Apart from a brief and unhappy stint in insurance I've been in the book trade my whole working life, and when E Readers first appeared I thought they'd amount to little more than a novelty item. However, I won't bore you with the stats but industry figures showed some truly astonishing download figures for Xmas day 2011 and I'm beginning to think that the paperback at least is in its death throes. I look at the dog eared volumes on my shelves and can feel my attachment to them beginning to fade in the face of £89's worth of slim and shiny technology. I still, and always will, love the coffee table end of the market, (even though coffee tables themselves seem to be on the way out too), but independent bookshops are closing at the rate of about five a week and Waterstone's are having a very tough time of it. The Massive are a well read, bookish lot - how many of us are hanging onto our paperbacks?

(I know we've debated this before, but as there's been such a surge in Ebook sales I thought it worth raising again).

Attention North West based Massivistas.. PaddyH, Paul Waring and I are off to see legendary bedsit troubadour Lloyd Cole play Morecambe next Tuesday.. If anyone else in the locale fancies coming along then it would be great to see you. A Tuesday night out in November. In Morecambe. What could be better? That is all...

http://www.shopccc.co.uk/category/PLATFORM_VENUE_TICKETS,l.html

(The website is showing just one ticket left - it's an error apparently. Try the box office).

I have two small children, so it's all injection moulded orange and black plastic tat round our gaff. And pumpkins, (it was turnips when I were a lad). This has become our favourite seasonal soundtrack. Any others out there...?

..sorry Moz. Any other contenders?

http://www.faber.co.uk/work/mother-brother-lover/9780571281909/

An old friend of mine is getting hitched in two weeks and he's asked me to deliver a short reading. Has anyone out there ever heard anything from popular song or literature that stood out against the usual bits of Shakespeare or Burns, (he's a Scot and has specified neither of the aforementioned bards)? For reference purposes, it's the second time around for bride and groom and they're both in their late forties.

He asked me to do this weeks ago, I agreed straightaway, put off doing the research and now that I've started I find myself at a total loss for inspiration. If the Ladies and Gents of The Massive can't help me out here, then no one can.

Thanks in advance all...

Plan B : Kwik Fit, Walthamstow

Robbie Williams : Bultins, Pwllheli

Cheryl Cole : H&M, Metro Centre, Gateshead

'I've got too much energy to switch off my mind
but not enough to get myself organised.
My heart is heavy, my head is confused.
My aching little soul has started burning blue.' (The The, 'Infected')

That cropped up on shuffle earlier and struck a chord. Like many of us I carry around a vague sense of dissatisfaction with life, but I think I'm self aware enough to appreciate that it's my lack of effort and lazy temperament that prevent me from achieving the kind of things that would make me feel better about myself, (if I could be arsed). Naturally I've managed to find the energy to nip to the Off Licence and boot up the laptop. That lyric absolutely summed me up today - any other examples of shuffle related Eureka moments?

Note : Radiohead's 'Creep' is off menu. Positive examples are encouraged.

I just stumbled across this stone cold classic on another blog, (not that one). Why weren't they, or he, ever huge? Oh, I don't know. Enjoy.

.be

I'm just back from a music teacher's conference and what an inspirational bunch they were. Apparently it's up to the Head how much time and resources are dedicated to teaching music in schools, (and as every state school budget is stretched there's often not much of it going on). The keynote speaker gave an example of a school in Liverpool where the Head has allocated 20% of the curriculum time to music - and results in every other subject have improved dramatically, along with attendance. Back in the day I had to put up with Mr Cheetham, a Pickwickesque sixtysomething who strove without success to interest us in the operas of Benjamin Britten, the only lesson I recall with any fondness was the one where we had to bring a favourite record in and explain why we liked it, (mine was the newly minted Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden). Did any of The Massive get lucky enough to enjoy a decent musical education at school?

Not my words, but the words of Rolling Stone Magazine. They're printed on the cover of a new memoir by erstwhile Stone Temple Pilots frontman, Scott Weiland.

Any other examples of outrageous hyperbole on book or record covers?

I listened to this on my evening constitutional last night and nearly wandered into the path of oncoming traffic on several occasions, such was the soporific effect of Bill's discourse, (on, among other issues, his passion for metal detectors). How can a man who had a job in the Rolling Stones for nearly three decades be this dull? And nil points to Cerys Matthews for failing to lead him off the subject of amateur archaeology. I ask you.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/6music/joyof6/joyof6_20110531-0200a....

Beards. Plaid shirts. Jumpers. Songs about seasons and cereal crops. Fleet Foxes. Midlake. Etc. Agricultural colleges are the new art schools when it comes to hotbeds of young musical talent. Discuss.

I'm off to bed.

I'm in a humdrum town today, the rain is falling hard on it and it's fair to say that this town has dragged me down.

Is there a lyric that deftly sums up your situation just now? Are you staking your place in the singles bar or perhaps standing in the door of the Pink Flamingo crying in the rain? It would be especially nice to hear from anyone dancing in the streets.

Thanks.

I wasn't exactly bowled over by the last Bon Iver record, but one play in and I'm very much liking the new stuff :