Amazon exiles discussion
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"I read a book once - Green it was"
Tech wrote: "weirdly, i stuck the same short and condemning review (as i always do with book reviews) on here and on amazon. amazon were not interested in displaying it, however, and i fail to see their reasoni..."Possibly because the word 'buck' often used to be associated with a six letter word starting with n and ending with r that they would definitely get upset about!
I was thinking the Automated Censor might possibly have 'sensed' your annoyance to be on an even deeper level than your much milder and far more polite Review expresses? - and then confused 'bucks' with a very similar word? - as in dropping the 'b' for an 'f' ... ! LOL!!! ;o>
Calling tech:No idea what this is like, but it's a freebie on Kindle Unlimited. or 99p otherwise.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kilmarnock-H...
hmmm, no idea, might give it a go, quite short tho'!just finished rob's Black Hearts Rising, and have to say i thoroughly enjoyed it - ramped up the tension from the 1st in the series, inventively further developed the main characters and set things up perfectly for the 3rd (and final?) volume. a definite step up from 'monkey arkwright' (which i would say you'd have to have read before the current book)
Only a Scot would complain a freebie was ‘quite short’... 😃
Bit of racial stereotyping there Lez? Watch oot, we’ll set a boot ye!
no a freebie fur me, les, a penny shoart o' a full poond!mind you, i've picked up a few kindle freebies and felt ripped off!
we’ll set a boot ye!aye wull wi! wu'll gan pure scripto, stabmental 'n gie ur a guid malkyin' so wi wull!
Tech wrote: "we’ll set a boot ye!aye wull wi! wu'll gan pure scripto, stabmental 'n gie ur a guid malkyin' so wi wull!"
‘a boot’ - autocorrect doesn’t recognise Scots.
Tech wrote: "hmmm, no idea, might give it a go, quite short tho'!just finished rob's Black Hearts Rising, and have to say i thoroughly enjoyed it - ramped up the tension from the 1st in the se..."
Tech, thanks for your fantastic review of "Black Hearts Rising", and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Been away this weekend so only just seen it.
you're welcome. it was easy to review as it's very good - can i say without fear of any spoilers emerging - gooch? brave move!
after a wheen of kindle reads, it was time for a physical book (another big heavy one!) Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography Of Joe Strummer - not long started but the author's regard for strummer (also a personal friend) is very apparent.
Tech wrote: "you're welcome. it was easy to review as it's very good - can i say without fear of any spoilers emerging - gooch? brave move!"You can, and hopefully people will think "what the hell is he on about?" and be intrigued enough to want to know more!
This new Bookstore in Chongqing might be China’s coolest one yet? ...
https://shanghai.ist/2019/02/01/this-...
"Another contender for the title of China’s coolest Bookstore has recently opened up in the city of Chongqing, featuring M.C Esher-esque stairs and mirrored ceilings, along with some stuff to read.
The store is the latest branch of Zhongshuge, a Chinese Bookstore brand known for its elegant and interesting designs, which has already opened up outlets in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu"
suzysunshine7 wrote: "This new Bookstore in Chongqing might be China’s coolest one yet? ...https://shanghai.ist/2019/02/01/this-...
"Another contender for the..."
Cool looking store. What's on the shelves though? Is it just CP approved tracts of utter tedium. What's not on the shelves might be the more interesting question. 😉
I couldn't have cared less as a Child, but the older I get now the more I can't tolerate Heights - and I can feel my Knees going all funny just by looking at Pictures of all those open Staircases! ;oO
Me too, Suzy. We once went up the tower of Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura and I fainted. It’s all enclosed but the viewing angles are completely disorientating and if you’re already bothered by heights it’s truly terrifying. Even J. who had no problem on long ladders, had to get out too.
As a family we used to tease my poor Mum over her terrible fear of Heights and then, when I was in my early 20's, we went to a National Trust place somewhere (one with a huge and wide sweeping Staircase) and I suddenly found my Knees aching and Legs about to buckle, my Head began to swim, and my balance felt like it was going. I was absolutely terrified - holding onto the Bannister for dear life.I can manage to go up such Staircases now - but only if they aren't too crowded with other people and I can't stop on those big sweeping ones in public places I have to get up to the top in one reasonably swift go or else I simply just can't go up them at all.
I think that it started off for me when, several times, I was part of Visitor's Tours where the Guides would keep stopping on the Stairs so that they could better draw our attention to high level Paintings and to unusual details in the Ceiling Features? It began to make my Head spin and my balance go funny to be made to stand still mid Staircase.
That looks fabulous - reminds me of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "Cemetery of Forgotten Books"
I'm not sure if you can see it too clearly in the Photographs? - but some of it is actually part of an optical illusion created by having some of the Walls and Floors and Ceilings covered in Mirrors - all adding to making it feel even larger and all the more extraordinary a Bookstore.
Chinese books are written ‘backwards’, often the text is vertical and starts on the right of the page, so the book starts at the back. Urdu and other Asian languages are also written this way. We had to remember where to put the date-sheet and shelving was a nightmare. One of our Bangladeshi ladies transcribed the authors for us and labelled the spines with the first 3 letters.
just checking this thread hadn't died of old age!finished off Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography Of Joe Strummer, and found it to be an absorbing piece of work despite the perils of a biography written by a personal friend of strummer's. not a god making book, illustrates the many contradictions and moods of the man, but concludes that he'd been a decent and generous individual. big howler when salewicz writes of strummer returning, with the mescaleros, to play the barrowlands, the re-named glasgow apollo!!!! whit?
anyhoo, got a kindle bargain (£3.19) on To Throw Away Unopened, so that's where i'm going now!
