Do Mole's Have Oeuvres?

Moody Mole

With this brief entry I have finished all 11 sections of AM's diaries and very fulfilling they are - the definition of bitter-sweet. Now we just have to wait for the official Volume 10 (two of the diaries are just fragments in various publications). I only had to order one from the library - my copy of The Wilderness Years seems to have vanished into the ... er ... wilderness. Adrian Mole is a writer up there with Proust for detail of observation and despite the exquisite pompousness of his own literary efforts the diaries are strangely free of overt pretension. While reading the last book I think I identified at least three levels of irony. Sue Townsend for Prime Minister! Brett Mole for Chancellor! The horrible truth is that I started writing poetry because of Adrian Mole. My early efforts were as bad if not worse than his but I like to think I've progressed more than Adrian. Only you can tell me whether that's true.

From this to a lazy Saturday morning listening to that nice Stuart Maconie's Freakier Zone with extracts from the releases on Brian Eno's Obscure Records label. Boy is giving the various tracks either a thumbs-up or thumbs-down with one fingers-in-ears, which is disappointing though maybe not very surprising.

Dinosaurs DO exist!

Listening to all of the PJ Harvey in the library.

Yet another small step towards the disenlightenment in the form of the sanctioning of Creationist theories as part of lesser-known exam authorities. The idea that the teachings accept the existence of The Loch Ness Monster but NOT any of the mechanics of evolution is breath-taking - let it be taught in the crazy schools but please do not let us examine children on the subject. Having said that I can understand how it seems easier to read one simple book rather than a lot of hard ones.

Talking of easier books, here is proof of the imminent publication of the next volume of the Adrian Mole Diaries. I was sure that The Prostate Years was a joke but as I came to the end of The Lost Diaries (the Guardian column collected), there was an advertisment for it. And with The next volume of Michael Palin's diaries out in time for Christmas as well, a lot of quiet time will be required over the winterval this year. The trouble is, the pile of books to complete is possibly going to take longer than until Christmas to get through so I need to stop going to the library. Oh dear! Failed again! Just ordered this from the online catalogue. But I can stop anytime. I can. I just don't want to.

I am also within 10 pages of the end of the notebook and so the question of what version is required next. I chose a squared Moleskine last time and that suits my rather inexact writing but I should really go for just ruled next time. I haven't really been keeping it up to the standard it deserves. The first pages had lots of multi-coloured stuff, mind maps etc. but recently it has just been a collection of hastily-scribbled notes with the writing deteriorating enough so that I can't read it a week later. However, I suppose the contents of the writing is the important thing but I really would like it to be well-laid-out. My father has a much better eye for me, probably from being an engineer. He makes his own birthday cards on the computer and his last one was a large picture of Zebras at a water hole. It was borderless and took up the whole outside cover of the card, with the subject positioned exactly.