Peter John Coles

Reading, Writing and Photography

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Sunday afternoon @joeloungelondon (at JOE Lounge London) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpwmk_-Hns8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=nqyh53ejluq3

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There are wild turtles you can feed carrots to here! | #marmaris #Turkey (at Marmaris)

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It's all different shades of blue here | #marmaris #Turkey

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#isleofdogs makes we want to get a dog and love it forever (at Ritzy Cinema)

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Book 16/52 - #SwitchBitch by #RoaldDahl (1974) | Switch Bitch is a small collection of short stories that have the theme of sex at their heart. But the sex isn't loving, romantic; it's bawdy, slapstick, or to but it in much clearer terms, misogynistic. The women in all the stories at sex objects for the male protagonists who have similar detestable personalities including rape being an essential part of achieving their climax. So why did I read the whole book? One because it's Roald Dahl and the writing is Incredible: he has style that just compels you to read whether you want to or not. And two, because of the twist that would always come at the end of each story. These men always, without fail, become the butt of the joke. They are the punchline. And the thrill of reading comes from seeing how these horrible men are going to get their comeuppance. However, while we do get the karmic twist of fate for the male leads, the female characters remain forever objectified. And this leaves a very bitter taste in your mouth while reading. We can say that we have to forgive Roald Dahl because of the time and culture he was writing in. But I'm just not sure about that anymore. There are hints throughout the stories in which we do see a sense of empowerment in his female characters but this is snuffed out almost immediately or entirely ruined in the proceeding story. There is no 'getting over this' for me while reading these stories, it's something that's always going to be in the forefront of my mind. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd

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Book 16/52 - #SwitchBitch by #RoaldDahl (1974) | Switch Bitch is a small collection of short stories that have the theme of sex at their heart. But the sex isn't loving, romantic; it's bawdy, slapstick, or to but it in much clearer terms, misogynistic. The women in all the stories at sex objects for the male protagonists who have similar detestable personalities including rape being an essential part of achieving their climax. So why did I read the whole book? One because it's Roald Dahl and the writing is Incredible: he has style that just compels you to read whether you want to or not. And two, because of the twist that would always come at the end of each story. These men always, without fail, become the butt of the joke. They are the punchline. And the thrill of reading comes from seeing how these horrible men are going to get their comeuppance. However, while we do get the karmic twist of fate for the male leads, the female characters remain forever objectified. And this leaves a very bitter taste in your mouth while reading. We can say that we have to forgive Roald Dahl because of the time and culture he was writing in. But I'm just not sure about that anymore. There are hints throughout the stories in which we do see a sense of empowerment in his female characters but this is snuffed out almost immediately or entirely ruined in the proceeding story. There is no 'getting over this' for me while reading these stories, it's something that's always going to be in the forefront of my mind. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd

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Book 16/52 - #Attrib by #EleyWilliams (2017) | Attrib. is Williams' debut collection of short stories that all focus, in some way, on the difficulties of communication. She explores where it gets complicated to express what one is truly trying to say, and where it is downright impossible. Williams' writing is, above all, fun. Fun seems like too much of diminishing word, like I'm trying to condescend her writing, but I'm really not. It is fun because she has complete mastery over the words she uses, each one precisely picked for the desired affect she is trying to instil in the reader. What is interesting about Attrib. is that the author is always present in the text (bar a few stories), and usually this is something I'm against. I don't want to be impressed by the author's skill, but instead I just want to be in the story. But with this novel, I just wanted more of the author: I wanted her to come out of the text and show me something even more intricate she has created with language. If you're a fan of short stories and the minutiae of language, then this collection is for you. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd

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A train runs along the bookshelves of @barterbooks. The poem in the background is 'If My Train Will Come' by Katrina Porteous. If my train will come, Quietly, in the night, With no other sound than the slow Creak of wheel upon wheel; If, huge as a house but brighter, Crouched at the edge of the fields Like a steaming beast, it is waiting Down the deserted road; Through the colliery gate and the church Where my mother and father were wed Are all grown over at last And the people I knew there dead now, If a stranger alights And, holding my breath, I see That he has your eyes, your hair, But does not remember me; And if there follows a girl With my face from years ago And for miles by the sides of the tracks The Burnham grasses blow - O, if my train will come With its cargo of souls who have passed Over this world to find me, Will I go? Will I want to? (at Barter Books Alnwick)

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This is the tree from that bit at the beginning of Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, although I think the tree would rather like to be known for its own staggering beauty rather than a bit part in a 90s film. | #northumberland #hadrianswall #tree (at Hadrian's Wall)

