Its like a war zone outside and I have found a shabby furry cushion on the sofa next to Blob who is smothering me with lots of insufferable platitudes to try and make me feel better.
She even took it upon herself to clean the eye bogies off my face and pick bits of fluff off my nose.
Normally I would have high tailed it out of here in disgust and in keeping with my usual demeanour of bad tempered intolerance, but like I said, its a war zone outside and if feeling safe and warm comes with the price tag of putting up with smothering mothering and having to grant cursory interest in whatever Blob is writing in her book, then Ill pay it!
At the moment Blob is trying to solve the problem of a niece that refuses to read. If reading wasn't that important then I suspect Blob wouldn't be worried, but because not reading anything has now begun to affect her nieces vocabulary and her grades are beginning to slip.
Now Blob's niece who we will refer to as Amber (mainly I believe because that is her name) is a bright little cookie has just decided that she doesn't like reading.
Blob is working on the principle that Amber just hasn't found the right book yet. She is now examining her bookshelves to find something that may stimulate her reading juices as it were.
So far she has 'The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents', this is a Terry Pratchett book for younger readers, but Blob enjoyed it. She is desperately looking for the first in the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer and has found another Eoin Colfer book called the Supernaturalists which is not sure about but is willing to give it a shot. She is also going to try a couple of her old paperbacks by E. Nesbit, "The WouldbeGoods" and "The Treasure Seekers." She also has somewhere some Roger McGough poetry books.
She's not sure whether to try some adult books, like the Adventures of Dougal by Eric Thompson, which is actually only an adult book for adults who just haven't realised it yet.
However, what she doesn't want to do is overload her niece or bully her so she may just give her a few with the one rule. She must read 30 pages, properly, before putting it down and saying she doesn't like it.
She runs a risk of this all ending in tears, but because she couldn't imagine a world without books, she is going to risk it.
Its still banging outside and by all accounts it will be worse tomorrow - looks like another night on the sofa feigning interest in Blob.
I wouldn't mind so much but I know full well that the fireworks will now continue every weekend until Christmas.
I sometimes think i was born to suffer!
Bob
If it makes you feel better, Bob, you're physique has been immortalised via the medium of cartoon in Nearly King Jimbo!
ReplyDeleteYou are playing a trumpet. You look like a hip 'n' cool happenin' cat.