Hollys Inbox
Holly’s Inbox is an online story of a receptionist a London office – it is a daily look into her private email box and is compulsive reading. I am not a closet chiklit reader (not that I admit to) but the idea nd the presentation are fascinating – from a good idea it has not only got a huge Interent following, it has now sold 45,000 real books of this and the second series started online today.
Amazon.com or Play.com
January 28, 2008 by Tony · 2 Comments
I have started to put Amazon links for books and stuff from some pages as I am reviewing some books – but the recent nonesense about the French authorities penalising Amazon for giving the French booksellers competition makes other options perhaps more interesting – can anyone else comment about their experience with Play.com
Hi Tony,
Glad to hear you’re enjoying your country walks. I have just been reading your ‘as always’ interesting newsletter, and would like to point out to anyone who doesn’t already know that although it’s very nice for you to extol the virtues of Amazon, that Play.com sends DVD’s and books and anything else they sell to France post free, no matter how small the order is.
It can be 1 DVD or 1 book, or in my case when our son wanted two of the biggest heaviest books I’ve ever seen (one was called Ocean) for Christmas. Play.com sent them post free and very promptly. Our postlady really deserved her Christmas box this year when I saw her staggering down our drive with a huge sack like Santa. anyway just thought I’d let you know. Of course you probably already know, but it deserves a mention for those people who are still paying Amazon postage.
kind regards Chrsitine Tyler
A French Restoration Book Review
A French Restoration (The Pleasures and Perils of Renovating a Property in France) is the story of three years of effort to turn an unihabitable property into a home – in 2001 a couple planning to retire to France started their mission to find their dream. This book is both amusing and enlightening for anyone thinking of buying a “ruin” in France to turn into their home – I know, I did the same thing ten years earlier.
There is a lot of sound advice in this book and many myths are exposed – I was easily able to guess who the ghastly British estate agents are. I do not agree with some of the comments about medical costs and taxes in France, but overall a very useful book for anyone thinking about “doing up” an old French property.
You can read this book online at A French Restoration
You can see more books on my pages at Books
France a Handbook for New Residents
I thought I was getting a late Christmas present last week when the post delivered a large heavy sack – it was full of books for me to review.
I gave up reviewing books five years ago when I got fed-up with the plinkity plonkity “aren’t I a clever person doing up an old ruin…”, or the even more tedious ones that start, “the sunlight dippling through the leaves outside my window….”
This mailbag (the box of books had burst open in transit) seems to have some real gems in it – they are from a new publisher and their idea is to offer these for online for you to read, you can then download or order them from Amazon. They tell me it will about three weeks before their online services are ready, but I prefer paper books I can read on the train and hold in my hands.
The first one out of the sack was “France a Handbook for New Residents” – this is a 569 pages of solid research and well put together. The most important thing with a reference book is the index and this is a solid 22 pages in small print.
The author, Michael Brady, has worked hard to give us a comprehensive book that does exactly what it says.
Interestingly I have offered this book from both Amazon.com (USA) and Amazon.co.uk (UK) and even though the dollar seems to be having a hard time this month, there is a big difference in the prices shown – an even better deal is to come over to my place and buy my review copy half price (and share a glass of wine).