Books...
With such a wide-ranging subject, where does one start? Dunno, really, so I suppose the best thing to do is just dive into my bookshelves and see what I come up with. Before I do that, though, I'd like to draw your attention, if you haven't already seen it on my blogs, to the Green Metropolis website. A great source of affordable, second-hand books, all at one price, £3.75, which more often than not includes postage, and 5p from every sale is donated to the Woodland Trust .
You can sell books there, too, though when it comes to books, I tend to be a hoarder. I have about 1,500 books, for which I really don’t have enough space, but this is a fraction of what I used to have when I lived in a bigger flat. Still, if you do sell books on GM, you get £3 per book and, unless a book is unusually heavy, you pay the postage. For heavy books you’re allowed a surcharge.
It’s not about making a profit, it’s about keeping books in circulation, in an affordable manner, and, of course, funding the regeneration of British woodland at the same time.
In conjunction with Green Metropolis, I use Fantastic Fiction which, despite the name, encompasses all genres of fiction, and is a great resource when the information about a book on GM is a little sparse.
Right, then, back to where we came in. It's very much a personal take on books I'm reading, or have read, and no doubt some of you won't agree with me. You'd be wrong, though!
In the mid seventies I read a book, the subject of which seized hold of my imagination and refused to let go. I've never been able to find it, since, as I'd completely forgotten what it was called or who it was by but, browsing Green Metropolis, I stumbled across it quite by accident, and I've now got another copy of Harry Harrison's "A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!" (Note: also published as ATunnel Through the Deeps which, compared to the original, is a positively leaden title.)
The title saves you wondering what it's about - it's the building of a (rail) tunnel between Britain and the United States. You might think that was sufficient in itself, but as a bonus it's set in an alternate universe, one where the Christians lost the battle of Navas de Tolosa in 1212, and the Iberian Peninsula remained in Muslim hands as part of the Great Caliphate; America lost the Revolutionary War and remains a colony; the petrochemical industry never happened; aircraft are coal-fired. And so it goes...
Nothing is perfect, though, and a couple of jarring notes creep in. Epoxy resins are, apparently, widely used, though as far as I know, these originated as offshoots of the petrochemical industry, as did butane and propane, both commonly used in the tale, and as an American, Harrison's rendering of a working-class English accent grates, though in fairness, he's no worse than many English writers. But hey, it's a cracking tale and it does what it's supposed to do superbly - it entertains immensely, and takes you away to another place, and more than that you can't ask of a book. Well, OK, you can, but it's enough for me.
The construction of the tunnel is as fascinating as it is fraught with danger, and whether it would actually work is irrelevant (it's a work of fiction, after all - if we can accept an alternate universe, we can accept the tunnel as presented to us - it works for me), not a page - not even a paragraph - is superfluous to the narrative (Stephen King please note!). The novel is set in 1973, and, of course, Elizabeth II is on the throne - but at that point all resemblance to the seventies we knew is lost.
The tale, written somewhat in the manner of a Victorian novel, opens with a high-speed train journey - 44 years ahead of reality, and nuclear-powered, to boot - very appropriate as a reactor is merely a steam-engine with delusions of grandeur, but unlike its modern counterpart heads at breakneck speed from London to Penzance, rather than for the channel and France. Penzance is, of course, the English terminus of the eponymous tunnel, the tale's current subject being the personal assistant to the Marquis Cornwallis, carrying a message from his master to the tunnel's engineer, Augustus Washington (and yes, these names are significant).
Now find a copy and read on...