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'Hello & Goodbye' | #havelockwalk #streetart #foresthill #blackandwhite (at Havelock Walk)

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Book 15/52 - #AllDogsareBlue by #RodrigoSouzaLeao (2013) | All Dogs are Blue is the final work by Brazilian author Rodrigo Souza Leão. The work is set in an asylum in Rio de Janeiro, and that is about the extent of what I can be sure what the work is about. This 90 page story, based on the author's own battle with schizophrenia, explodes like a firework that you might have stood too close to and then it's gone. But you're left with the dizzying sensation that you've experienced something profound, something affective. That's not to say that the book is complete nonsense, it is not just a list of words. There are strings of images constructed from the protagonist's delusions that seem to hold some meaning, but these quickly bleed into others forming a riot of noise. However, the author does offer some sign posts to navigate the protagonist's and I guess, his own illness. You know what's happening like you do in a dream and I think it's this affect that he creates which has lead to the popularity of the novel. Such a blazing and important work. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd

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Definitely #spring

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Book 13/52 #LastExittoBrooklyn by #HuberSelbyJr (1966) | Last Exit to Brooklyn tells the interwoven and brutally hedonistic stories of those living in New York during the 1950s. When it was first released it caused an outcry of controversy over its portrayal of homosexuality, transvestism, domestic violence and was put on trial in the UK. Reading it in 2018 feels like I've found my way back to the origin of a type of literature I have always been fascinated with. This type of literature aims to dig at something deep in the back of one's psyche that you're not even supposed to think about in polite society. It gets under you skin and crawls around inside. Of course, times have changed and some things that might have been shocking such as the wonderfully portrayed character of Georgette, a transvestite who falls in love with thug, can now seem tame or at least muted, in comparison to more brazen literature or even film. But that is not to say that the book now lacks the power to shock. It really does with the sort of passages you want to cover up on the bus ride home so that the stranger sitting next to you won't think you're some sort of degenerate for reading such a thing in public. What is brilliant about Selby Jr's writing however, is that these shocking moments are not just therefore for the sake of giving the reader a cheap thrill. They are nuanced, multi-layered. They are about giving a voice to the voiceless, the disempowered. There is a tenderness, a sense of humanity to even the worst scenes in the novel. This is something that a lot of authors who aim to shake up their readers seem to forget. Shock is an unbelievably powerful tool and Hubert Selby Jr wields it masterfully. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd #writersmustread

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Book 13/52 - #WorthDyingFor:ThePowerandPoliticsofFlags by #TimMarshall (2017) | Last year I read, The Prisoners of Geography, which I thought while good and informative, often slipped too far into the opinion of the author. I found this off-putting as the author's clear ideologically biases came out through the text. Worth Dying For is even more guilty of this. To the point where I kept on looking at how much of the book there was left to read and sighing at the length. I think what annoys me is that the book isn't advertised as a personal essay about one man's ideas of global politics through the lens of flags. If it had been I could have read it differently. I don't think I would recommend this book, even with the information it does offer, which is at a bare minimum, about the majority of flags and their countries. This feels like a book knocked out quickly to sell to a wide audience and I'm sure there are better versions of this topic out there. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd

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Book 12/52 - #ThingsBrightandBeautiful by #AnbaraSalam (2018) | Bea Hanlon follows her pastor husband Max on a mission to a south pacific, jungle island in order to bring Christian civilisation to its inhabitants. As the novel progresses their mission degrades into a living nightmare. I was incredibly surprised by this debut novel. When I began reading it I had a vision of how the story was going to go, one of Christian fellowship and the power of prayer maybe. But this is not that book. Instead, we have something close to The Shining. The jungle and it's dark magic, the crawling insects, the incessant rain seeps into the minds of the protagonists, bringing out those hidden parts of themselves they have tried to keep locked away. And this is enhanced by one of the best characters in the book is the jungle itself, which Salam's deft descriptions brings to life. It creeps all over your skin, burrows underneath. The island life is not idyllic in this novel, but iniquitous. I wasn't too sure about the end of the novel. Although I have only read it once, I feel there are some unanswered mysterious and lingering questions that can't be answered through subtext. Not fully. But this didn't diminish the foreboding atmosphere that Salam has created. | #atleastonebookaweek #bookstagram #bookshelf #bookreview #bookrecommendation #booklover #bookish #bookworm #bookaddict #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #booknerd #brightandbeautiful

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The #brunswickcentre in the snow is straight out of Blade Runner | #blackandwhite #cyberpunk #london #londonsnow

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@aurynyoga made the most delicious oatcakes I've ever had!