Books! Stories! Yea!
Jul. 25th, 2012 11:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impulsereaderAmazon is finally offering the beginnings of a glimmer of an affordable way to buy used books en masse. Halleluiah! So far I’ve mainly used alibris.com to buy used books because they offer a slight discount on combined shipping if you order from the same seller, and there is always a coupon code available for at least a dollar off your order – a little silly, I know, but even a dollar saved makes me feel better.
The problem is that they can price each book at $.99 or even $.01 – fantastic – but they’re still charging me $4.00 to ship – EACH ONE! So much for pretending the books are cheap. In order to get actual free shipping I have to order $50.00 at a time ($55-ish as I can generally get a coupon code for $5 off an order of $50 or more) and I can only order from a specific selection of books. I’ve done that once, and I will say that it’s pretty cool to receive in the mail a gigantic box of books. :-)!!! But it took a LOT of time and effort to put that order together, and even still, not every book in that box was one I desperately wanted, or have even read yet –a year or two later.
But last night I went online in search of something specific (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pargoletta, it’s cheaper on Amazon.uk despite the shipping, which makes sense as they’d have more copies over there. I can get it for under $20.) and ended up doing a sweep for the most recent round of ‘books I really want to order’. I’d tried to order C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces a month or so ago, but for whatever reason the copy wasn’t available anymore and that portion of my order was cancelled :-(. Well, as you may have gathered from the above blather, orders which involve used books are carefully thought out so I didn’t just shoot off another for just one book to remedy this. But now I’m reading an absolutely fabulous Sherlock fic, Till We Have Cases. I think you see the connection. ETA - currently a WIP, but go read it anyway.
So on Amazon all the stars are beginning to align. They offer free shipping for orders ‘fulfilled by amazon’ which total $25 or more – AND – a growing number of used book sellers are now apparently adjuncts of Amazon – their books qualify for this promotion! This means that I don’t have to limit myself to the offerings of a single independent seller. As long as I order books which are part of this ‘fulfilled by amazon’ promotion I’m golden. The odd thing here is that sometimes it ends up being advantageous to simply order the new copy of whatever book you want because the Amazon price is cheaper or relatively equal to the used copy. But, anyway, last night I was able to order a (new) copy of Till We Have Faces as well as used copies of 3 of Mark Gatiss’s books and (also new) My Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan. I spent $26 and change for 5 books. Now, granted, that parses to $5-ish per book which is equal to or worse than the initial scenario I presented with the ridiculous $4 shipping per book – but the key is that two of those books are brand new – and my selection wasn’t (or, rather, didn’t’ feel) limited. I didn’t have to order anything that wasn’t on my immediate ‘desperately want’ list, nor did I have to troll multiple store fronts for two hours trying to find something else to tack on to get to the minimum order amount. Also, granted, part of that was luck. I could easily have come up pennies short rather than a dollar to the good.
Still, despite all my qualifications, I feel good and hopeful about this. I have long been grumbling about the lack of affordable online options for used books, and I feel Amazon is at least working in the right direction. I do hope that the used book sellers who are part of this are benefiting as well.
State of the fic – up to 28k words in this first section. Have thrashed out an acceptable draft of ‘the scene which would not be written’ and have decided to leave it for a little while as that whole ‘not hiding from this scene’ thing may have gone a bit bananas now. I’ve been living within it for longer than a week. I need to poke my head out and survey the rest of what needs to be done to finish this up.
To celebrate – a snippet! In fact, it’s a ‘can you guess what’s really going on here?’ snippet.
----------
Before the first course was served, the gentleman seated at the head of the table rose to offer a toast. He was an elderly man with hair and beard gone completely white, and he gave off a distinct air of amiable joviality. “Welcome everyone! I’ll keep it short and just remind you all to have fun and rock on while you’re visiting!”
There was a rather rousing response of, “Rock on,” from perhaps three quarters of the diners as everyone lifted a glass. John blinked and turned an inquiring gaze upon Sherlock, who looked genuinely amused for the first time since Grandmere’s dressing down.
“That is my Uncle Rocky, our host. He is Father’s elder brother and he is dotty as a loon, as you can easily infer from the fact that he allows Grandmother to inflict this yearly gathering upon his household.”
John was prevented from asking any follow-up questions because the dining partner to his other side reached over and touched her hand to his arm. Politely, John turned to her. Sherlock had introduced her as a distant cousin by the name of Claire when they had seated themselves.
“I read the news today.”
A little uncertainly, John responded, “Did you?”
She nodded. “Oh boy.”
“Erm, right.” He considered this sentiment for a second then admitted, “Yes, actually, I suppose that’s generally my reaction to the news these days. The government are certainly mucking it up, aren’t they?”
