UK Book Club discussion
Random Chit-Chat
>
Random Chit Chat
I don't want to pull anyone away from here because it is a great book group. Have you ever thought of swaping your books for others in the uk.
We are trying to get more people to recycle there books. So a swap goup was developed on goodreads. Please take a look and see if you would be interested in swapping your books.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/4...
We are trying to get more people to recycle there books. So a swap goup was developed on goodreads. Please take a look and see if you would be interested in swapping your books.
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/4...
Hi Folks,I'm just back from a rock and blues weekend at Butlins, so if any of you reply to this YOU'LL HAVE TO SHOUT!!!!!
Bands like Dr. Feelgood and the Climax Blues Band two of my favorites. As for 'The heavy metal boys' fronted by 'Nasty Nick' off east enders, don't bother!! He's useless! individually the band are brilliant but it would help if they played together!
Stars of the weekend were without a doubt Uriah Heap, not my sort of Rock, too heavy but they were sensational!!4 yes 4 encores. For the older guys out there Girls School still have three of the originals bashing out their 'thrash rock! they are a lot better than their 'music' where are the blood pressure pills, well I'm at a 'funny age'.
I usually do a book signing at these weekends but as I haven't got a new book since the last time I was there, but still sold a few 'under the table'.
I was in the 'sin bin' puffing away on the inevitable 'fag' when this lady came up and tapped me very gently on the arm, 'Excuse me Sir' ME! SIR!!? she asked 'are you Timothy Pilgrim? It turned out she had bought her hubby a copy of 'The Day the Ravens Died' last year and both of them enjoyed it, she wanted to know if I had a new one out yet! I'm about half way on the on the follow up.
The pressures of being famous! I don't think I can handle it all!! Seriously though, it was nice to be asked, a little massaging the old ego is good.
All the best Paul Rix [a slightly deafened old geezer]
Sounds like you had a Rocking good weekend! Sorry can't shout I have a headache and far too tired!
Hi Lynne,You'll have to speak up a bit!! my ears are still buzzing!!
You're not too far from Minehead, we'll have to 'do' one of the festivals there sometime. What's your taste in music?
Anyway, hope 'the head' clears after a good kip.
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Hi PaulI like Charlie Landsborough, C&W and 70's music. Yes not that far from Minehead either.
Any time!
Lynne
Hi Lynne,We'll check out the next 70'S week end, see if it's 'do able'.
All thwe best Paul rix [oldgeezer]
Timothy wrote: "Hi Lynne,We'll check out the next 70'S week end, see if it's 'do able'.
All thwe best Paul rix [oldgeezer]"
Great stuff its a date!
Hi all,I have not fallen off the face of the earth hehe!
Sorry I have not been posting much but as u all know I have been busy at collage doing my computer course. As it was my last exam today (11th February) I had a lot to do as it was a two hour course and it was in two parts. I well find out in the week if I have passed I need to get over 78% in both parts to pass so fingers, legs crossed and anything else you can think to cross. As I have finished the course with plenty of time left as I should have finished in August, my tutor is going to start me on a Database course next week.
You will be wearing your typing fingers to the bone going so fast! Lol!
Lynne wrote: "You will be wearing your typing fingers to the bone going so fast! Lol!"I have but I cant tell you what I use ;) hehe!
Hi Nick, all I can say is 'well done that man!'
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Mod
I have not fallen off the face of the earth hehe!
Sorry I have not been posting much but as u all know I have been busy at collage doing my computer course. As it was my last exam today (1..."
Hey, well done Nick! Good to hear from you again.
I am good Samantha, just back from a marathon shopping spree for my spare bedroom.
hi there i still new to this so i thought id share a random fact!!At 27 i still refuse to eat my crusts!!!
Went into town this afternoon and ordered The Book Thief by Mark Z (cant remember how to spell his last name)
Nick wrote: "Went into town this afternoon and ordered The Book Thief by Mark Z (cant remember how to spell his last name)"The Book Thief is one of my all time fav's, let us know how you get on.
Nick wrote: "Went into town this afternoon and ordered The Book Thief by Mark Z (cant remember how to spell his last name)"I love The Book Thief too and have it on audio, the guy who reads the story has a great voice for the character Death.
