The News
Just a gentle reminder to US mystery readers that Jo Nesbo’s latest Harry Hole novel, The Leopard will be released next week, Dec 13th. I’ve already read it and it’s good. The Redeemer still holds the top spot for me though and I still don’t see a publication date for it on Amazon.
Also, Jo Nesbo’s website just released news that The Redeemer, is a hit in Croatia. I imagine so since it has one of the most memorable assassins I’ve read in crime fiction and he was, you guessed it, Croatian. It is a fascinating storyline with a semi-sympathetic villain. Wish the US would get a move on and publish it soon.
I don’t usually follow the Bad Sex in Fiction awards unless someone mentions it and this year, David Guterson gets handed the title for retelling the Oedipus story. It’s the other titles that were nominated that got my attention though: Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84, Lee Child’s “The Affair” and Stephen King’s “11/22/63.” The award is given by the Literary Review which in and of itself says it all. I’m more amused that they even have this type of award.
Fight! Well, email fight. Online fight. Whatever. Film critic David Denby decided to ignore the film review embargo on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and that resulted in a volley of words going back and forth between Denby and producer Scott Rudin. Director, David Fincher jumped in to say that if he had his way, no one would see the film until release day. Here is the offending review for your perusal. I had to do a double take on the actress, Rooney Mara, playing Lisbeth Salander. She’s the same girl who played Erica Albright in The Social Network. What a transformation eh? I can’t wait to see this film. Sony is remaking all three it seems.
Views
It seems everybody loves to hate on Amazon and I’m not saying that people are not without their reasons. But it gets tiring to read how evil Amazon is. Lets just face the facts, people tend to gravitate to where there is: lower prices, good customer service and accessibility. It doesn’t help any to accuse consumers of conspiring with the enemy (read as Amazon) in shopping in their brick and mortar stores and having the audacity to check on their smartphone to see if Amazon has it cheaper. It’s always been that way people. We shop where it’s cheapest. There is nothing new to see here.
I had recent interaction with the support staff at Kobo online bookstore. I had a formatting issue that according to them doesn’t need fixing. IOW, they found nothing wrong with the ebook. The title I bought, the latest Diana Gabaldon book, had really huge, large type font that I couldn’t adjust on my digital reader. So, I put in a ticket on Friday and didn’t hear anything back until I emailed someone higher up on Tuesday. It didn’t get resolved to my satisfaction so that’s one retailer I have crossed off my list. The truth is that except for Amazon – all the others have crappy customer service to some degree – B&N and The Sony Reader Store are the other places I usually shop at. I quit going to B&N because they had two ebooks that were falsely advertised and I wanted my money back. It wasn’t a great experience trying to do that. Sony Reader Store – same issue, it’s hard to get these people on the phone and even when you do, they don’t inspire much confidence to get things resolved in a timely fashion. What are you to do? I don’t like Amazon’s Kindle so that is not even an option.
I’m reading Asa Larsson’s The Black Path. My plan is to read all of her books. Well, she only has one more after this one, Until Thy Wrath Be Past. This author is just great and I am really excited about her. I can understand why some people don’t like her but I find no issue with her storytelling abilities. She does tend to put her main character, Rebecka through hell but hey, I’ve read worst. Asa Larsson is a name you will be hearing a lot about. This year, I’ve found some great writers. Just see my sidebar, they are all listed over there.
Yes, I changed my blog look again. I got tired of all the whitespace. I needed something different.
Anything you read online that you want to share? or rant about? Share it with me.
Sources: Ye Toilet Bowl, Jo Nesbo’s official website and PW (as linked in the article)
I have been amazed by Amazon customer service over the past year. Previously one had to go through one of these awful systems where you had to click on your problem (rarely one of the available options) etc. A couple of times in the past year I’ve actually found I can email them in a form on their website when I’ve wanted to complain about something, and within an hour or two each time a polite person phoned me! And resolved the issue each time. Admittedly this was not with my kindle but nonetheless – what other gigantico organisation does this? None that I know – they are all universally awful and I hate having to interact with any of them.
Kobo is the worst. I am done with them. Done.
I’m with you on being done with Kobo and it’s complete lack of customer service Keishon…Amazon is far superior on that score. I don’t hate Amazon…but I am wary of them … I am always wary of huge companies, especially those that get into every business possible as Amazon is….regardless of how they get there it does give them huge advantages once they are there and that advantage is hard to compete with. I never think consumers are well served by there only being one company that provides the goods or services we want.
As for rants…it’s a rainy Friday morning here and I have just gotten another set of bruises from my daily bus trip to work…the drivers are appalling, the buses so full we are like cattle and NO ONE will take off their backpacks so every time they are jostled everyone around them gets belted with a few kilos of text books (or bricks…I’m sure some people are carrying bricks). I’ve had to sit and have a coffee and spend a few minutes blog surfing before tackling the work day. Thank heavens for my iPad
Amazon does seem to be buying up or investing in a lot of businesses/start ups. I am def. not interested in them being a monopoly by any means but like someone else has said, being mad at Amazon is not a strategy. I read this and agree that one big blow publishers can do to to slow Amazon down would be to get rid of the DRM. But of course they won’t abandon that – piracy threat!
I am so glad you got your iPad. Rainy dreary days stuck on a bus are no fun.
HI Keishon. I like your new look -it’s nice to fiddle around with the design isn’t it?
I have had only minor problems with Amazon customer service in the past. I have had a few parcels go missing and they have always relaced them FOC. Twice the original order then arrived and I had a wrangle about return postage as they reimbursed me less than I spend to send the original books back. A quick phone call on both occasions reminding them that I had been honest enough to report the duplicates in the first place got me my money back but I suspect that their attititude might lead me one day to leave the original parcel sitting in my house for a while.
I also have a kindle version 2 that broke and it was in the days before Amazon UK had a version, I had to ring the US to get a replacement which I got but with some heavy legal notices about returning the original, which they kept sending me as the broken model took a while to reach the US. So I rang them up and asked did they think I was a cheat and they gave me a $20 voucher for free books as I ‘had been upset by their attitude’. I think a lot of big companies will back down when challenged you just need to call them up on it.
Thanks Sarah! Appreciate the feedback especially on Amazon as I know their customer service isn’t perfect but they are well ahead of everybody else though.