TV ate my life

Back at the start of the week, when I bought four books for my Nook in the 99p sale, I was pretty annoyed when the Nook wouldn't open them, claiming they were incompatible. I tried everything, Messaged their twitter account for help and got no response for 24 hours. Eventually, I tried their chat help. I spoke to someone who told me that all four books were incompatible with my Nook, despite it saying on the website that they were. Sounded pretty odd, but I figured he must be right since he works for them. He offered me a refund. I was pretty pissed off, since the books had been so cheap, but I accepted. Then I found out my mum had gotten one of the same books on her Nook (same as mine). Pretty annoyed, I went back on the chat and requested the whole thing be fixed. The guy I got that time seemed to know more about what he was talking about, but since guy 1 had refunded the books already, he couldn't undo that. Instead, he said if I bought the books again, he'd authorise a refund, the put me back in the same financial position I should be. Unfortunately, he said I needed to wait 24 hours, then buy the books and them them via chat or e-mail.

Sigh.

So, I got the books 24 or so hours later. Then I tried to log onto chat, and received a message saying it was out of hours and to come back between 8am and 9pm. Which was odd since it was 4.45 pm. Pretty irritated, I asked their useless twitter account what was going on, and predictably received no response.

So finally, I sent an e-mail, detailing the problem, requesting me refund and attaching both a transcript of the conversation the the customer service guy and a screepcap of the part where he sad he was authorising the refund, because they didn;t exactly have me brimming over with confidence at that point. I also requested a response so I know someone was dealing with the problem. I've heard nothing. I know the customer service people work Saturdays though, Chat is open and the useless twitter account have posted a few things (no responses to me yet though!) so I can only assume I'm being ignored.

The point of this story is, if you're looking to buy an e-reader, don't get a Nook. They might be fairly cheap for the basic model, but they treat you like crap. I'm thinking about getting me a Kindle instead.

I might not buy from Amazon again. They do this thing now where the instant you order something, it's too late to change it. Luckily, I hadn't changed my mind or anything, but I just clicked the review recent orders and the thing that I had ordered less than three minutes earlier said that it was being prepared, would ship soon and that it was too late to change the order. I wouldn't mind so much if I believed it was true, but I can almost guarantee that book's not going to be posted for another two or three days. And when it arrives, by their irritating courier company, it'll probably be too big to fit through the door and I'll have to trek all the way to Hessle to pick it up again rather than the Royal Mail depot two minutes from my house.

sivib tagged me for this book meme, so here it is...

1) Total number of books I've owned:

I wouldn't even want to guess. Well, okay. I will guess. I've got... about 7 metres of bookshelf in my room, each one full and then with books filed on top. So if the average book is... lets say 2cm wide, that's about 350 books, then the ones piled on top, I'll guestimate another 50. Then I've got large drawer full of books under my bed, probably another 100 in there, so a very rough guess, I'd say about 500. That sounds a bit excessive!

2) Last Book I Bought:

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer. Not started reading it yet, but I am kind of addicted to the Artemis Fowl books, and to Eoin Colfer's books in general. I try to make everyone I know read The Supernaturalist!

3) Last book I read:

Erm... I've been re-reading a lot of books recently, but the last book I read that I hadn't read before was Incompetence by Rob Grant. I wouldn't recommend it, it's meant to be funny, but it isn't. Has a few great lines though.

4) 5 books that mean a lot to me:

Okay, this is a tough one!

K-PAX by Gene Brewer. If it's okay, I'm just going to include the whole trilogy as one, you can get it in one book now anyway! The film was pretty rubbish, but I loved the books. And I so want to go to K-PAX! :)

The Merro Tree by Katie Waitman. My aunt bought me this for Christmas one year. She figured the only way to be sure I hadn't read a book was to send one that wasn't out in England. Not one I'd have picked if I was browsing in a book shop, so I'm glad it wasn't out here! I've lost count of how many times I have read it, it's just a fantastic story.