Not too long ago Susan posted about Waterstone's closing some stores. I felt bad for you; I always make a foray there when in London.Now there's an announcement that Borders, my favorite bookstore chain is closing its superstores too. I'm very sad, they used to send coupons for as much as 30% off a single item and I loved them for it! (sniff!)
With so many independent book sellers closing in the past decade or so and now one of the majors really downscaling, there are hardly any places left to go in and actually fondle real books...
What's the world coming to? Will we have to go visit books in a museum or perhaps a Book Zoo where they'll be behind glass or bars???
I hate B&N (the clerks NEVER say thank you and their return policy makes one very reluctant to buy more than one book at a time) and Amazon charges outrageous s&h fees. Boo. Hiss.
I will not go quietly into the bookless night!!!
Not forgetting lots of Libraries are also being closed AND the increase of ebooks. How long left for real books?
Hi Karen,I don't feel sorry for Waterstones at all! They deserve all they get, and so do the big boys of the publishing world!
I'd better explain to sooth your ruffled feathers. A new book comes out from one of 'the big boys'.
Waterstones think, Oh! we can sell say 10,000 copies of that one, so what do they do? order 80 or even 100,000, the reason being to get them cheaper per book. Now comes the daft bit. Because Waterstones demand 'sale or return' they only draw on the stock from the wholesalers as they need them, after a few weeks they ring/email the wholesalers 'we don't want any more of title X'
They only pay for those books they have sold, at least a couple of months after they have actually sold them. In the mean time the publisher has had to pay, among other things the print bill and transport/warehousing costs etc. This leaves a mountain of unsold books in the wholesalers warehouse. As many as they can they sell as remainders, these are the books in the pound shops and non celebrity books [ordinary paper backs] in W.H Smiths.
As this hasn't even dented the pile of unsold copies we get stupid things like the one million book give away currently with a well known chocolate maker and another one million give away at the end of march from the publishers.
They deserve all they get, as the result of this stupidity is a steady decline in the quality, both physical and in content of the mass market books. It also results in the exclusion of 'Indie' authors, no matter how good some of them are from the high street, if for no other reason than none of them can afford to supply Waterstones in the numbers or the massive discounts they demand as well as their extended credit terms.
If the 'big boys' would grow some b---- and tell them NO WAY if you want book X then you buy them, you want ten thousand, you pay for ten thousand! Not send more than half back and not pay for them, then maybe things would improve.
Although ebooks are beginning to have an effect they are not the reason for the disappearance of the little independent book shops, the reason is simple they are being killed off by the 'remainders' trade.
Which frankly is probably the main object of all this, I.E eliminate any competition.
Who loses? the authors, as they don't get any where near what they are worth, And of course the readers, who's choice is limited and the quality of the books diminished. Even the good writers struggle to meet dead lines set by cash strapped publishers, and books written under time constraints tend to lead to a degree of repartition, hence complaints about the 'sameness' of many books.
Thanks for putting up with my rant, I hope this helps you understand what is going on behind the book shelves.
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
P.S. I too much prefer a proper book [digitally printed] against the convenience of ebooks.
On the subject of e-books as the great Stephen Fry has said 'Books are no more threatened by Kindle as stairs are by escalators!@Long live real books!!!!
P.S. I do love my small independent bookstores, I love their atmosphere and how they will happily let you wander for hours through their overcrowded shelves. But larger firms like Waterstones, Borders etc do have their place. I tend to use them for more mainstream titles and abuse their reward points schemes (especially now I've found that I can get nectar and waterstones points for the SAME order by shopping online through nectar). And there are some people in the world that would never think or could never bring themselves to enter that little bookstore down the street so they have to have somewhere to start their book obsession.
there also charity shops and amazon !!! xx
I laughed when I first saw it and I think it sums up the whole debate really well!
Agreed Paul, I used to work at two of the largest B&N stores so I have seen what you speak of. I stripped the covers off of many, many books to send back to publishers for "credit". It always bothered me, in the same vein as cruelty to animals, because books are like favored pets in my household!
Hi Karen,most people don't believe me when I'm saying what goes on, they think I'm just a crazy 'Indie', and they are right. But so am I, the scale of it all beggars belief!
