Lonely Cottage

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  “Among the few features of agricultural England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries, may be reckoned the high, grassy and furzy downs, coombs, or ewe-leases, as they are indifferently called, that fill a large area of certain counties in the south and south-west. If any mark of human occupation is met with hereon, it usually takes the form of the solitary cottage of some shepherd. Fifty years ago such a lonely cottage stood on such a down, and may possibly be standing there now. In spite of its loneliness, however, the spot, by actual measurement, was not more than five miles from a county-town. Yet that affected it little. Five miles of irregular upland, during the long inimical seasons, with their sleets, snows, rains, and mists, afford withdrawing space enough to isolate a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar; much less, in fair weather, to please that less repellent tribe, the poets, philosophers, artists, and others who “conceive and meditate of ple...

My Laughing Book

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"Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.

How could anyone not love this book? This avid Pink Floyd fan who wrote three Doctor Who episodes and helped springboard many computer games is a force to be considered! This man understood things!

Consider Adams' keen skill of observation. "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t."

Or his "theory of the Universe" theory: "There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

Or his definition of "space" which is "big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”

Or his simple philosophy on life, "how just when you think life can’t possibly get any worse it suddenly does.”

 Or his description of reality. "Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

Perhaps the most meaningful statement in all that Adams offers is this: "There is a moment in every dawn when light floats, there is the possibility of magic. Creation holds its breath."




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