Bruce Dickinson - What does this button do?

 I never liked Iron Maiden.  I just never for into them. I liked lots of other heavy metal stuff over the years but Iron Maiden just never floated my boat.  I think it's the way they dressed.  They just didn't do it for me.   I was never really a fan of Bruce Dickinson either.  I have vague memories of him messing about on the BBC Heavy Metal Heaven season in the eighties.  In retrospect he must have been channelling Spinal Tap.

I listen to audiobooks a lot.  When I'm commuting I like to use the time to do something and audiobooks seem efficient when I can't be bothered with music or the kindle. Using Audible you can often get an unexpected gem of a book for a couple of quid.

Which is how I found What does this button do?

Dickinson narrates his autobiography himself and he is funny.  He is very funny.  He doesn't take himself or anything else seriously.  Between his boarding school education, his adolescent interests and his general positive mental attitude this is a real feel good book.  He did very well with Iron Maiden and he became a pilot flying commercial airliners while on a break from music.  Eventually he was flying Iron Maiden around the world in 'Ed Force One',

He is, sadly, a 'Brexit wanker' although I do see that he has expressed dismay at the impact of Brexit on UK musicians which is good.  Thankfully we don't get any Brexit stuff in the book.  Just fencing, beer making and Spitfires.

He would be a better Prime Minister than the one we have.

Stephen King

 As a young teenager in the late 80s and the early 90s I went through my Stephen King phase.  I was always aware of Stephen King, even when I was younger than that but I was led to believe that the books were 'too scary' for a wee kid and to be fair, they probably would have been.

I can't remember which ones I started with but I did read almost everything that was available and fast.  I remember buy and loving the paperback of "The Dark Half'.  I'm sure I had a copy of Carrie and a few of his other early books.  I did have the hardback of the revised version of 'The Stand' with the Bernie Wrightson pictures.  Most of them I borrowed from the East Kilbride library.

More recently I've taken the time to catch up on some of his newer books.  11.22.63 is pretty good, The Outsider is enjoyable with some great characters, I finally managed to read the Gunslinger (book 1 of The Dark Tower) and I'm finally reading Doctor Sleep, the follow-up to The Shining. I'm glad I'm taking the time to read these books.

I can remember reading the Bachman Books collection when I was young and I was a bit surprised that King had withdrawn one of the Bachman novels (Rage) from print.  I think he had good reasons to do it but it is a bit weird to think that a book I remember reading 30 years ago has now disappeared from the shelves.

King writes with comfortable rhythms and that has been good over the past month while I've been recovering from minor surgery.  Looking at him now, I think he is a decent bloke.  I think his heart is in the right place so I'm glad that the young me spent so much time reading his work.  I don't think I'll ever read it all but some of it is good.  I wonder if my son will like his stuff when he grows up.