“We can work it out.”
“Yes, I suppose it will work itself out in the end; or, at least, Mycroft will do.”
“Will it bring you down?”
John considered this. “Well, he can be an annoying git, but I suppose someone has to be in charge of things.”
She nodded sagely. “Sail the ship.”
“Yeah, though I do wish he’d stop sending cars.” He frowned and decided to change the subject. “Have you come far, Claire, or do you live nearby?”
“Flew in from Miami Beach.”
“Oh, quite far then. Mrs Hudson, our landlady, lived in Miami years ago.”
“Caught the early plane back to London.”
He winced in sympathy. “Those morning flights can be murder.”
“Didn’t get to bed last night,” she agreed with a sigh.
John was starting to get an odd sort of feeling about this conversation, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
The problem is that they can price each book at $.99 or even $.01 – fantastic – but they’re still charging me $4.00 to ship – EACH ONE! So much for pretending the books are cheap. In order to get actual free shipping I have to order $50.00 at a time ($55-ish as I can generally get a coupon code for $5 off an order of $50 or more) and I can only order from a specific selection of books. I’ve done that once, and I will say that it’s pretty cool to receive in the mail a gigantic box of books. :-)!!! But it took a LOT of time and effort to put that order together, and even still, not every book in that box was one I desperately wanted, or have even read yet –a year or two later.
But last night I went online in search of something specific (
pargoletta, it’s cheaper on Amazon.uk despite the shipping, which makes sense as they’d have more copies over there. I can get it for under $20.) and ended up doing a sweep for the most recent round of ‘books I really want to order’. I’d tried to order C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces a month or so ago, but for whatever reason the copy wasn’t available anymore and that portion of my order was cancelled :-(. Well, as you may have gathered from the above blather, orders which involve used books are carefully thought out so I didn’t just shoot off another for just one book to remedy this. But now I’m reading an absolutely fabulous Sherlock fic, Till We Have Cases. I think you see the connection. ETA - currently a WIP, but go read it anyway.So on Amazon all the stars are beginning to align. They offer free shipping for orders ‘fulfilled by amazon’ which total $25 or more – AND – a growing number of used book sellers are now apparently adjuncts of Amazon – their books qualify for this promotion! This means that I don’t have to limit myself to the offerings of a single independent seller. As long as I order books which are part of this ‘fulfilled by amazon’ promotion I’m golden. The odd thing here is that sometimes it ends up being advantageous to simply order the new copy of whatever book you want because the Amazon price is cheaper or relatively equal to the used copy. But, anyway, last night I was able to order a (new) copy of Till We Have Faces as well as used copies of 3 of Mark Gatiss’s books and (also new) My Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan. I spent $26 and change for 5 books. Now, granted, that parses to $5-ish per book which is equal to or worse than the initial scenario I presented with the ridiculous $4 shipping per book – but the key is that two of those books are brand new – and my selection wasn’t (or, rather, didn’t’ feel) limited. I didn’t have to order anything that wasn’t on my immediate ‘desperately want’ list, nor did I have to troll multiple store fronts for two hours trying to find something else to tack on to get to the minimum order amount. Also, granted, part of that was luck. I could easily have come up pennies short rather than a dollar to the good.
Still, despite all my qualifications, I feel good and hopeful about this. I have long been grumbling about the lack of affordable online options for used books, and I feel Amazon is at least working in the right direction. I do hope that the used book sellers who are part of this are benefiting as well.
State of the fic – up to 28k words in this first section. Have thrashed out an acceptable draft of ‘the scene which would not be written’ and have decided to leave it for a little while as that whole ‘not hiding from this scene’ thing may have gone a bit bananas now. I’ve been living within it for longer than a week. I need to poke my head out and survey the rest of what needs to be done to finish this up.
To celebrate – a snippet! In fact, it’s a ‘can you guess what’s really going on here?’ snippet.
----------
Before the first course was served, the gentleman seated at the head of the table rose to offer a toast. He was an elderly man with hair and beard gone completely white, and he gave off a distinct air of amiable joviality. “Welcome everyone! I’ll keep it short and just remind you all to have fun and rock on while you’re visiting!”
There was a rather rousing response of, “Rock on,” from perhaps three quarters of the diners as everyone lifted a glass. John blinked and turned an inquiring gaze upon Sherlock, who looked genuinely amused for the first time since Grandmere’s dressing down.
“That is my Uncle Rocky, our host. He is Father’s elder brother and he is dotty as a loon, as you can easily infer from the fact that he allows Grandmother to inflict this yearly gathering upon his household.”
