Reading Feeds The Mind

I’m a huge reader of books. I’ve probably spent more on Amazon downloading reading material in the last few years than I’d like to admit to my Financial Advisor (aka #Stalker). It was my parents who originally encouraged me to read “Proper” books, back when I was eleven my father bought me a copy of Neville Shute’s “Stephen Morris” book for Christmas. I’ve still got the book, the pages may be falling out and going yellow, but every couple of years or so I’ll dig the book out and re-read it, even though I probably know it word for word.

 Our house has about 5 book shelves of differing sizes, all packed with hardbacks, paperbacks and anything in between.

It was probably about 7 or 8 years ago that I first bought a Kindle, much against what my heart was telling me to do as I’m a lover of a proper book. However I found myself travelling a lot on trains for work and it made sense to carry a small and thin tablet rather than a massive 400 page book, especially when rammed on the tube. I started searching out the free to download books, specifically those related to travel stories. That was when I first came across the books by Tony Slater, George Mahood and Joe Cawley, to name but three. Since that time I guess I’ve downloaded over 200 books, some great (The Bear that Ate My Pants), some mediocre (Three Men in a Van) and some total awful (The Alex Stewart biography – unreadable!).

Books really came into their own when I had my first brush with cancer. Chemo sessions lasted all day from 7.30am though until about 5pm when you threw in a quick Radiotherapy session for good measure. I went through book after book after book during those weeks of treatment. Sleep was often difficult to come across so I’d sneak downstairs and read a few chapters of whatever my latest book was.

Following the initial treatment I kept up with the ritual of sticking Radio 4 Extra on the wireless and reading a few pages before trying to drop off to sleep, not always an easy task when my mind was going twenty to the dozen. I think I often dropped off with the radio playing in the background and my Kindle on my chest, much to the delight of Carol, only to wake again around 1am to find sleep had deserted me and to start reading again.

After writing and publishing #ShoulderToShoulder

I read a couple of books about other people’s fight against cancer, but I struggled somewhat as it was still too close to my own experiences. Part of the problem was that it can be quite difficult to relate to someone you don’t actually know, especially when the story is so personal. The first really good cancer book I read was The Owl at the Window by Carl Gorham which told the story of his wife’s battle with breast cancer, which I’m afraid won the battle eventually.

Just before I went into the Churchill in June I downloaded a dozen books to keep me entertained. Included in that download was “Dear Cancer, love Victoria”

by Victoria Derbyshire, the ex 5Live presented who now has her own show on BBC2 each morning. I’ve followed Victoria on twitter for a number of years, @Vicderbyshire, and knew she’d been ill. Try as I might I just couldn’t bring myself to actually read the book, I knew that whilst I was lying in hospital recovering from the surgeon’s knife that a book chronicling a similar fight would just be too much. I tweeted to Victoria that I’d bought the book but couldn’t open it, and got a lovely reply back saying that there was no need to read it until I was ready, and wishing me luck with my recovery. I entertained myself during my stay with various travel books, biographies and some Cold War thrillers, anything but someone’s battle with cancer.

I eventually grew balls big enough to read Victoria’s book in November, I’m so glad I did. She wrote in such a frank and open manner about her concerns and her fears for both herself and her family. The book had a happy ending, at the time of writing Victoria is clear of cancer. Her battle was different to mine, but there were so many similarities in our RT treatment and the side effects of that treatment. I’ll happily admit to having tears rolling down my cheeks when I was reading certain passages from the book.

After finishing “Dear Cancer……” I made a decision to give cancer books a miss for a while and to go for some light entertainment. So, Danny Bakers “Going on the turn”

and Bruce Dickinson’s “What does this button do?”

were both stuck on the Kindle to give me a good giggle instead of starting the waterworks.

I’ve been a massive fan of Danny Baker for years and years, his Saturday morning show on 5 Live is a must listen to program in our house, I’ve even been a contestant on the Sausage Sandwich Game when Tami Grey-Thompson was the guest, I won by going for Brown sauce J He has the ability to just tell a story which will grab your interest and keep you involved. He’s also got a loyal bunch of listeners who are guaranteed to come up with some cracking yarns. I’ve read his previous books about his early life growing up in the East End and his early years on NME, TGI Friday and the like, I knew the new book brought matters vaguely up to date with his life. I also knew he’d had a bit of a battle with cancer, but I wasn’t aware of the exact details. As usual with Danny, the book weaved its way through various amusing stories of his life until the final few chapters when he discussed his battle with throat cancer. Oh bollox I thought, this is going to be fun. Whilst his cancer was in a different place to mine, his treatment mirrored mine down to the n’th degree, including the horrible side effects of RT and Chemo and the long, and sometimes lonely, journey to eventual recovery. Again, the tears flowed as he recalled the dreadful pain and agony he went through.

That’s it I thought, no more books about cancer for a while, I can’t take it. Give me Heavy Metal, Fencing and learning to fly, give me Bruce Dickinson and “What does this button do?” This was a spur of the moment purchase when I was flicking through Amazon, I’m not a massive Iron Maiden fan, but Dickinson is an interesting character. Public school educated, albeit expelled, an international fencer, lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in the world, successful solo career, qualified commercial airline pilot. I saw Iron Maiden back in the dim and distant past at the old Hammy Odeon, it was ok, until one of our party was kicked out by the bouncers for some reason that even now I can’t fathom, so we left about half way through the gig. ………………………… oh, and guess what? He’s had head and neck cancer!

I honestly had no idea before I reached the final chapters of the book that Bruce had a similar cancer to me. Very much like Danny’s book, the symptoms Bruce went through on his treatment pretty much mirrored mine, albeit both Danny and Bruce were far more eloquent in the way they described the treatment and side effects. Like Danny and Victoria, Bruce is now cancer free.

The three books are quite different in the way they’re set out and delivered. Danny Baker, even when he’s going through his cancer treatment, manages to find degrees of levity. Bruce Dickinson describes his treatment in quite an analytical way, which I guess it what you’d expect from a pilot. Then there’s Victoria Derbyshire, she’s so open, informative and descriptive in her writing, you almost feel like you’re sitting in the same room as she is whilst she has her chemo treatment. One of the interesting things about all three books though, is that once the original diagnoses is given the word “Death” is hardly mentioned by the three writers. They’ve received treatment that has saved their lives. They are, all three of them, survivors. There are thousands of other survivors too, they just haven’t written a book. Read the books, learn about cancer treatment, support those who are fighting the fight. 4^th February 2018 is World Cancer Day. Perhaps buy a band to show your support.

As always, thanks for reading.

To be continued…….

#Shoulder2Shoulder