Books

I never saw myself as somebody who doesn't like to read.
In the opposite.
But for sure I always had certain issues...
I always wanted pictures in my books. Yes, I know that people associate that with stupidity and a lack of ability to read. But I just simply am at a loss when I have nothing to hold on to in my mind.
People always point out how important it is to let ones imagination run. But really, I just cannot imagine people very well. So, when the looks of people  are somewhat important to the story, like for instance in The Lord of The Rings, I need guidance.

I got one book of Enid Blyton's "Five"-series for Christmas, I'm not so sure, but I think it was 1979.
And I really loved the book. Mother read it to us, so no troubles getting started on it.
So very soon I got more books of the series, and soon my sister offered me to read her books of Blyton's "Adventure"-series.
But I couldn't.
Because my favorite characters wouldn't be in those.
To this day I haven't read any of Enid Blyton's other famous series.
I find it exceptionally hard to get acquaint with people in books, or even on TV, and it disturbs me greatly when things get changed.
I am a huge Diagnosis Murder fan, and lucky me, just a short while after I had become a fan, at a time when the series came off the air, it was announced that a couple of novels were planned to be written. By author Lee Goldberg, who had written a couple of episodes of the TV show too.
And gee, was I happy when I held my first book in my hands!
The greatest thing about that was, that I would finally learn how my favorite characters, Mark Sloan and Steve Sloan, talk in the original. Being from Germany, I only knew that dubbed, speaking with strangers voices. Okay, I wouldn't hear the voices in the books, but I would know the wording.
But just a couple of pages into the book, I really got disturbed.
Lee Goldberg had taken it upon himself to "set a couple of things right".
Besides some other things he had changed the characters ages!
  Lee Goldberg, the author, is a total pain down south somewhere. He is so full of himself, and spends hours and hours on the internet, hoovering up praise for his sloppy work, and he just doesn't care when people find out that his work is sloppy. I had sent several remarks about things he was inconsistent about, or downright wrong. And his uncouth reply was that he doesn't care. It's his books, and he can write them just as he pleases...
So, anyway, I cannot read those books without getting into a state. My mind keeps yelling out loud when things aren't true, or when things are just simply not believable, going by what the series had been like, and I end up being exhausted, displeased, and in a real rotten mood.
Apart from being a firm believer that Mr. Goldberg sucks big time, I want to make the point here that my mind just cannot adjust while I'm reading.
That also got me out of reading Star Trek books.
Star Trek novels are written by many different authors, and they all want to come up with something ingenious, that marks their own work. One author invented a restaurant I think on board, where the characters go, and others invented real freaky crew members.
But all those inventions stayed in the work of just one author. They never got picked up as a general fact. - Yes, I am aware that there is the copyright thing. But I'm thinking if one writes in a universe like Star Trek, one should be willing to keep things followable.
And since that is not so, I simply cannot follow anymore.
   And follow I cannot either when I'm watching a movie, when I haven't had a chance to read in advance what it is all about.
That has gotten so that I hardly watch any TV anymore, since I cannot afford to buy a guide anymore.
I do access my  accustomed TV guide through the internet, but that is just too much trouble. All the scrolling that is involved, and the fact that they only display a few stations on one page, makes it impossible for me to gain any useful information.
But well, I don't have the time to watch a whole lot of TV anyway.
Nowadays I mostly just listen, while I work in Photoshop or something.
The one thing I still actually watch is documentaries.
Because I cannot gain the desired amount of information from books I have turned to visual education, and like that have accumulated quite some knowledge, in dozens of different fields.

And internet by the way.
I cannot read internet posts, when they contain too many quotes.
Some people really do that quoting beyond any reason. They quote what others have already quoted, and that all leaves a total mess, which I simply cannot understand any more.

So, I usually read what I know.
Up to this day I still actually ready my Enid Blyton books.
Just three years ago I have started buying the original books in English.
I have books I read in summer, and others I prefer to read during autumn or winter, when it's cold and one has to be under covers.
But I also love to read "Le Petit Nicolas", because that always brings back good memories of being in school. Rudolf Steiner school rooms can be pretty cozy, and it's great thinking back. Our French teatcher had read Le Petit Nicolas as a treat when we had behaved and learned well.