John was prevented from asking any follow-up questions because the dining partner to his other side reached over and touched her hand to his arm. Politely, John turned to her. Sherlock had introduced her as a distant cousin by the name of Claire when they had seated themselves.
“I read the news today.”
A little uncertainly, John responded, “Did you?”
She nodded. “Oh boy.”
“Erm, right.” He considered this sentiment for a second then admitted, “Yes, actually, I suppose that’s generally my reaction to the news these days. The government are certainly mucking it up, aren’t they?”
“We can work it out.”
“Yes, I suppose it will work itself out in the end; or, at least, Mycroft will do.”
“Will it bring you down?”
John considered this. “Well, he can be an annoying git, but I suppose someone has to be in charge of things.”
She nodded sagely. “Sail the ship.”
“Yeah, though I do wish he’d stop sending cars.” He frowned and decided to change the subject. “Have you come far, Claire, or do you live nearby?”
“Flew in from Miami Beach.”
“Oh, quite far then. Mrs Hudson, our landlady, lived in Miami years ago.”
“Caught the early plane back to London.”
He winced in sympathy. “Those morning flights can be murder.”
“Didn’t get to bed last night,” she agreed with a sigh.
John was starting to get an odd sort of feeling about this conversation, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 04:19 pm (UTC)*more later*
no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 05:36 pm (UTC)I bought this book - I can't find it online because I don't remember the title - but it's a sort of minimalist time line of his life. And I'm sitting there reading the thing and I keep thinking - but, you just skimmed over that, what happened next? So basically the book just annoyed me into wanting to read his actual books instead of it.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 02:16 am (UTC)The "rock on" conversation is hilarious - poor John, not a Beatle's fan, but surely he'll catch on soon. I love your Holmes family ♥
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Date: 2012-07-26 04:43 am (UTC)Oh, you are amazing. Absolutely bloody amazing. Your timing is also excellent. I now have time to order and read Lewis Thomas's books before I wrap them up and give them to KR for his birthday in Feb. This is one of those moments when I'm sitting here thinking, "But why didn't I know about him? This is amazing. One of us should have known about him, this is exactly the sort of thing we enjoy." And the answer would be that I spend both too much and not enough time on the internet. Knowledge is more accessible, but people still aren't connecting properly, we're really all in our own little worlds, orbiting one another.
And to end in completely opposite order, I'm fascinated by The Inklings. I want my own group to sit around with and read my fiction to - LJ in real time. I think I'm going to write something up on Letters to an American Lady. It's so very analog LJ that it just begs for it.
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Date: 2012-07-26 04:56 am (UTC)I had an English lit professor (a long time ago, for a fantastic class called Biblical Allusions in Literature) who introduced me to Lewis Thomas. She smoked a corncob pipe, and lived in a 100 year old log cabin on twenty acres, and was a flat out wonderful human being. You must also order The Medusa and the Snail - for the title story alone, it's priceless.
I want my own group to sit around with and read my fiction to - LJ in real time. I think I'm going to write something up on Letters to an American Lady. It's so very analog LJ that it just begs for it.
Oh, yes. Please ♥
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 05:23 am (UTC)Yes, I'm definitely thinking I'll get them all. Sean works in a Natural History museum, so we've got maps and skulls scattered around the place along with a discarded diorama or two (just to set the scene, we're that sort) and I'm sure we'll enjoy his work immensely.
God, now I want to set up an Inklings Skype sort of thing - and I've never used Skype and I'm completely incompetent at the internet. I'm currently battling with formatting and links over at the lemon's journal in such a way which I'm sure would be unseemly if anyone else could see me on my couch wrestling with the keyboard and frowning mightily. I also hate having my picture taken and don't really fancy dressing up in order to go online. So that settles it.
We'll take it analog for now. I'll finish my slim volume of one-sided (this bothers me, why can't we have her replies? What did he do with them?) letters and post about how similar what C.S.L was doing is to what we are doing 60 years later. On an interesting sort of note, post seemed to travel more quickly across the pond back then. He has a quirky way of changing the format of the way he writes dates which is charming, and also makes you take note - he also makes a habit of thanking his correspondent for her 'letter of the -th' and I am left with a distinct impression that her letters arrived within a few days of being sent, at least in some cases. Humph. I wish things moved as quickly now...
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 06:12 am (UTC)I'd be happy to help with LJ formatting if you need it. I have a cheat sheet I could email, and I can play with basic CSS stuff.
A Natural History museum? Heaven. Your house sounds like mine and the one I grew up in. Well, I don't have skulls. An oversight. I'm absolutely certain you'll both enjoy Lewis Thomas.
