From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Wed, 19 Nov 2025 12:58:11 -0600, Lynn McGuire   
    wrote:   
      
   >On 11/18/2025 3:50 PM, William Hyde wrote:   
   >>    
   >> It's been over a year since I sent an order to amazon, and the resulting    
   >> trips to bookstores have been very pleasant, if on occasion a bit  tiring.   
   >>    
   >> However, there are times when the  flesh is weak but the credit card is    
   >> willing.   
   >>    
   >> Long ago I got a chapters rewards card, and for those with such the    
   >> company offers a 20% discount on purchases made in your birth month.  I    
   >> tried to order from them online years ago, but gave up when their    
   >> software and my then-computer proved incompatible.   
   >>    
   >> I am happy to say that their website is fine now, and the selection    
   >> broader than before.  Prices are usually higher than amazon, but with    
   >> cheaper shipping and the 20% cut they were in effect lower.   
   >>    
   >> Speaking of shipping, they beat their time estimates in every respect.    
   >> The order went in late Friday night, and the first books arrived Monday.    
   >>   Following recommendations in this group I ordered a Leinster which was    
   >> not supposed to arrive until January, but it has already been delivered.   
   >>    
   >> As a result I can over the next few weeks do some catching up on the    
   >> Clarke awards, even unto 2020.   
   >>    
   >> I suppose this is only of interest to Canadians on the group,   
   >> given the fraught nature of cross-border shipping these days.   
   >>    
   >> And of course, all the books were well printed and well bound.   
   >I see what you did there.   
      
   Given the problems with trade paperbacks with "perfect" bindings back   
   some decades ago (at least two of them, having split into large pieces   
   on first reading, dissolved into individual pages on second reading),   
   assurance that the book in question is well bound is comforting.   
      
   Perhaps done to excess for some tastes, but still not useless.   
      
   Even if, were I to read one, it would be on Kindle. Where the concept   
   of "binding" does not apply.    
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)