Oxford & Books...

Well the great news is I got the job! I start on monday, and I am very excited to see how it pans out. Its sounds really interesting, but I am not going to say here what I will be doing... If you know me, you probably already know!

Yesterday I went to Oxford for a day trip. First though an attempt at buying 25p tickets for the Regents Park open air theatre, but sadly I got there too late and stood no chance of getting a cheap ticket. It wasn't helped by circle line, traffic, then getting off the bus too late and finally not being able to find the ticket office which was actually inside the inner circle and not outside as it appeared on the map.

So off to Paddington and onto the First Great Western via Slough & Reading. It was much quicker than I thought and in no time I was on the hop on hop off bus learning about how if I went to Oxford University, I would only study for 3 years, and then 3 years later, just by virtue of having studied at Oxford, I would automatically get a Masters! Brilliant, of course, there is no chance of me studying at Oxford is there?

Needless to say, my fake International Student Card, which I legally acquired in Egypt, passed the test at the Hop on Hop off Bus ticket agency. And which university do I go to? None other than Oxford University itself.

So while I didn't attended that days public lecture of "Transgressing the boundaries of genre: the children's stories of the Soviet Yiddish writer Der Nister (1884-1950)", I did manage to find the Oxford University Press, which made me think a great souvenir from Oxford would be a book! But I wasn't too chuffed with Oxford Dictionaries or the Oxford Companion of Oxford Press's Big books. Nor did I find any of the textbooks of much use or interest.

So I set off and found the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Fairly plain and boring on the inside, it did have a tower which I duly climbed which gave me a good view of Oxford itself.

Oxford is actually a very nice, relaxed city. What stood out for me was the bikes. I'm not sure if I will see as many bikes (that's bicycles for non Kiwis) anywhere else except Holland. you could barely go anywhere without tripping over, walking into or getting run down by a bike.

Carrying on with the bus tour, we came to a Library which is a copyright library, so it has a copy of every book that is copyrighted in the UK. Apparently it extends well underground and when you want to get a book out you must order it then come back six hours later while they find it!

And then up ahead was an apparently small looking bookstore which seemed to replicate the library, you went into a tiny shop front, down some stairs and into a massive cavernous area the size of an Olympic swimming pool. Now here was a place I could buy some books!

Keeping in mind I am now supposedly budgeting hard, I found myself walking away with five books, and worse, I stopped at another bookshop and came away with six more!! So back to London, Eleven books heavier!! At least I can say I spent my birthday money thanks mum! What were the books then I hear you wondering? (Or not perhaps, but I'm going to tell you anyway because I am unemployed and have the time to do so for once!)

Well first there were two travel books, the first about a blind man who travelled the world, (in the early 1800's no less!), the second called The Pharaoh's Shadow, about travels in Egypt.

Next a book by Alistair Cooke (a famous broadcaster who recently died), which covers life in America as it builds up to World War 2, and then a book on The Battle of the Somme. the next book, Bad Lands, follows the war theme and is written by the founder of Lonely Planet, as he travels through "The Axis of Evil" countries.

Which brings us into modernity with "The Islamist", a story of a British Muslim kid who became an Islamic fundamentalist at school and then five years later came back to being more liberal/normal/ standard Muslim type practice. (I'm not sure what you would call it. In fact reading the back of the book he calls it a return to normality). The Muslim theme then takes us to Iran Awakening, the story of a female lawyer who won the Nobel Peace Prize defending vulnerable cases that others refuse to touch.

Also on the theme of Religion is a book I have heard good things about - The five people you meet in heaven. Essentially the idea is you die and then go to heaven (if you haven't been too naughty I suppose!), and review you life with five people who have had a dramatic influence in your life, whether you realise they did or not.

And speaking of Heavens, I have finally buckled and bought A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (recently seen experiencing zero G). This will be a rather serious and heavy read which is why I bought The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, a book about the murder of a dog and the investigation of it by a boy who has Aspeger's Syndrome.

And finally after all these serious, depressing and inspiring books, I have The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, a modern philosopher who puts a historical and psychological spin on ideas about how to be happy through modern architecture and living spaces.

So a lot of reading to do, and hopefully with my new job I will find the time to read!