Reading J. G. Ballard

Last night was fairly quiet. I was reading a book of The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume Two. The stories that I read were "The Terminal Beach" about a man who finds his way to a deserted island which has been used for testing hydrogen bombs and the story follows his mental and physical deterioration, "The Illuminated Man" about a British scientist who is trapped in the Florida Everglades by a bizarre phenomena that crystallises everything that it comes in contact with, "The Delta at Sunset" about a man on an archeological expedition who is laid up with a broken leg and hallucinates about snakes, "The Drowned Giant" about a giant humanoid figure that is washed up on a beach one day and how the local people react to it and "The Gioconda of the Twilight Noon" in which a man who is temporarily blinded becomes so fascinated by the images in his imagination that he doesn't want to regain his sight.

It was another dull and average day at work. I went into Princes Street to check that my bank card is working and get some books. There was an offer on J. G. Ballard books in Waterstones and I got a three for two offer on The Day of Creation, The Empire of the Sun (which was filmed by Steven Spielberg) and The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard: Volume One (which we had ordered as part of my Christmas present, only to be told it was out of print). Annoyingly, my card was still locked, but I had cash and I really wanted those books. They said at the bank that my card would be unlocked within twenty-four hours, and that was on Friday, so I am quite annoyed. Also on my way home, I was crossing at the lights, and the pedestrian crossing was lit and all the traffic had been stopped and I was just crossing normally, when a car came hurtling round the corner right through the red light. If I hadn't moved quickly, it would have hit me. Also my evening class tomorrow has been cancelled because the teacher is ill, so it looks like I won't be posting a story this week.