UKC

Well blow me down... back on these hallowed pages just 5 years ago I wondered about Steve Ashton getting a 'collected stuff' publication out. And then, not half a decade later - lo! It happens

Diddly Squat's Encyclopaedia of Mountaineering has been released electronically and is I note currently racing up the charts at #31,070 in Amazon's bestseller list. Better watch out, Gordon!

And for less than two quid - all I need now is to know that I can read it through the kindle app rather than having to buy a Kindle... Looking forward to reliving some old favourites from High 20 years ago.

Thanks Steve. May your yellow bicycle cape evermore flutter magnificently in the Everest jet stream.

b

In reply to ben b:

No problem - just install the App on whatever device you have.

In reply to Kipper: 'Twas a lot easier when it came from W H Smiths or John Menzies (?) and could be read on the train home. Sigh.

Thanks!

b

In reply to ben b:
Must read this!

In reply to ben b: Are purple headbands involved? I think they have to be.

In reply to TobyA: I think we are showing our age here Toby!

Well, good news and bad news.

The Encyclopaedia is in fact just that - an A to Z gazetteer of the mountain world. So there appears to be none of the discursive columns that I recall so fondly (even when I have scarcely been able to get back in the water without fearing that my manhood is bitten off by an hungry tope).

On the other hand, it's a fine encyclopaedia so far - and I'm only up to 'C'.

1.93 very well spent

b

In reply to TobyA: Ah, enjoyed that.

He's turning into a sort of northern Humphrey Littleton...

"Pamirs: Mountain range in Central Asia named after popular rhyming poet."

b

In reply to ben b:

Review and link to Steve's website here...

http://footlesscrow.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/steve-ashtons-bumper-mountaineer...

In reply to ben b:

I'm glad someone else remembers. I believe the purple headband story was called "Back Where I belong" - I think I've nicked the joke a couple of times since in things I've written too!

The Footless Crow extract suggests he has added some new ones because I'm 100% certain that in the early 90s the only route I had "sent" was an insignificant Southern Highlands grade II and it was in a hand written letter to Andy Nisbet as the new routes compiler for the SMCJ!

In reply to crow-media:


I'm sure I just missed it, but where is the link?

In reply to TobyA:

Hi, the Footless Crow link is not that obvious so here's the direct link:

http://www.bluelizardbooks.com/

In reply to Steve Ashton: For those of us without a Kindle, & with ageing computers (my Mac will not run the kindle for Mac application ) is there any other format available ? - don't mind paying but having to buy a new computer makes it a bit expensive (although I know I'll need to sometime)

In reply to ben b:

Dear Sir, many thanks for purchasing a low number in what is certain to be a very limited edition.

Yes, this is a remake of a spoof encyclopedia that appeared in High over 20 editions or so during the early 90s. Some items have been deleted because they make no sense today (or would incur libel actions), and some added so stingy old buggers who subscribed to High don't feel entirely ripped off for buying the same thing twice.

If the encyclopedia goes OK, I plan to compile some of the other columns etc as hinted here: http://www.bluelizardbooks.com/about-blue-lizard-books/

Thanks again for your support. One more sale and I'm off to t'pub to get giddy.

In reply to Doug:

Maybe I could do a PDF version and sell it on the website via a PayPal button. Would that work?

One more thing. Don't expect some great fat virtual tome that will keep you entertained for weeks. It sells cheap because it is cheap. Many of the jokes are crap and the drawings aren't fit to be bluetacked to a primary school wall. If you are happy to flick a two quid coin down a grid just to hear the splash then go ahead. Don't say you haven't been warned.

In reply to Steve Ashton:

Who wrote that! My account must have been hacked. This is a fabulous book: leather bound, inlaid with gold, beautifully illustrated in original oils, and hand scribed by monks in a remote temple in Tibet. It will grace the shelves of any fine mountaineering library.

In reply to ben b:

I was curious, so I installed 'Kindle' on my computer and forked out the princely sum of $3.44 to see what it's all about !

I've always been totally against e-books. I'm someone who loves touching and turning pages; having a book on-hand, when I feel like reading a few pages of something familiar; or just looking at the titles of books I have read. Even s*** litterature is better in print-form !

So, what do I think ? Well, not much to be honest ! For the price, I got and will probably get a few more laughs, if and when I give the book another look !

In reply to Pyreneenemec:


Do you have a phone that you could read it on? My missus always used to get annoyed with me when I would read the Economist in bed because both my headtorch with nearly flat batteries and efforts to turn the pages as quietly as possible still seemed to disturb her. Now I read the e-version on my phone. Flipping virtual pages is silent and the Petzl is no longer needed as the phone obviously lights up enough for me to read in an otherwise pitch black room.

Maybe Steve's book isn't the one for nighttime phone reading though as you will be laughing so heartily.

In reply to TobyA:

Mea culpa - I think I have too - the line about having a "number 11 hex or maybe a cross section of the factory that makes them" certainly. Not that anyone laughed or got the joke... apart from presumably me and the original author...

b

In reply to Steve Ashton:
Some items have been deleted because they make no sense today (or would incur libel actions),

You're right. I just checked and Clint Eastwood is no longer Mayor of Grindelwald.

Steve, your A-Z was some of the best reading I did when I started climbing. Here in Australia it took an extra month or more for High to arrive in the shops and I would make a special trip into town looking for it. After reading and memorising every one of Lindsay's INFO columns I went straight to your alphabet. Good to see Ron Faucet get his dues...