Statistically the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you would think the mere fact of existence would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise. We are alive against the stupendous odds of genetics, infinitely outnumbered by all the alternates who might, except for luck, be in our places.
Powell's is in Oregon, and started out as a brick and mortar bookstore (which still exists). It represents a triumph of trueblood bookseller's over the age of the internet.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 05:31 pm (UTC)I constantly bemoan my lack of internet savvy, and this is all connected with the wider issue of my being technologically incompetent. The problem with asking for help comes on two levels. One - the things I'm trying to do are pretty simple. Two - half the time things don't work because I'm genuinely doing something wrong, and the other half the computer is displaying its ability to make me look like an idiot when I drag someone else over to watch my computer produce a unicorn made of marshmallows, rainbows, and puppies - which I swear it just did five minutes ago! grrrr. I swear to you, I don't know if I'm more surprised when something works or when it doesn't work.
So with the lemon's journal yesterday I was planning to tidy up the 'look up your citrus' sticky post because the list was getting pretty long and I wanted to use some cuts to tidy it up. I haven't been able to successfully insert web links in html - see? simple. I really should be able to figure that out - so I was using rich text and put the cuts in accordingly, no problem, easy peasy. Save. facepalm. Entry looks the same except now there are empty lines displaying where I inserted cuts.
"Why is this not working?" I asked aloud as I gaped at the screen. "This is easy. Easier even than web links in html must be. How did I mess this up?" That bit stayed in my head, but it was definitely what I was thinking. Well, anyway, we had to get moving to make the movie so I closed up the computer. When we got home I opened it back up again and magically, my cuts were now working perfectly. Cue more gaping. I swear I saw the marshmallow unicorn dance across the rainbow and could hear puppies yipping in the background.
So - whatever - it's working, great. So then there was some confusion regarding citrus #20. f_m_r_l had posted it, even though she'd sent me the pic to post and I had done so already. No biggie, she can post it too if she wants. But, this got me thinking. I'd been linking to the initial 'put into play' post in the 'look up your citrus' post, and that had been niggling at me a bit as not really the thing to be doing - I should be linking to the proper citrus tag. This drove it home that I should really fix this now when the number of citrus is still fairly manageable. So I merrily start doing this. Then I get to pesky citrus 20. The tag on my post brings up my post. The tag on f_m_r_l's post brings up her post. Never the twain shall meet. There doesn't seem to be any indication that she typed a tag which was just slightly different from mine.
But how much do you want to bet when I hop onto the lemon's journal when I get home tonight that tag is going to work just fine?
yip! yip! neigh!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 04:47 am (UTC)Marshmallow unicorns are an outstanding achievement. Just savor the moment.
Trust me, rich text sucks. Do you need a lemony banner for your journal? You're using an Expressive layout, and it's easy to change the header image.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 05:35 pm (UTC)I have impulsereader at gmail, and cheat sheets are love.
Still working on Sherlock's parents, the saga of this scene is getting ridiculous. Hopefully I'll be able to send it to you soon, this weekend for sure if not today.
*hops up and down* A lemony banner? Really? Don't go to too much trouble if you're inspired to tackle that, we haven't gotten enough response yet to be squandering your time.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 05:20 pm (UTC)Also, you're going to get the Handbook? Yay!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 05:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-25 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 04:24 am (UTC)I do try to check my local, physical UBS and I certainly buy lots of books for myself and as presents (9 nieces and nephews for whom I refuse to buy anything but book-related gifts, and when you give a book as a gift you want it to be in reasonably good physical condition which you have confirmed with a visual inspection) there, but it is nice to have the wider selection which something like Amazon can offer when I'm looking for more obscure items.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 03:50 am (UTC)I tend to stick with the 'fulfilled by Amazon' items myself since I can put together a varied order (not just books) and get the free shipping. If I need something specific I'll go outside their fulfillment umbrella but it always hurts to pay the shipping.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 04:17 am (UTC)I'm pretty stubborn about not paying for shipping. I don't even know why, really. I mean, it's fair to pay for shipping. I think it's a variant of the 'on sale' bias. If there's an 'on sale' option (as long as it isn't a Brand Name which is on sale but still at a price greater than the Store Brand) I'll go for the sale item. If there is even the possibility I can get free shipping, I want it, beyond all reason, even!
no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-26 12:20 pm (UTC)and, yes, considering that I spent a couple of hours copying from a book - I only had to go through 'C' songs for lots of plausible options, btw - and then a bit of time supplementing from a pdf, I would say that anyone who can come up with more than a couple of Beatles lyrics, on the fly, which are actually even tangentially relevant to the conversation is a bit odd...
no subject
Date: 2012-07-27 08:03 am (UTC)