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January 29, 2020
Buying a book
What is the best way to buy a book? Should you try to do it ethically?
I want to buy a book called Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
The author has a Dark Matter page on his website. He has links to online bookshops, but I'm not clicking on them as they have a lot of tracking rather than just going directly to the site - I'm funny like that. They are all American anyway.
I want an actual physical book in my hand. I've been dabbling with ebooks, and have had a Kindle for a long time. However my pace is slow with this format. It's much easier to pick up a paperback and read a few pages than an ebook reader - no buttons to press, no checking if it's charged enough. Bookmarks really work and you get a real feel for how far through the book you are.
So far I have 3 options.
1. Waterstones
2. Amazon
3. Wordery
Pros and Cons.
Waterstones are a real bookshop in my town. I can use click and collect and pick it up easily. However the books costs £8.99
Amazon Prime is very easy - I can click and have it delivered the next day. The book is discounted and only costs £3.99. However, Amazon pay no tax in the UK and I would like to support local business if possible.
Wordery also deliver the book for free. I've been told they are a better option for the UK as they do pay tax. They charge £7.02 for this book.
I'm torn. I want to buy local, but £8.99 is a lot. I'd like to support a UK company, but Amazon saves me as much as £5. I'm not rich - I can use £5. I'm not so poor that £5 would make a material difference to my life, but is it my job to pay extra tax voluntarily. Waterstones is a nice shop, I like having it to visit, and I'd like it to still be there in the future.
Hmm.
Update: Bought from World of Books - a second hand online shop similar to Wordery, for £2.99
Posted by se71 at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2020
The Lasters
I've had Lemon Jelly (the band, not the jam) on my mind recently, and I was listening to some fairly random music this morning which seemed to me to have been sampled in one of their tracks. I've not done the research yet to check if I'm right or to identify it. It doesn't really matter.
I decided to have a listen and as thy only did three albums, chose one at random - it happened to be "'64-'95", but again, that's not important.
I wondered what they were up to, and why there were no more releases after 2005. I had never cared much who the band members were, but found Fred Deakin in my searches. He was using Kickstarter to fund printing and selling prints of the very excellent album cover of "Lost Horizons". He was also quite recently asking for £10k to produce a new album.
This new album is a science fiction concept album - it's called "The Lasters". I saw it was fully supported, and some people had already received it on Vinyl and MP3 memory stick.
But, according to this site Original Rock it is out on Spotify, released THIS VERY DAY, 24.01.2020.
I'm listening now :)
The Lasters
Update: I listened to it all the way through, and it doesn't have any of the quirky energy of the other albums by Lemon Jelly.
Posted by se71 at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)