New On The Shelves

Anathema though shopping is to me I cannot help but notice new things when I am in shops. When there is a recession as indeed there is visibly in Palm Springs and, presumably, the wider US, it must be difficult to stimulate the economy through the consumer. After so many years of human existence, it must be difficult to come up with anything new at all so I admire enterprise even in the form of things I would not buy. Soon after our arrival, I noticed Starbucks branded ice cream in flavours which will be familiar if you frequent the eponymous coffee house. These were in California supermarket Ralphs and, lo and behold, only aisles away, were non-frozen branded offerings in the beverage aisle.

More attractive to the tea drinker if not the lover of  traditional books is 'Nook' by Barnes & Noble. From a purely technological point of view, I was interested but I cannot imagine a time when I would surrender the tactile experience of reading a real book for this or any other e-book. It is attractive, keenly priced and comes in several variants but what would my house look like without the 1500 volumes it can replace? One of the selling points is, apparently, the download price which brings me neatly to my next discourse.

Book prices are and have for a long while been largely arbitrary. When does any hardcover or paperback, certainly any popular title, sell for its cover price? A Nook download costs, apparently, typically 50% of the book price but only feet away from the Nook display at B&N were new hardcovers at 40% discount to members. What concerns me far more here and elsewhere is the morally unsound misuse of the adjective 'new' as in 'new in paperback'. It is common now for this to mean no more than 'new jacket/cover' on a very old novel. I am certain that this designed to confuse and sure that many fans of serial authors have rushed into a purchase without checking back mentally or otherwise through their 'read' list.

Today in the desert was everything the UK is not this time of year. Not to appear ungrateful, I would say that acclimatisation is the problem which follows on and overlaps jetlag. I love the desert heat but after weeks of much lower temperatures at home it takes some getting used to. We had lunch at Baja Fresh, the thinking man's answer to Taco Bell (with mango salsa) and went home to rest. The only disappointment was that the Martha Stewart Holly Punch has not yet been delivered.