It certainly isn’t a good week to be a bookworm in Quebec. Canada’s Globe and Mail is reporting that Quebec’s legislature has opened a hearing on pricing for new books. Being discussed is the question of whether or not to prevent the price of new books being discounted by more than 10% for the first nine months after release. The stated intention behind this is to protect the smaller bookstores, especially smaller Francophone ones, from the big hitters such as Amazon and Walmart. Now, while I can appreciate the sentiment, I’m really not certain that keeping book prices high is really going to help anyone. Smaller bookstores are never going to be able to compete with Amazon on price, so perhaps the government should concentrate on supporting them other ways. For example subsidising author signings in the province, sponsoring book groups, or subsidising the cost of Quebecois francophone books. Most Quebec produced books are still noticeably more expensive than their English counterparts. This week I have been working nightshift. As my job is very reactive – sitting around waiting on servers burping, not many human callers – I find it’s a perfect time to enjoy some audiobooks. The books help to keep…
Codex Born by Jim C Hines is the sequel to Libriomancer which tells of Isaac Vainio, a libriomancer with the power to access magic from within books. If you have not read Libriomancer, I would strongly suggest you start there. While it is not impossible to enjoy the story without having read the first book, it builds upon concepts, characters and events detailed in Libriomancer. Codex Born continues Isaac’s story and develops what we know of libriomancy. Feel free to check out my thoughts on Libriomancer. What I liked Lena’s backstory. We learn much, much more about Lena Greenwood through brief snippets before each chapter. For me, this was one of the most beautifully written and touching parts of the books as she learns to come to terms with her nature and the accommodations she has to make to achieve a little freedom. The visual imagery. Hines has a real talent for describing scenes that had me flat out giggling like a schoolgirl with the picture it evoked in my mind. An example was “She appeared to be holding off a small swarm of bugs with a drinking straw and a yo-yo.” I’m snickering even now at that mental image….
It certainly isn’t a good week to be a bookworm in Quebec. Canada’s Globe and Mail is reporting that Quebec’s legislature has opened a hearing on pricing for new books. Being discussed is the question of whether or not to prevent the price of new books being discounted by more than 10% for the first nine months after release. The stated intention behind this is to protect the smaller bookstores, especially smaller Francophone ones, from the big hitters such as Amazon and Walmart. Now, while I can appreciate the sentiment, I’m really not certain that keeping book prices high is really going to help anyone. Smaller bookstores are never going to be able to compete with Amazon on price, so perhaps the government should concentrate on supporting them other ways. For example subsidising author signings in the province, sponsoring book groups, or subsidising the cost of Quebecois francophone books. Most Quebec produced books are still noticeably more expensive than their English counterparts. This week I have been working nightshift. As my job is very reactive – sitting around waiting on servers burping, not many human callers – I find it’s a perfect time to enjoy some audiobooks. The books help to keep…