The story so far, for March

The books so far for February and March on the book blog, in case anyone is interested:

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl
Empire of Dragons by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Crusader's Cross by James Lee Burke
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Shadowfall by James Clemens
Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker
Mortal Mischief by Frank Tallis
A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
9Tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
The Once and Future King by T.H. White

And I'm currently reading The Desperate Remedy by Martin Stephen - if you look at the books pictured on the right hand side of the blog, you can see what else is coming up. You know, I think people at work wonder why I say I don't watch much telly... ;)

(no subject)

Meanwhile, in other news, I've just emailed Amazon to complain about their use of Parcelnet for deliveries. For anyone outside the UK, Parcelnet are one of those firms that charge large companies for delivery and their local network involves a bunch of people driving their own cars - if you work normal hours, then your chances of being at home when they can deliver are minimal, and there's not even a local depot to go and collect from. I know some people have had horror stories to tell in terms of their dealings with Royal Mail, but where I live you can get deliveries rescheduled for Saturday and they also have the option to go and pick the damn thing up yourself.

They're also unpredictable in other ways - one delivery I had, the Parcelnet guy basically dropped my package over the 6' high back gate and left a card to say what he'd done, while this time round they're insisting on a signature for a package of similar value.

The annoying thing about Amazon is that it's not until they email you to tell you that your order has been despatched that they also let you know which courier service they're using for it. There's also no way of predicting, since I always try and use the free shipping option, what it's going to be as I've had stuff via Royal Mail as well as DHL. If I knew in advance they were planning to use Parcelnet, I'd cancel my order, but by the time I do then it's too late.

E.T.A. - got pretty much the response I expected from Amazon, which is about how they find Parcelnet provides 'an excellent service' (clearly a different Parcelnet than the one I've been dealing with!) but that they appreciate how deliveries need to be convenient as well and clearly this hasn't been the case here blah blah blah. Whatever.