"EH?-WHAT?!! ... is it Teatime? ... speak up young man!" ;o>Oooh another Viv Albertine Book? - Don't mind if I do! ... thank you!
One for our tech ;o>... Taylor Swift: The Whole Story - FREE SAMPLER ... including an EXCLUSIVE BONUS CHAPTER entitled 'The Wit and Wisdom of Taylor Swift' ... !
That last one's a blank page I take it? "Badum tish"
Just spent the 5 hour flight back from Cyprus reading Jonathan Coe's Brexit novel 'Middle England'. It follows his cast of characters from 2010 to 2018. It covers many real life events - the murder of Jo Cox, and the Olympic Games opening ceremony to name but two. Oh, and there's a very funny sex scene in a wardrobe. Recommended.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4....
To Throw Away Unopenedas with her debut book, this is very honest and very raw - a book of love and hate, dealing with the death of her mother as a main theme, regrets? she certainly has a few! excellent.
dunno where to go next - i'll let a book find me for a change! (visions of me hiding under the stairs, as hordes of readhungry books tear the house apart)
apart from the hat, they're all true!
Bet you're trying it out now though! - LOL!!! ;o>
british heart foundation produces the goods again, £3 for yet another first edition,Book of Prefaces edited and notated by the wonderful alasdair gray and other notables. still has a separate sheet detailing 22 errors, and how to rectify them! weighs hauf a ton,.......and it's signed by mr gray!
gaun, b.h.f.!
Interesting ... and a signed copy too! ;o>
Tech XXIII wrote: "british heart foundation produces the goods again, £3 for yet another first edition,Book of Prefaces edited and notated by the wonderful alasdair gray and other notables. still has..."
I mean, i know the dude's good'n all but a book of prefaces? I'll wait for the compendium when he releases My Favourite Indices and get them both together! And then i'm going to tout my idea for a new serial around publishers: Now That's What I Call Page... 337!
I suddenly really want to see this now, in a Top of the Pops style countdown. In at 20, it's Catch 22 read by Peter Capaldi, up one at 19, Nick Cave narrates Jacqueline Wilson. Dropping fast, Stephen Fry with page 337 of Haynes Manual: Ford Fusion 1.4 and 1.6...
ha ha, yes, there's an element of hit and hope there, but if it's shight i'll wait till he dies and profit from the signature! result either way!next up - the poems of linton kwesi johnson read by prof. stephen hawking.
Sera69 wrote: "i'm going to tout my idea for a new serial around publishers: Now That's What I Call Page... 337!"Ohhh yes!!! ... can I pre-order my signed copy now? ;o>
this week's 'attack' on the british heart foundation shop brought forth a new copy (seems to be a new thing they do) of,https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crash-Collec...
jacket price £25 - bhf price - 2 poonds! always meant to have a read at it, so all good.
abandoning A Brief History of Seven Killings - haven't looked at it for days, and although it has promise, and i will go back to it, can't get a hook into it.jnr loaned me a copy of Sisyphean and told me to read it - i'm easily led, so i will.
I seem to remember recommending A Brief History to you quite a while back, tech. It's worth persevering.
oh, i definitely will, just let it lie too long at too early a juncture.
I just started On the Road. I'm hoping I can finish reading it in less time than it took Kerouac to write it (three weeks), but I'm not optimistic.
it's a breeze, gordon, wonderful prose. read a few kerouacs, but none quite match 'on the road' - wait a minute, of course you'll enjoy it, it's the hobo's bible! boooooooooom!
actually, les, my hardback copy was a never returned loan - a pal said he'd lend me his dad's (an academic gentleman i might add), so i read it and one way or another lost touch as he himself followed academic pursuits. it was not until re reading it many years after that i found it to be a 2nd edition! ain't i jammy?.........and probably dishonest!
I have two books on the go as usual - a lighter paperback for public transport and a hardback for home. The former is Philippe Sands' East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" and the latter is Fings Ain't Wot They Used T' Be: The Lionel Bart Story. I'm enjoying them both because they are well researched and well written (and, thankfully, good indexes). Sands' book is extremely dense, both in its coverage of the personal stories (Who Do You Think You Are on steroids) and the development of international law. The Staffords' book is limited by the dearth of factual information surrounding Lionel Bart's life. He was a master of contradictory information. However, both have a surprising connection and one which has shown up my lack of knowledge of geography, history and politics. Lionel Bart's parents and the three main protagonists in Sands' book (his grandfather Leon Bucholz, Rafael Lemkin, who worked on the concept of genocide, and Hersch Lauterpacht, whose special field was crimes against the individual) all hailed from the province of Galicia. Galicia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Control of the city of Lviv (Lemberg/Lvov/Lwow), where the three men in Sands' book came from, without knowing each other, changed hands eight times between 1914 and 1944. Today it is part of Ukraine; for 14 days in 1918 it was part of the West Ukranian People's Republic. It has also been under Polish, Russian and German authority. I'm enjoying learning more about extraordinary people.
Tech XXIII wrote: "actually, les, my hardback copy was a never returned loan..."I suppose it's only dishonest if you sell it. He might yet show up and ask for it back.
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
The Appeal (other topics)Red Sixty Seven (other topics)
Red Sixty Seven (other topics)
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any idea?
"Happy Birthday, Mr Murakami.........
...................here's two bucks for nothing! well, not quite, as i read my son's copy of this tiny tiny book with the 41 tiny tiny pages and the big big print, i saved the two bucks - but then i'd read it before anyway!"