Cooking Resources

Greg Who Cooks · 02-01-2012, 10:28 PM

It seems to me that satisfying customers is a better business plan than snubbing the competition. I expect some B&N customers may become alienated by B&N's policy and depart for Amazon just out of spite.

I wonder whatever happened to positive values. It seems like too often now that people want to go negative, perhaps because they perceive negativity has more benefits than positivity, perhaps a reflection on the world's present negative zeitgeist.

Oh well, I don't buy from B&N anyway. I always buy from Amazon, and just save up my book wants until I've got $25 for free shipping. That's even easier than figuring out where the nearest brick and mortar bookstore is. And cheaper. Amazon has seriously good prices (but mostly when you shop around).

More often than not I buy my books used on Amazon, usually picking sellers with good rep and books with "like new" descriptions, with about a 97% success rate. The very few that didn't satisfy were either easy to return for a full refund or got a reduced charge.

I mostly buy just cookbooks and a few "how to" hobby (art) books. I get all my fiction at the public library. I don't want to buy books I'll read only once. I prefer to buy reference books, like cookbooks, books that I'll refer to time and time again. Julia lives on!

Greg Who Cooks · 02-01-2012, 11:58 PM

Meanwhile I completed J.V. Jones "A Cavern of Black Ice" and "A Fortress of Grey Ice" and I'm waiting for the library to send me the 3rd and 4th ("A Sword from Red Ice" and "Watcher of the Dead") in this Sword of Shadows series. I'm fairly new to reading fantasy and not usually a "sword and sorcerer" fan but the characters and drama in this series are really good IMO.

And now reading "When True Night Falls" by C.S. Friedman (Coldfire trilogy #2 after "Black Sun Rising") yet another sword and sorcery series, very very dark, and I think I'm going to be full up on S&S fantasy when I'm done with this and the other series. (I prefer Jones' series.)

And waiting for "A Game of Thrones" (#1 in the Song of Ice and Fire series) by George R.R. Martin, and I'll be damned surprised if it's anything but more S&S fantasy. I'll be burned out in this sub-genre for sure and probably ready to return to my usual suspense-mystery-thriller fare soon.

I'm waiting for Kim Harrison's "A Perfect Blood" (The Hollows Series) which series is much much lighter! I bet everybody thinks I'm a total fantasy fan but in truth I've only read much fantasy in the last year or so.

I've mentioned my fantasy genre experiences because I'm sure other forum members are fantasy fans, and I'm interested if any have enjoyed any of these series. Or any to recommend. Particularly something lighter. I particularly enjoy fantasy set in our current modern era.

SharonT · 02-02-2012, 12:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

Oh well, I don't buy from B&N anyway.

ME TOO. Recently I stopped by the B&N at the mall because I wanted to get a couple of things for my niece who was in hospital... also of course picked up something else and then saw the next book I needed for book club... When I got home, just out of curiosity, I looked up all the same books at Amazon... and I would have spent almost exactly HALF as much as I did in the B&N store.

SharonT · 02-02-2012, 01:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

I've mentioned my fantasy genre experiences because I'm sure other forum members are fantasy fans, and I'm interested if any have enjoyed any of these series. Or any to recommend. Particularly something lighter. I particularly enjoy fantasy set in our current modern era.

You've probably read The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher?

**PrincessFiona60** · 02-02-2012, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gourmet Greg

I've mentioned my fantasy genre experiences because I'm sure other forum members are fantasy fans, and I'm interested if any have enjoyed any of these series. Or any to recommend. Particularly something lighter. I particularly enjoy fantasy set in our current modern era.

Look up "Urban Fantasy" Neil Gaiman is an excellent choice.

JoshuaNY · 02-02-2012, 10:35 AM

I am now onto Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher. The more I read the series the more I like them.

A few time the characters do things that are against their nature(i.e. A great archer missing a routine shot), which really irritates me. But they are few and far between and would not change the outcome of the story.

SharonT · 02-02-2012, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrincessFiona60

Look up "Urban Fantasy" Neil Gaiman is an excellent choice.

Oh, Yes. "American Gods" is really good too.

pacanis · 02-02-2012, 05:52 PM

MAUSER Military Rifles of the World, by Robert Ball.
It's available for Kindle, but you'll miss out on all the pictures if you don't have a Fire.

Greg Who Cooks · 02-02-2012, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SharonT

ME TOO. Recently I stopped by the B&N at the mall because I wanted to get a couple of things for my niece who was in hospital... also of course picked up something else and then saw the next book I needed for book club... When I got home, just out of curiosity, I looked up all the same books at Amazon... and I would have spent almost exactly HALF as much as I did in the B&N store.

I've compared local bookstore prices and Amazon prices several times and Amazon always worked out better, usually much better. If not I would have bought at the local store and had my book right away. I've always preferred to save money over instant gratification.

I just wait until I have $25 of purchases before ordering so I can get free shipping. I usually get my books on the same day of the following week, and it gives me something to look forward to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SharonT

You've probably read The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher?

