The Bookshop Blogger #14
From heavens above to the greatest show on Earth
Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 1:07 PM
I have held off saying anything but, as reports drift over of the return of the ash cloud and more disruption to travel arrangements looms, I find that I can hold it in no longer; this whole thing did not take me by surprise at all. When I think about the trouble at polling booths and the general confusion at the result of the General Election, my “lower self”, as Susan Jeffers might call it, wants to scream “I TOLD YOU SO!”
You see, these and many other little and more personal irritations occurred during the astrological phenomenon known as Mercury Retrograde. Astrology has been around for a very long time and whenever something like Mercury Retrograde comes along I am always amazed at how accurate it is. Mercury is the planet of communication and when it goes retrograde (appears to move backwards) things go wrong.
For years now, I have avoided scheduling major events to occur during this period and over the past week, when the campaigns in our bookstores have been changing and the intranet carrying the orders of our beloved Head Office crashed and everything had to be re-sent, whilst the stock for the new campaigns failed to turn up, my rationale was reaffirmed.
It was extremely stressful and all I could think was, if only someone at Head Office had read one of the marvellous books on astrology we have in virtually every branch then all of this could have been avoided. So, my dear readers, I am going to recommend to you three wonderful books so that you can learn about astrology and, like me, book your holiday flights in the windows between ash clouds or vote at elections on your way to work rather than queuing up at polling stations and running the risk of being denied your democratic rights.
They are: The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook: An In-Depth Guide To Interpreting Your Horoscope by Sue Tompkins; Parker’s Astrology by Julia and Derek Parker; and The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine Woolfolk.
Of course, all you die-hard non-believers can always go to the other extreme and buy yourself a copy of Richard Dawkins’ latest Humanist tome, The Greatest Show on Earth which has just been released in paperback, but tell me this: when Richard Dawkins misses a flight because of the ash cloud and is then told that he can’t get his money back through his insurance because it’s ‘an act of God’, just who is laughing?
