At Least Its Free

It'll be no surprised to many of the eight of you reading this blog that Tim Worthington is one of my closest friends and a fairly frequent collaborator but that really couldn't be further from the reason for recommending this terrific book which I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at through its long gestation. I'm not sure I can put it better than the review I left on Lulu's own site..

"The thing that attracted me to Tim's work was his enthusiasm and desire to learn more about certain TV shows, films, bands and other elements of entertainment ephemera - all starting in an era pre-Wiki and easily YouTubed video footage. This book does its best to preserve the feeling of that wobbly movie you once saw at your cousin's 15 years ago but could never remember the title of, the band you bought the only single by and assumed no-one else had ever heard of and that exciting promise that somebody might know somebody who might have once seen some production slides from part three of The Macra Terror. 


If you're fascinated by pop culture and dream in monochrome, this book is undoubtedly for you...."

So, there you go. Two reads that will certainly not make you want to "Shout". LIKE A LULU SINGER. DO YOU SEE? AHAAHAHAAHA OH GOD MY HEAD IS MAKING A FUNNY TICKING SOUND...