Surveillance

I've just discovered that Amazon knows - and registers - whenever Kindle users highlight a passage on their Kindles, and it reminded me of something I saw many years when John Wilkinson and I were on a walking (actually, hitch-hiking) tour of western Scotland and the Hebrides. We were holed up in the north-westernmost youth hostel of the British Isles, a stone's throw from Cape Wrath. Among the other hostellers was a fierce-browed woman with a copy of Edgar Allen Poe's collected stories. She was reading the book with a red pen in her hand and, every now and again, with a stifled grunt, she'd ring something in the text. When she left the room, presumably to pee, I couldn't resist. I sneaked a look to see what she'd been marking.

I dropped the book immediately, as though scalded. The word she'd ringed, over and over, with a heavy hand, was BLOOD.

It's out!

Any Human Face goes on sale today. You know what to do. (Pushy, right?) If you're in the UK and don't have a good independent bookseller within reach, then Amazon is probably your best bet. Outside the UK, try Book Depository or CDWoW, where it appears to be temporarily out of stock due to high demand (hmm). And if you're in Rome and can't wait until the launch on 27 May (more details later), pop in to the Almost Corner Bookshop, Via del Moro, Trastevere... Go on, make my day. (Perhaps inappropriate, Ed.)

Charlemagne OK but Louis the Pious?

Unusually, as Amazon suggestions go, this one tempted me. Maybe because Louis and Pious are almost, but not quite, a visual rhyme. And then I saw the price.

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

As someone who has purchased or rated On Sparta (Penguin Classics) by Plutarch or other books in the Historical > BCE-500 AD category, you might like to know that Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Notker, Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer will be released on 15 December 2009. You can pre-order yours for just £67.93 by following the link below.

Charlemagne and Louis the Pious: Lives by Einhard, Notker, Ermoldus, Thegan, and the Astronomer Thomas F.X. Noble RRP: £71.50 Price: £67.93 You Save: £3.57 (5%) Release Date: 15 December 2009

Only connect

Another great Amazon recommendation:

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

As someone who has purchased or rated Howards End (Dover Thrift Editions) by E.M. Forster, you might like to know that Wicked All Day is now available. You can order yours for just £5.49 (21% off the RRP) by following the link below.

	Wicked All Day Liz Carlyle RRP: £6.99 Price: £5.49 You Save: £1.50 (21%)

It must be the reference to inches

As anyone who follows this blog will know, I've received some strange Amazon recommendations in the past. You know, the ones that start: "As someone who has purchased or rated...' You can see a couple of them here and here. But nothing I've had beats this one sent to writer, editor, anthologist, translator and blogger extraordinaire, Wendell Ricketts (to whom my thanks):

Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron 8-Inch Skillet

Price: $12.99

Recommended because you said you owned Hallucinating Foucault

I love it!

Cracking collection

I just want to direct your attention to a great new reader's review of The Scent of Cinnamon on Amazon UK. It's by Brummie Reader, and it's a beauty!

Now it's your turn.

Pester, pester, pester.

Aaah, Amazon!

Another great recommendation from Amazon! Wide Sargasso Sea = Scent of a Killer? You couldn't make it up...

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk,

As someone who has purchased or rated Wide Sargasso Sea (Penguin Modern Classics) by Jean Rhys, you might like to know that Scent of a Killer is now available. You can order yours for just £4.99 (38% off the RRP) by following the link below.

	Scent of a Killer Kevin Lewis RRP: £7.99 Price: £4.99 You Save: £3.00 (38%)

Review
'Fans of Martina Cole will love this' - Heat on, Fallen Angel 'A gritty detective story with a real heart' - Woman on, Kaitlyn 'Gripping, harrowing. A true triumph over tragedy' - Mail on Sunday on, The Kid 'Incredible. A fantastic story' - Fern Britton on, The Kid 'Devastating. I can't think of a story that is more sad or a story that it feels more essential to go on reading' - Allison Pearson, Evening Standard on, The Kid

Bestsellerdom

Don't blink or you'll miss it, but The Scent of Cinnamon has made the Amazon top 100 short story list. OK, I'm 93rd, but I'm in very good company, rubbing shoulders with Somerset Maugham, Alice Munro, Henry James et al. I'm delighted!

As someone who has purchased...

Another wacky recommendation from Amazon:

As someone who has purchased or rated Flush: A Biography (Oxford World's Classics) by Virginia Woolf, you might like to know that Letters to a Love Rat is now available.  

The mail continues with snippets from reviews of others book by the author of Letters to a Love Rat:

'You'll laugh your way from cover to cover' RTAe Guide on Confessions of a Demented Housewife 'Side-splitting' Irish Independent on Confessions of a Demented Housewife 'Hilariously written ... will keep you laughing all the way' Woman on Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife 'An accomplished romp through the chaos of family life' Irish Times on Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife

'Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife"? So it's obviously going to appeal to Virginia Woof fans, right?

Rainforest fever

I've had some pretty weird recommendations from Amazon before but this one takes the biscuit. 'As someone who has purchased or rated Brideshead Revisited', I'm now being offered a discount on the new James Kelman. I'm sorry? What next? As someone who rated or purchased Hotel du Lac, I might enjoy 69 Things To Do with A Dead Princess?

PS The links will take you to the Book Depository. Tié!