Over the years -- like most people -- I've come to depend on Amazon as my source for everything under the sun, especially books. When we lived in the desert, I gave Amazon a LOT of my money. The library was very small (though you could, and I did, request books from other libraries); the bookstore in town had a selection of new books that could very generously be described as skimpy. Amazon, on the other hand, had everything, for low prices, and even free shipping if you didn't mind waiting a few weeks.
Back in Boulder, I've continued to rely on Amazon for books, because all the bookstores are in the central or northern part of town, and I rarely have time to drive across town to a bookstore.
But then I read the New Yorker article about how awful Amazon is, and I realized it was time to cut the cord. Not just because Amazon has destroyed so many real bookstores. Not just because Amazon has done such a number on the publishing world. Those are very important reasons to cut the cord, but what actually did it for me was the description of how badly Amazon treats its low-wage employees. Having just quit a job where I felt like I was treated like a thing -- every minute of my time recorded according to exactly what I was doing with that time, my phone listened to, my computer screen watched -- I'm now more sympathetic to other people working "thing" jobs.
So now I'm trying to live without Amazon, at least without giving them money. I still spend time on their website, because it's a great place to read book reviews -- even if I'm just on my way to the library. Since we're in a bit of a financial crunch at the moment, I'm trying not to spend money if I don't have to, but I spent some of Aunt Baba's money on birthday books for the twins at the Boulder Bookstore. The toystore in town, Grandrabbits, also has a good book selection, and we have Barnes & Noble, plus the used bookstores. And Target. And the grocery store. If I can't find a book locally, there are better places to buy online, such as Powells.
I guess it's just as well I wasn't able to enter the Amazon breakthrough novel award contest this year, though that is a fun contest. If you win (not that I ever would), you get published by Amazon, and who wants that? Other bookstores won't even carry Amazon-published books.
Reading Update: I read six Barbara Pym books this year -- the first six she published -- from mid-February to about a week ago, and now I feel ready to read other things as we move on into spring.
One of my goals this year is to read the next three presidential biographies -- so that means Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, but I've had trouble finding a good Madison biography. Lynne Cheney (!) has a biography coming out in May, but I think I'm going to settle for James Madison by Richard Brookhiser. I have it from the library and it's not impressive, but I'll just read it and be done with it, as Rocket Boy would say. Then it will be on to The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow G. Unger, and then I'll have to choose a biography of John Quincy Adams.
If I can keep up the pace of three presidents a year, I should be "caught up" by 2027. We'll see.
My book group meets tonight -- we read Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which I enjoyed very much. Possibly the only thing I didn't like about it is that it's so political -- even though I have great sympathy with her views (on animal rights), I just don't like overt politics in my novels. That said, Fowler writes so well, and her story is about so much more than animal rights, that I still loved the book. When our finances improve, I'll BUY a copy (I read this one from the library) -- but not from Amazon.
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