Another piece to share with VB readers from new contributor, Jonathan Dodd.
What is it about books?
I consider myself to be a well-travelled man. I’ve visited quite a few countries, on holiday and even occasionally on business. I also read a lot.
My reading has allowed me to visit far and wide across the globe, to Paris and Provence and Carcassonne, to Barcelona and Morocco and South Africa and Turkey and Delhi and Mumbai and Afghanistan and Iran, up to Moscow and Siberia, across to Sweden and Norway, even to Greenland.
Crossed the oceans
I’ve crossed the oceans to Canada, down the West Coast of America, across Texas and up the east coast to New England, then southwards via the Caribbean to Brazil and Peru and Argentina and Chile.
I’ve hopped over to Australia and New Zealand, to Hong Kong and Thailand, into China and Japan. I’ve even trekked the icy wilds of Antarctica. And all whilst sitting in trains, lying in my bed, or eating my sandwiches at work.
I’ve been with many
I’ve accompanied a rich variety of new friends and companions along the way. I’ve followed Swedish detectives as they solved crimes, hidden in German cellars while bombs rained overhead, trekked through jungles and over mountain ranges; I’ve starved and gorged and been injured and died quite often too.
I’ve been soldiers and monks and policemen and housewives and children, and I’ve even been dogs and horses, and fish and otters, rabbits and moles.
What I’ve done
I’ve driven and paddled and sailed and walked and flown in all sorts of aeroplanes, I’ve been in balloons and submarines and tanks.
It’s been a full life so far.
I’ve also been able to travel in time. I’ve met Pharaohs, Victorian explorers, Assyrians and ancient Persians, Romans and Greeks, cavemen, Crusaders, sailors in Nelson’s navy, kings and queens, reformers and criminals, slaves and politicians.
In love and war
I escaped the fall of Troy and the burial of Pompeii and the First World War
trenches. I became a samurai and joined the Resistance and fought in Stalingrad.
And I watched Vermeer paint and Mozart compose and sat with Keats while he died. It was all wonderful.
And I’ve visited places nobody has been to. I’ve flown through the rings of Saturn, gone to the beginning and end of Time itself.
Other worlds
I’ve seen goblins and wizards and necromancers, devils and gods and talking wolves and educated fauns.
I’ve worn the One Ring and battled He Who Cannot Be Named, I’ve ridden armoured polar bears with my daemon. I’ve feared and hated and loved across the known and unknown universes, quite a lot of them.
No wonder writers are my heroes.
If you have been, thanks for reading this.
More later, Jonathan
Image: Rhys Moult under CC BY 2.0
