Doing business with Amazon

The last few times I have tried to buy something from Amazon each time I have had to go out of my way to cancel an unwanted sign-up for Amazon Prime. 

This has left me with an unpleasant feeling of being manipulated and I now try to avoid using Amazon whenever I can.

I buy my books online through bookshop.org, Blackwells.co.uk or wander downtown to the local Waterstones or WH Smith. They might sometimes cost a few pounds more but their user interfaces are simple, easy to use and honest.  And their delivery times are pretty good too.

Similarly for other goods, I would go direct to a reputable specialist supplier such as Dunelm, Spalding Fasteners or Tac Tree (to mention a few I have recently used) rather than go to Amazon.

Books I read in 2021

These are some of the fiction books I read and enjoyed in the past year:

• Settling the World by M. John Harrison
• Light by M. John Harrison
• Nova Swing by M. John Harrison
• Empty Space by M. John Harrison
• Climbers by M. John Harrison
• The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison
• V2 by Robert Harris
• Corporation Wars Trilogy by Ken Macleod
• Among Others by Jo Walton

As you can see I had a good session on the works of M. John Harrison. I 'discovered ' him back in 2020 when I read The Centauri Device, Viriconium and You Should Come with Me Now. I initially read his Light/Nova Swing/Empty Space trilogy out of sequence because the 2nd book wasn't delivered until several weeks after the other two, so I immediately read them all again in the right order and was pleasantly surprised by how much better I understood them after the second reading.