I did, recently, and for whatever reason the series just didn't stick with me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrincessFiona60

Look up "Urban Fantasy" Neil Gaiman is an excellent choice.

Okay thanks! I'll check it out.

**PrincessFiona60** · 02-03-2012, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrincessFiona60

Look up "Urban Fantasy" Neil Gaiman is an excellent choice.

That's really vague...

Google the genre "Urban Fantasy," Neil Gaiman is a writer of "Urban Fantasy." As Sharon T said, "American Gods" is an excellent choice, as is "Anasazi Boys."

Claire · 02-03-2012, 07:13 AM

In the Amazon vs large chain bookstores vs small, personally owned book stores, I'm stymied. The fact is, I've always read a lot more than I (or my parents when I was young) could possibly afford. My reading is, #1 - from the library; #2 - from used book sales, and very lastly, #3 - new, from a book store. As much as I love the concept of book stores, there is no way I can buy 3+ books a week from an individual bookseller, even if I wait for everything to come out in paperback.

A couple of times, recently, I bought books from Amazon, paying only for the shipping. A book for a penny, literally, $0.01. And both times they were in new condition.

I don't much care how pretty a book is. As long as all the pages are there and it is in one piece. I buy them for reading, not for decor. They usually do not live in my house for very long (although you might not believe that if you saw the 100s of books in this house). I have, over the years, had friends who cannot part with a book. If I did that, I could build this house and probably the others on my block, using the books for bricks. And that's just the books I've owned, not library books.

Gourmet Greg really said it when it comes to not buying fiction. I have a couple shelves of classics I keep thinking I might re-read some day (so many books, so little time, why re-read when there is so much I've never read?). So my purchases tend to be nonfiction. Reference, history, some bio, and let's not forget, a hundred or so cook books and related (food bios, food history, food encyclopedias).

Anyway, if I was rich and had a mansion, yes, I'd buy from an individual bookseller. Dubuque's big box bookseller crashed this past year (not B&N, the other one, mind not functioning).

That said, the art of reading a book is not going away. When I was a kid, I never saw a book store. I didn't live in a big city (well, Wiesbaden, but reading German when I was 11? American library for me!). By the time I was 30, even relatively small town strip malls had one of the chains; Brentanos, etc. You'd never see that in a small town when I was younger. I work my library's annual used book sale, and every year it gets bigger and bigger. We've had to change venues twice since I moved here ten years ago, because we get more book donations .... and more and more buyers. Individuals, very small town/school libraries, seniors, and families. Small-town used book sellers. There are people like me .... I buy a couple of sacks of books ... then re-donate them the next year, after reading most of them. So the library makes out both ways. Reading a book isn't going away any time soon.

Soma · 02-03-2012, 07:33 AM

I just ordered two books from Amazon:

1) 'The Universe is a Green Dragon' by Brian Swimme (Love this scientist's videos)
2) 'Don't Take Your Life Personally' by Ajahn Sumedho

vitauta · 02-03-2012, 08:10 AM

so who is it that's reading all those books in this country? how many claires do we have out there? lots and lots, i hope. but most of the people who have populated my world have not been serious readers--unless they were keeping it a secret for some reason...could it be there's a whole subculture of closet readers out there that none of us knows about? who IS buying all those kindles anyway, i wonder.... :)

**PrincessFiona60** · 02-03-2012, 08:15 AM

Actually, DC is the biggest collection of readers I've ever seen or been around. I've known people who were proud of the fact they never read a whole book, I don't tend to spend much time with them, we have almost nothing in common, aside from breathing oxygen.

Alix · 02-03-2012, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacanis

MAUSER Military Rifles of the World, by Robert Ball.
It's available for Kindle, but you'll miss out on all the pictures if you don't have a Fire.

Are you enjoying your Fire? Any glitches?

Greg Who Cooks · 02-03-2012, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrincessFiona60

That's really vague...

Google the genre "Urban Fantasy," Neil Gaiman is a writer of "Urban Fantasy." As Sharon T said, "American Gods" is an excellent choice, as is "Anasazi Boys."

Actually I had been having a bit of trouble pinning it down, except the anthology by that title. The additional titles will be very helpful. Thanks!

Greg Who Cooks · 02-03-2012, 12:32 PM

I think that most people don't read books of any kind. I believe they'd rather watch TV or movies. Of those who do read books it appears to me that many are switching over to e-books. Myself, I'd rather read a nice hard cover edition.

As I said I don't buy fiction. I get my fiction at the public library. I have a few souvenir fictions (Tolkien's Lord of the Rings) but most of my books are reference, either "how to" books related to my various hobbies, or cookbooks. I figure out which ones I want to buy by checking them out at the library first, read them and use them a while, and then the ones that turn out to be most useful I buy either new or used on Amazon.

Addie · 02-03-2012, 12:43 PM

Back in the late 70's I given to me as a gift, the complete hard copy set of the Kent Chronicles Series by John Jakes. The first book was The Bastards. This series was written for the Bi-Centennial. I loved these books. And I still have them. About every other year I read them again.