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
YES YES YES! I pass my last exam 88% for the practical and 86% for the knowledge. I've never used my brain as much for two hours in my life./ HEHE! (just got the e-mail from my tutor) :):):)
Nick wrote: "YES YES YES! I pass my last exam 88% for the practical and 86% for the knowledge. I've never used my brain as much for two hours in my life./ HEHE! (just got the e-mail from my tutor) :):):)"
Fantastic.......well done!
Hi Nick,I thought I put a posting up here saying WELL DONE THAT MAN!! a few minutes after your splendid news, I don't know what happened to it!!
I'll just put it down to the 'oldgeezer syndrome' striking again. I'll say it again WELL DONE THAT MAN
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Way to go Nick, what did I tell you yesterday?
Lynne wrote: "Way to go Nick, what did I tell you yesterday?"ok, ok! Aunty lynne hehe
Dan wrote: "Well done, Nick!"thanks Dan
It took 5 hours for Amazon to 'deliver' a book to my Kindle, after an hour of checking and refreshing i went to bed, it was finally 'despatched' at 3am.
Fiona wrote: "It has so far been about 11 hours now. I guess I should wait, not as if I'm gonna be reading either of them any time soon. I don't know why in this day and age of computers that it doesn't happen i..."Paperbacks are nicer anyway;-)
I like actual books with paper pages also, unfortunately, cannot hold them very well due to arthritis. My Kindle has been a wonder.
Kimberly, I hadn't thought of the health reasons for a Kindle. Most interesting. Thank you for sharing that. Another reason that ereaders will continue to be the book lovers/readers way of the future. The Skye in June
Fiona wrote: "It has so far been about 11 hours now. I guess I should wait, not as if I'm gonna be reading either of them any time soon. I don't know why in this day and age of computers that it doesn't happen i..."Gosh, I've never had that happen, did Amazon give you an explanation?
Fiona wrote: "It was The Book Depository. I have got it now, I guess I was being impatient! I'm waiting once again though for er something else.It's just frustrating. I thought these things would be instant an..."
Aha! It's that book addiction getting you into trouble.
It takes about 1minute to download onto my i pad from the i store, but I would imagine that Amazon is much busier.
Mod
Don't like to throw myself around, but I just have to tell everyone . . . my novel, Dry Season, has been shortlisted for The Authors' Club 'Best First Novel' award. I'm up against this year's Costa prize winner and a couple of other mult-nominated novels, so it's tough competition but . . . it might get a few people interested!
That's brilliant.....I read Dry Season a couple of weeks ago and thought it was excellent.
Thanks, everybody - and I'm glad you enjoyed it, Susan.
Hi Dan,You should walk it mate! Well, you would if these things where judged on merit! just thank your lucky stars you won't be up against the best of the 'Inies'!!
Seriously, I hope you get the success you deserve.
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]
Mod
That's fantastic Dan! Good luck. I keep looking for Dry Season at the library and in the book shops here in Singapore - with all the positive attention the book's been getting, perhaps it won't be long before it gets here... (I could always get in Book Depository - they deliver internationally for free!)
Ah well, that's what you get for living in Singapore! Actually, when I was younger (so much younger than today)I lived in Sumatra - on the way back from the UK we often spent a few days in Singapore, staying in the Holiday Inn on . . . Orchard Road, if I remember rightly.
UK Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Lincoln in the Bardo (other topics)Ru (other topics)
The Sickness (other topics)
Tooth Man: Stories from Nicaragua's Mosquito Coast (other topics)
Kitchen (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert Galbraith (other topics)Alberto Barrera Tyszka (other topics)
Kim Thúy (other topics)
Eric Timar (other topics)
Andy McNab (other topics)
More...
Tesco do indeed drive a hard bargin, but I still get more per book than a main stream author would in terms of royalties. If a deal cannot be done on a particular title they would like they will walk away. Simple as that.
Borders did indeed have some U.K. stores, and I have to say we used to get on well. I think it was the music side which brought things down.
As for your other point about the little book shops,
genuine P.O.D books do have a minimum order 1[one], although some 'short run' books bought from other than the main wholesalers may have a problem.
If they deal with Gardners there shouldn't be a problem, next time you have a problem let me know and I'll try to sort it out.
Gotta go, tea's ready.
All the best Paul Rix [oldgeezer]