Like the old days of Internet Bookselling • 15 March 2007 • The SnowBlog

Like the old days of Internet Bookselling

          I remember Amazon from when the web was new and still glistening with dew. In those days you could get rich by deciding to do whatever you were already doing but over the Internet. Back then, when you ordered something from Amazon it turned up pretty much the next day. Sometimes much sooner. Or so it seemed. It was amazing. And sometimes there'd be presents thrown in too. I got a free game of Jenga once. And I think someone I know got a pen. It was incredible. Nowadays, I wait and wait, and my Amazon purchases take forever to turn up. And they send me e-mails recommending other books that relate to interests I don't have (pretty impressive, because I'm interested in 90% of everything). Like the e-mail listing 'other books on Christian Living' that I might be interested in. I can't decide whether they inferred my fondness for Christianity from my purchase of The God Delusion, or from the fact I bought Chris Hedges' book about how the Christian Far Right in America are more or less fascists.Their other new thing is to suggest I might like to buy a book I've already purchased from them, but with a different cover. Intriguing...but no.

Then Em commanded me to buy things from the The Book Depository, so I did. And not only did they have what I wanted at a keen price, and not only did it arrive quickly, but they included my favourite bribe - the bribe that Amazon used to send me the whole time until they stopped courting me with trinkets. Yes, my package contained a bookmark.

It might not seem like much, but I use an insane, colossal number of bookmarks. If I stated openly how many books I'm part way through*, someone would probably decide I needed to be locked up. I'll just hint that it's many dozens and hope I'm allowed to remain at large in the community. Whenever I buy a book in a bookstore I try to remember to look for free bookmarks, but surprisingly, three times out of four, places like Waterstone's and Borders have run out (Why? Didn't want to print too many in case books are just a short-lived fad?). So thank you, The Book Depository, for taking me back to the good old days of the Young Person's InterWeb. (Now if you could just use a slightly heavier cardstock, you'd be my most favouritest thing ever.)

* All non-fiction. I'm not part way through dozens of novels. That would be weird. 
Rob