Mr Grumpy

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By Mr Grumpy - Fri 8th Jul 2011

 

I usually try and make it a personal rule never to read, let alone buy any 'Expat Book' that promises that it is full of 'many amusing anecdotes' or that it is 'highly informative'.

I briefly scanned through one of the many generic copies a few weeks back (I can't remember which one as they are all basically the same story, the same anecdotes and the same characters just re-written with different names & locations) and thought about demanding my money back under the terms of the trade descriptions act (When I say 'My' money, I think my Mum bought it for me from one of the Rastros for about 20 cents...). The cover of the book promised me 'humour' and 'amusing' and to be honest, unless you laugh at an Episode of Terry and June, you would be hard pushed to find anything vaguely entertaining. Or indeed informative.

The 'Hilarious' anecdote of trying to persuade the local shepherd to stop his herd of goats from destroying the vegetable garden was neither particularly informative, well written nor funny, neither was the incident in the local store where they had to resort to frantic sign language to explain to the shopkeeper in broken Spanish that a pumpkin was required.

Oh, how I laughed.

(And also how the guy that sold the book to my Mum probably laughed as he trousered his 20 cents.)

I wouldn't mind so much apart from the fact that 90% of these books are churning out a well worn and generic blueprint. Sure, the first couple of books, if not 'amusing' may have been useful guides to would-be expats, but then came the flood of publishers cashing in on their success during the mid 1990's and so came another generation of books written by expats who, quite frankly had nothing better to do with their time than to write such a book and were perhaps inspired by Peter Mayle's 'Year in Provence (amongst others).

The arrogance of actually charging money for a collection of ramblings about one person's perspective of life in Spain confuses me. I know that I have a hard time persuading anyone into reading my Blogs for free - let alone handing over hard earned currency to read a book stacked with nothing other than page after page of my drivel. In the age of the web there are literally hundreds of blogs on Spain out there : some of which are very well researched and informative; some supported by fantastic photography; some very funny (In a non-Terry & June Styleee) and some just weird (In an entertaining way). Quite a few of them are all of these things.

These Blogs are more often than not updated weekly, they don't pretend to be anything they are not and don't push themselves on anybody, nor do they charge an exorbitant sum for the privilege of being read. They are just a good resource for the expat, whether newly arrived or long in the tooth and are usually a 'labour of love' as opposed to some cynical attempt to cash in.

I try and put a couple of hours a week aside to read a few blogs and it's surprising how much about Spanish culture, traditions and the language I pick up just by reading a few brief paragraphs.

Granted, there are loads of Professional and 'Industry' blogs out there that are a pretty useful read, but here's just a small selection of ' life in Spain ' blogs that I am visiting at the moment (In no particular order, no favourites here - calm down children ) :

Cadiz : La Vida Alcalaina

Madrid : MadridMan

Alcala de Henares : Spainstruck

Madrid : A view of Madrid

Madrid : South of Watford

Valencia : Not Hemmingway's Spain

Almeria : David Jackson

Madrid : La Tortuga Viajera

Madrid : Beyond Madrid

Edit : This is just a small sample, but it has just dawned on me that 75% of the blogs that I peruse are either done by Women, Canadians / Americans, or by Madrilleños (or a combination of all three) - If I have forgotten to include anyone then feel free to give yourself a 'shout out' in the comments box, below...