Books and Newspapers

Owen
09/11/2015
Diary, General, My Books, Ramblings, Thailand, Writing

Books and Newspapers

I am not going to claim that this idea is revolutionary or even new, but it occurred to me yesterday that the main difference between books and newspapers is fact and ideas. A friend was telling me that he gave up reading books years ago and only reads free online publications these days. I said that I thought he was subjecting himself to only the depressing part of reading, and missing out on the uplifting ideas in many books.

Newspapers are about how many people died in which wars and where; how many people have lost their jobs; rapes; murders; government cuts… they are depressing and don’t attempt to be anything else.

It strikes me that reading only that seven days a week just because it is free, without the counterbalance of excitement and hope for the future that is in many books is dangerous for the equilibrium of the mind.

‘How many times have you read a newspaper that you couldn’t put down?’ I asked him. ‘Compare that with the number of books that engrossed you to the point that you were sorry to reach the end’.

I do not expect a conversion, but he will go away and think about it.

After that 80mm grasshopper the other day, came another new animal today. It is in the picture here. A

tree shrew. When I first saw it, I thought it was a rat, but they are rare – I have only seen one in eleven years. Then it jumped into a tree and looked very at home, so I thought ‘a squirrel’. My wife said ‘no’, and gave me the Thai name (gra-dtae) and someone on the Internet translated it for me.

My NaNoWriMo entry, ‘A Night in Annwn’ is coming on nicely at 57% complete. It is about a Welsh sheep farmer, who undergoes a near-death experience. It will be released on December 10th, but you can pre-order it here in case you forget.

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All the best,

Owen

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Owen

Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.