The Not So Great Gatsby

 

I have finished  "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald and to me, it is very American and reminds me a lot of "The Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger. It's not a terrible novel, but not, in my opinion, great either. The characters were annoying and it addressed the rags-to-riches American dream. I was waiting for something interesting to happen and it sort of did, but I doubt I will be revisiting the book. I am told the film is good so I may try that at some point.

I wrote a Vocal story called "The Great Catsby" that you can read below.

Also Leslie West of Mountain was a great guitarist and a very big man and I think he had an album or nickname called "The Great Fatsby"

I wanted something fun and interesting to read next so have chosen to revisit "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" Douglas Adams trilogy in five parts which combines wit and intelligent writing.

Seven Days In has hit over one hundred thousand visits this month and here are the figures.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is "Let's Dance" by David Bowie that is on the player at the moment.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Half Gatsby

I am halfway through "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald and to me, it is very American and reminds me a lot of "The Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger. Like that book, I find it boring but oddly captivating, but I am fine knowing that it is fairly short so I know I will finish it this week.

I am listening to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band who make even the most mundane music more than listenable to the point of being absolutely excellent.

I wrote a Vocal story called "The Great Catsby" that you can read below.

Also Leslie West of Mountain was a great guitarist and a very big man and I think he had an album or nickname called "The Great Fatsby"

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is "Everythings Gonna Be Alright" by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

The Great Gatsby

 

I have finished "How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen and it is worrying that charlatans have their hands on the power in the world. It is a book that everyone should read.

I don't know about you but there are so many books in my house that I haven't read and I wanted some fiction and didn't realise that we had "The Great Gatsby" by F Scott Fitzgerald.

I wrote a Vocal story called "The Great Catsby" that you can read below.

Also Leslie West of Mountain was a great guitarist and a very big man and I think he had an album or nickname called "The Great Fatsby"

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is "Theme From An Imaginary Western" by Mountain.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

The Million

Seven Days In now has had its millionth visit. These are the latest figures. That was sort of unexpected but two hundred thousand visits have occurred in the last two months, and the blog has been going fifteen years.

Continuing with "How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen and expect to finish this soon. It is worrying that charlatans have their hands on the power in the world.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is, Spacehog's "To Be A Millionaire". 

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Monopoly

Continuing with "How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen and it has remarked on how "The Market" and Money are the new religion. Global companies and money eulogise the "Free Market" and then use their power to become monopolies or cartels to manipulate prices and push the consumer into penury.

Any government that does not facilitate this are attacked to attempt to bring them into line. The UK and USA have certainly been brought into line.

In the book the USA continually attacks countries like France, Finland and Sweden for not being in thrall to big money like the "land of the free".

This book is nearly twenty years old and things have got much worse. Lying and cheating are the norms the further up the money chain you go.

Seven Days In is still getting a good number of reads so I expect it to hit 100K visits this month (it is standing at 41K today) and a million since my first post (It is standing at 980K today) and when that happens I will share it with you.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is, appropriately "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)" by the Pet Shop Boys, 

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Highway To Hell

"How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen is worrying more as I read it. The evil of Thatcher and Reagan's legacy is destroying our world. The only thing that matters is profit. Everything is designed to line the pockets of financial institutions, corporations and the rich. In the UK Labour is almost indistinguishable from the Conservatives.

There are good people still here but it is getting harder every day for them to have an effect.

This book is nearly twenty years old and things have got much worse. Lying and cheating are the norms the further up the money chain you go.

Seven Days In is still getting a good number of reads so I expect it to hit 100K visits this month and a million since my first post and when that happens I will share it with you.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is, appropriately Rick Astley's take on "Highway To Hell" by AC/DC for a bit of fun.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer

Send Out The Clowns

"How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World" by Francis Wheen worries me more as I read it. Don't get me wrong it is an excellent book, but the remarks on the front say it is hilarious and funny, to the point you expect comedy, but it is genuinely frightening, just going over the fatwa issued on Salman Rushdie and how western governments and religion seemed virtually OK with it.

I feel Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Rishi Sunak are treated as jokes and figures of fun when the reality is that the clowns are very dangerous. They are bullies who think they are above the law when they should be behind bars. People defend them, saying what they do is legal, but it is their mates who make the laws and if they don't like them they just ignore them because they are allowed to get away with breaking the law.

This is my first post in July and I am hitting three thousand visits a day, so if that keeps up, in theory, I could hit a hundred thousand this month, but we shall see. Last year I did twenty posts, this year I am already up to twenty-six.

Recent posts were usually lucky to get twenty visits but recently they are hitting fifty and the last one is up to seventy-four, so I don't know what is happening.

If you want to buy a book my dark poetry is on the link below.

The music is "They Murdered The Clown" by Graham Parker, just an amazing song.

I recently discovered that my American Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here. It only shows on the .com site but not others. C'est La Vie.

Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. Barter Books - An Amazing Bookshop In A Railway Station In Alnwick
2. The Plagiaristic Poetry Series - Poems Taken From Random-Themed Lines
3. Another Raven - A Take On Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven"
4. The Cleaner - An Autism-Focused Christmas Special
5. An Owl In A Towel - A Beautiful Book by Lesley and Cheryl
6. Three Reasons Why I Love Settle - Scaleber Force, The Hoffman Kiln and Castlebergh Crag
7. The Accidental Book - Helping a Great Vocal Friend Resulted In Me Publishing My First Book
8. Call Me Les - A Great Friend and An Amazing Writer