Tuesday, September 18, 2007

This is where I am going wrong

in my unstinting efforts to get this blog published and onto the shelves at WH Smith.

I am not tragic enough*...unlike these lot as seen today in Milton Keynes!



For fuck's sake - how many miserable childhoods do the reading population need?????

The really sharp eyed amongst you might notice that one of the books on the bottom shelve amongst very many 'Tragic Life Stories' is Alistair Campbell's biography, 'The Blair Years'. Whether placed there in error or not I really could not decide.


* Doesn't supporting a rubbish football team for nearly 40 years count?

11 comments:

Fire Byrd said...

OH woe is me I've snagged my nail... how will i cope, shall I need therapy.
I blame my mother.
pxx

John said...

That's a classic photo, J.J. You'll have to send it in to Private Eye or a similar such smarmy magazine.

Given that most of these authors are laughing all the way to the bank and that not a few of their tales have been shown to be fraudulent, I wonder if the category shouldn't be re-named something like "False Memoir Syndrome". And some of the tales are so ridiculously unlikely, I can't believe the authors weren't pissing themselves laughing when they concocted them. We should all maybe give it a go.

Anonymous said...

A shelf full of tragic lives? Every bookshop in Glasgow has much the same. Its where they put their Old Firm publications. :-)

Gill said...

haha this made me laugh- I loved the idea of the Blair years being a tragic life story!!

Gill said...

ps if you visit my blog for aug 1st you can have a sneak preview of my new bestseller...

The Fatalist said...

Go on...own up: you put it there yourself! I reckon you're talking cobblers! (Sorry!)
Why are all these books so popular? Who knows? Maybe there's more cruelty in the world that people don't admit to than we think.
Of a much smaller genre, but one I can't get enough of, is one of tales of people who battled through alcoholism. As someone now over five years sober, I try to find things I can relate to. Maybe others are doing the same...

Monozygote said...

I see it's already been said, but that is indeed a classic!

J.J said...

Pixie - you should expose her in a book you know.

John,I laughed out loud when I saw it, possibly not showing the appropriate response to so much tragedy.

Good one Kev!

Oh Gill - I would imagine the Universal Lady Boy would have a tragic tale of two to tell as well!

Fatalist - I'm not clever enough to think of something like that! On subject of AA books, I thought Tony Adams book was excellent.

Cheers Dandelion, it did make me laugh!

rilly super said...

They're all gross exaggerations you know JJ, and half of those books are written by the same person under different names. You can't believe anything you read nowadays. It's shocking.

Karen said...

A friend of mine at work likes to read these true life story books. She enjoys them a great deal and imparts little snippets to us about them. I can't help but inwardly smirk at all the comments made by you JJ and by my mum (I agree with you).

J.J said...

Rilly, I thank god for blogs like yours that we can rely upon for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth ;-)

Karen, sometimes taking work mates seriously can be a challenge.