The Return Of The £5 Amazon E-book Buying game (£4.68 Version)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it's the first of the month and the early morning. I'm in Essex exile whilst my mother is still in hospital recovering from her operation so at the moment have nothing much to do.

So in the spirit of shrugging my shoulders before I go and have a bath decide to resuscitate the Amazon £5 ebook buying game. Basically where starting from their Daily Deals and following from their recommendations try to buy the cheapest (though they would have to interest me) books I could buy for a total of £5.

This time though. As there is £19.68 in the account. The balance to play with, rather like chocolate bars, has shrunk to £4.68 for this month.

So let's begin.

I look at the Daily and Monthly Deals. Nothing screams buy me. So I look at the books that are "recommended" for me based on my ebook-buying purchases. One book strikes me instantly. The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf. A collection of essays. Worth a read I think so bought for 99p.

£3.69 left. "Top Picks For you" The screen emboldenedly pronounces. I look.I notice The Tenderness Of Wolves. Costa Book of the year 2007 (Costa has been going for over ten years?) . That too is 99p. Bought.

£2.70 left. Suddenly my eyes fall on a complete collection of the works of Marcel Proust. Have never read him but you feel that a subconscious literary bucket list in your head is saying "buy it". It is also just 49p so bought.

£2.21 left. The system then gives me the complete works of James Joyce. but I know I've Dubliners in the Kindle so I pass. Then I notice the complete works of Franz Kafka for 49p as well. That same literary bucket list is telling me not to be an idiot and buy it, and buy it now.

So I do. £1.72 left. The collected works of the essayist William Hazlitt crops up. 99p. Bought.

73p left. Spend 49p on the complete works of Alexander Pushkin. I know I have a novel of his (I think a poetic one at that) in storage at the moment. But hey. It's the complete set so why not? Bought and for this month the game is finished.

And I look at the books I've bought and think? Am I a proper reader? All these classic works that I haven't read. But then it comes back to the curse of the reader. So many books but so little time. Even at my fifty four years on this planet life interferes with the need to turn and now swipe the page. Still they are bought now. A greater chance that I'll get round to reading them sometime.

Until the next time.

The Latest On Bridgend Town,Polish biscuits and Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well it seems that this is getting into a pattern. There's a viewing on the house. Wife gets into obsessive compulsive cleaning mode,I'm not at work but need to leave the house for a bit and apparently all of it is for nothing.

In the other times it's happened I've gone to Porthcawl, but to be honest thought that I should make a change and go to Bridgend Town instead. So leaving the house still not touching the Elizabeth David cookbook I've been promising to do for fear of messing up the kitchen I left at about 1:45 to wander around Bridgend Town for a bit.

The weather was not good. The sky was grey and there was that weak sort of rain throughout that makes you wet but you feel like a wimp if you used an umbrella. Obviously being a manly Eastender that I am didn't carry one, though I did need to wipe my specs from time to time.

I won't repeat a great deal of what I've already posted about the problems of Bridgend Town except to say that basically nothing has changed. The old McDonald's that was closed in 2000 and has been left to rot since then is still rotting. Bridgend indoor market seems to be in a race with it's Maesteg counterpart in which will close first and the sense of decay is growing every time I visit

To be fair what was the British Red Cross Charity shop is now a nail manicure place and what was the chiropractor is now a place selling vapes, so I suppose it's health related in a way.

Of course Christmas is coming. Throughout the borough Bridgend Council have been putting up these sort of decorations since the end of October.

I thought this was unlucky


But for sheer cruelty

Now have a look at the wording on this Christmas decoration. MERRY CHRISTMAS BRIDGEND soon to be in lights. Now why is this cruel? Because the building it's attached to is the main Post Office and as I've explained in the summer it's going to close down early next year. Just as in the case of Maesteg indoor market Bridgend Labour council can be very heartless.

But you turn around and see this

Used to be a happy place

It used to be an Italian restaurant. Now,well, look at it .

And to it's right used to be a clothes shop.

Let's have a look at the inside

Hope whoever takes this over keeps that artwork

As regular readers will know I've made a point of visiting one of the two Polish delis in Bridgend since the wave of nationalism post Brexit.

One of the two local delis

It is an aim to try out the meats and cheeses but couldn't do so this time because I was unsure when I'd be returning home. So it was just Polish wafer biscuits on the order (Wife and I are fans). I bought three packets after speaking to the amiable young lady behind the counter. I picked cream as she recommended it, chocolate as I'd like that and strawberries and cream as I think the wife would particularly like it.

I shopped Polish...and as you can see also started to eat Polish as well

I also managed to buy two Penguin paperbacks (for a combined total of 40p - Penguin budget now £3.80). The first was this in the red spined "Great Ideas" series.

18- Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own

I must admit never to have read Virginia Woolf before (so many books so little time) so am looking forward to this.

The other was this.

Bruno Bettelheim - Recollections and Reflections

This is a collection of essays by a child psychologist. The sort of thing I wouldn't have bought normally but as I have this collection am happy to read it now.

As for the house viewing....no news.

Until the next time.