I recently discovered Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on the shelf and realized I’d never got around to reading it. My to-be-read pile is extensive, and I’m guilty of buying far more books than I can read in my limited spare time.
The purchase of this one – however – has a peculiar backstory. In 2018, my father died. He’d been ill for a while, but when it was apparent the end was near, I jumped on the first flight from Singapore back to the UK. Sadly, I didn’t make it there in time, and he died as my aeroplane touched down at Heathrow.
I got to see his body at the hospital as soon as I arrived home in North Wales. It goes without saying that it was an odd and emotional experience, but the nature of my arrival didn’t help. Grief and jet lag are two very odd partners. Grief in itself can be a trippy experience. It’s something they don’t tell you about. Sure, tears, emotion, and devastation are all Hollywood and expected, but the grief fog can catch you by surprise.
I was staying with my sister in Anglesey and the next day we were at a loose end. We’d done all the organization that we could at that stage. I was aware that my driving licence would soon expire, and it made sense to get it renewed while still in the country. Applying from afar was time-consuming and costly. On that particular day, it also seemed like a good distraction.
I needed a bigger Post Office for my renewal, so we set off for the nearest one, which was in Llandudno. At this stage, the grief fog had descended, and everything felt bizarre and empty. We arrived in Llandudno and drove around the town looking for a parking space. As we searched, we saw goats. Chunky, wild mountain goats, that looked like they could take on trolls in hoof-to-hand combat, were casually wandering around the town centre. Needless to say, this was a serious WTF moment and I thought I was hallucinating.
What I didn’t know at the time was that goat appearances were a regular occurrence in Llandudno. They lived up on the mountain and frequently came down and visited the town centre. Sidebar: During the peak of the pandemic 2 years later, they became famous. Media coverage presented the goats entering the town as a new phenomenon that indicated nature was reclaiming human territory during the lockdown, whereas in actual fact, this was just business as usual.
Anyway, I digress. One of the goats stood in a free parking space, and as we approached, he moved away like he’d been saving it for us. I managed to get my driving licence renewed at a Post Office inside a WHSmith. While there, I decided a new book might be a good distraction. I saw Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K Dick on the shelf and purchased it. The surreal drama of the day, however, clouded my urge to read, and I forgot about the book. I brought it back to Singapore, where it sat on my shelf until last week. I’m a few chapters in and enjoying it, but it’s hard to stop thinking about the peculiar way I came to own the book.
