Why don't I read anymore?

Having looked over my blog page, one thing struck me. I have not listed any books that I am currently reading, the music, pod casts and film are all there, but no books.
It then came to me that I don't really read anymore. What a sad state of affairs this is! Don't get me wrong I have never really been a big reader, in fact I remember at school struggling to finish one during a Read-a-thon. Really showing my age there, perhaps schools don't do that anymore. However I remember in my late teens reading a large amount of books. An early favourite was Nick Hornby. High Fidelity being my favourite as I remember.
I also loved reading horror books as well, strange I know. This brings me onto the subject of my favourite book ever, 'I am Legend' by Richard Matheson. For saying it was written in 1954, I think the vision of the author was incredible. Especially when considering it came a full 14 years before George A Romero's Night of the Living Dead film, which is lauded for its visionary status in relation to horror. Please don't watch the film with Will Smith and make a decision from there, I urge you to read the book first...
However, its very sad that I am not a book worm anymore, maybe its finding the time and effort to reintroduce my life back to books. It seems that music and other forms of entertainment are taking over, perhaps the Internet is to blame.

Just a reflection that I thought was worth mentioning.

My current music obsession

Over the years of being a music obsessive there have been many favourite bands of all time. I remember when I was at school and just getting into music when I had the typical first love - Heavy Metal - I remember going to various market stalls and buying every bit of vinyl I could get my hands on, and what band was my favourite - AC/DC!
I don't really know what it was about the Aussie rockers that I loved, maybe it was the great tunes they came up with. Perhaps it was the dominate vocals of both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson? Who knows but I think I had every album they ever made and then some as well!

Moving on towards the end of my school days, and merging into the Brit Pop days, was my interest in the Manic Street Preachers. I think I was a convert from the Everything Must Go era, and so I again worked backwards and quickly owned everything they had done. I was never really one of those yeah 'I knew them at the beginning' people, as if I had I would have been about 12 years old!

I then graduated up the music ladder onto university and naturally I moved to America where I have never really looked back since I'm afraid. I was introduced to The Velvet Underground by a friend and then that took me into the 'I own expensive 7 inch singles you know' area. There were other bands I loved from that era, Screaming Lord Sutch, Dusty Springfield, Vanilla Fudge and The Monkees, however the VU were fantastic I thought. I quickly became familiar with the back catalogue through the excellent Peel Slowly and See boxset. What a band!

Then onto the last few years and its been Ryan Adams and The Cardinals that have float my boat! I think I found him myself through plays of the Gold album, probably through plays of New York, New York. However the later stuff that he has done is just incredible to me, culminating in Cardinology last year, where the single Fix It sells the album on its own.

So that's got us right up to date with the obsessions, but the strange thing is I still love all the other bands, yes even AC/DC!!

Nintendo Wii

I have today become the proud owner of a Wii.

This is quite a big thing in my life as I have not owned a games console thing for a number of years. In fact I vaguely remember tapping away on a Commodore 64 when I was young, as I would frantically try to beat my co gamer on the 100 metre run.

Strange then that all these years later I would want one now. However after unpacking the thing and working out how it worked, I could see why I wanted it so much. The interactivity about these new things is incredible. I opted for the Wii fit pack after playing it at a friends, and I thought the gyrating aspect of the board was hilarious. Its great fun in a family/Friends orientated way. However playing boxing on your own and pretending its your worst enemy is pretty good too.

Don't worry this blog won't just be about wii's that would be a Little too much! Its gonna be about anything really, films I see (Star Trek - how great was that), music I listen to (current favourite - Bat for Lashes) and the very rare moment when I end up at a gig (very rare - last gig Ryan Adams - November 2008!!).

First Time Blogger

Well its about time but I have to admit to defeat in the long battle of not wanting to blog, but here goes......