Consider This

Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk (2020 Corsair paperback 235pp) 

I have a mixed relationship with Chuck Palahniuk and his work. It all started one day in the late 1990s when I discovered a copy of his novel Fight Club in a bargain bin at a local bookshop. I paid just a couple of dollars for it and took it home to read not expecting much. I was however blown away by it and wasn’t surprised when it soon became a hit movie. I spent the following decade or so reading all of Palahniuk’s output wherever I could find it – at the library, online or for sale. I was a big fan. But then around 2010 I simply lost the desire to read his stuff anymore. I had two of his recent novels (Rant and Pygmy) in hardcover but I never even cracked them open. To me he had become too much of what we would today call an ‘edgelord’, always trying to shock and outrage with his words. His short stories and non-fiction efforts were always great but the novels became a little too much for me, maybe my tastes had simply changed with the years.

Back in 2020 when Consider This was first published it got a lot of positive reviews and I bought a copy, only to leave it in a storage box for 3 years before I decided to read it now.

In this book Palahniuk takes the role of reluctant writing teacher and passes on both lessons and mantras he was taught by his own mentors and some original ideas and concepts that he thinks will aid those intending to write for a living.

That takes up maybe a third of the book, the rest is padded by stories and anecdotes about actually being a writer. Classes, book tours and life on the road. He also lists books and authors that he recommends we all should read.

Not too much more to say about this book really – its fine, the writing advice seems solid but I found it tends to be diluted by the anecdotes. After finishing it all my strong memories are about his book tour horror stories and so on. The book recommendations are good and I’ve already investigated several of them.

I’ve always felt there was much more depth to Palahniuk than the edgelord stuff and this book lets him display another side to his talents.

Abroad In Japan

Abroad In Japan by Chris Broad (2023 Bantam paperback 305pp) 

 

Call me stupid and out of touch but when I first heard the ‘buzz’ about this book I had no idea that the author, UK-born Chris Broad, was also a big time you-tuber with a channel of the same title which currently boasts a subscriber count of almost three million people (it took me a while to even get the gag of that title..). I was simply intrigued about the promise of a fresh, light-hearted view of an exotic land, a type of writing has somehow become a staple of my latter-day reading.

Shortly after graduating from University, Broad has a chance conversation with another passenger on a plane who tells him about the JET scheme where English speakers are paid to spend three plus years teaching the language in Japan. Much to his own surprise he passes the application and interview process and soon finds himself touching down in Tokyo. Advised not to request a posting in a major city he ends up in the remote town of Sakata. The results of economic and demographic changes mean times are tough in the region and as a result the entire district’s education system has been consolidated into a single mega-school and this is where Broad must learn to sink or swim.

There’s a lot of the expected fish-out-water thing but its handled well and he manages to avoid most of the usual cliches about Japan. Along the way he introduces us to many aspects of modern Japan rather than all the ancient traditions that other travel books have already covered umpteen times.

There are vivid portraits of the many and varied Japanese teachers he must try to work alongside. Lax standards in the recent past means many of the supposed English teachers either don’t actually speak English or lack an ability to even construct a written sentence. He is surprised to learn that English is just not seen as important enough to bother with for many of the Japanese people including past governments.

His students are also of various abilities and he slowly wins them over during his time in front of the class. Looking through his eyes we see the highs and lows of school life then learn more about life in general. Night time bar culture (Izakaya), the joys of Japanese convenience stores and of course the local food are all covered as he settles in to his new routine.

Soon enough his three years are over and to everyone’s (including the reader’s) surprise he decides not to apply to extend his teaching career. Meanwhile, he had started making videos about Japan and he sees this as his future going forwards.

After the teaching section the latter part of the book seems more of a grab-bag of his most memorable experiences of the past six or seven years. As his YouTube channel takes off, he’s soon accepting jobs fronting documentaries and making films about Japan for an international audience. He visits the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake-tsunami-meltdown, goes viral after a possible North Korean missile attack and gets caught up in a major earthquake himself. All interesting stuff to be sure but seems a little lacking after the book’s strong start.

Abroad In Japan is often funny, sometimes eye-opening and always very readable. As his YouTube channel shows, Broad knows how to keep an audience interested and if you like contemporary travel books you won’t be disappointed.

 

Empire of the Sum

Empire of the Sum by Keith Houston (2023 W. W. Norton & Company hardcover 374pp)

 

Empire of the Sum is a 300+ page book about the history of the calculator. That fact may put you off from reading it immediately but I urge you to reconsider if you have any interest in technology, innovation, invention and stories of the little-known giants whose shoulders we all stand upon.

I don’t know if it’s a stipulation of his contract but all three of Keith Huston’s books to date have been exquisite little hardbacks – well designed and illustrated and obviously produced by a publisher who puts in the maximum effort. Shady Characters (2013) looked at the history and use of unusual typographic characters while The Book (2016) followed the long and often surprising history of the book as a physical object.

Empire of the Sum is divided up into 15 main chapters, each centered around one of the ‘greatest hits’ of calculating machine history. It starts with the human hand itself and goes through to the invention of computer spreadsheet programs. At first, I was unhappy at this arrangement as I felt this would skip many intermediate steps but upon reading further, I was happy to discover the author often loops back within each chapter to describe other developments and puts the device in question into its proper context. Many of the lessor-known thinkers and inventors from history are also given due credit for their part in the general advancement of calculator and eventually computing technology.

In other hands this could be a total bore-fest but Houston is a skillful and engaging writer. His frequent use of humour and historical anecdotes brings the narrative to life.

The rapid rise of discrete calculating machines in the late 20^th century and their apparent fall in the early 21^st is a fascinating story in itself. The world is now full of unused old calculators stuffed into cupboards and drawers as their function has largely been absorbed into computers and their recent offspring the smartphone. I'm not sure how I feel about events that took place essentially during my lifetime now being part of a historical study.

I enjoyed the tale Houston had to tell, it might be a little too niche for many readers but it is well worth your time to dip into and perhaps learn more about how we got to our current technological situation.