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. Yeah, I know everyone loves Lord of the Rings now, since the films came out! But I couldn't not include it. Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were major parts of my childhood! I used to make my mum read me The Hobbit over and over again. She wouldn't let me near Lord of the Rings though, because the only copy she had was old and posh, with really thin pages. She was scared I'd mess it up. So I used to steal it off the shelf and read it when she wasn't around, then replace it whenever I heard her coming. This not only added a little more excitement to the whole thing (Not that it needed any more), but also made it take a very long time to read, and to this day I can't think of the book or the film without imagining me sitting on the floor in the corner ready to put the book back on the shelf the instant I heard a sound. Weird? Me? And for the record, I didn't damage it, and as far as I know, she still doesn't know I did that!

The Long Arm Of Gil Hamilton by Larry Niven. Actually, most of Larry Niven's books including, of course, the Ringworld books. My dad got me hooked on these, but Gil Hamilton is the first one I read. I think I would have been about 9. Basically, it's three detective stories. I don't much like detective stories, but sci-fi detective stories, it turns out, are okay! The book also includes an essay about how you have to create rules if you want to write that sort of story, otherwise the sci-fi means that anything is possible. Normally a good thing, but in a detective story, not so good. Anyway, very weird stories. I'm not sure whether I still like them now because they are good, or because I remember liking them when I was nine!

The Day of the Trffids by John Wyndham. Creepy. Yeah, I was a kid when I first read it so I got creeped out more easily, but still. And the idea of man-eating plants taking over the world might seem comical in theory, but this book makes it seem real. Sort of. Anyone that hasn't read this really should. And while you're at it, read everything else by John Wyndham too. Especially The Midwich Cuckoos and The Chrysalids.

There are so many other books I would mention. But it said five, and technically I have said nine.

And talking of books, I have to mention a conversation I overheard the other day. I was outside Waterstones, and two girls walked past and looked in the window, where there was a display of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books.
Girl 1: Hey, isn't that that film what your brother wants to see?
Gril 2: Yeah, but it's a book of it. They always make books out of films, don't they? I reckon it's to make them more money in case the film's rubbish.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!


Anyway, I won't tag anyone because I don't know enough people. So really, I'm going to tag everyone. If you're reading this, you're tagged! :)


By the way, I'd say there's about an 80% chance that my next post will be Grant fic!

I've gone into find a job overdrive. I've spent almost the whole day scouring the internet for jobs, but there aren't a whole lot out there. At least not easy to apply for online ones. I've filled out online application forms for B&Q and Blockbuster and sent off a CV to some agency offering data imput work. I've checked the website for a few big shops like Smiths and Boots, as well as some cinemas, but they all say apply to your local store. I'm going to have to do that, if I want a job there. I don't really want a job there though, I want a proper job, I just need money! Once the printer is installed again (the computer got a virus last week and we had to wipe it) I'll print off some letters and send them off, that way it'll save me the trouble of ringing up, I hate talking on the phone.

I suppose I should really be looking for a better job than working in a shop (especially since I'm pretty sure I'd be terrible at it!) but I don't want to choose a job that's going to turn into a career that's going to be the thing I do for the rest of my life, that sounds far too depressing! I've no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life yet, I'll decide that later.

Here's something cool though, on the B&Q website, where the online application form is, before you fill in the form you've got to answer loads of questions about yourself and then it tells you what sort of person you are. I bent the truth slightly, to make me sound more confident, but I only got a 1 on extrovertedness (or whatever they called it. They had a load of other categories too, I got a 7 in everything else (the average for all of them was apparantly 6) It's fun, go to www.diy.com/careers to try it, you don't need to apply for a job, just click like you're going to.

I saw Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban last night, it was really good. much better than the other two. I think there were a few things that they should have explained better though. Poeple that hadn't read the book didn't notice of course, and people that had already knew the things, but still, iit would have been better if they had been included. I don't want to give too much away in case someone is reading this who hasn't seen it or read the book, I just thing they missed too much out is all. Like the Marauder's map, it is never explained who made it, and I think that's pretty important. I wonder what they'll do with the next one though, they'll have to miss out more than half of it, make the film 5 hours long or make it into two films. That would be my favourite option.

I'm probably going to see The Day After Tomorrow on friday, hopefully that will be good, but it got some pretty mixed reviews, I'll see when I see it, I guess.
Oh yeah, I bought Return of the King last week too, it's just as good watching the second time! Some time, when I've got no energy to do anything else, I think I'm going to sit down and watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in one go. Could be fun. I've got to say though, although i know a lot of people dissagree, I don't think Return of the King is the best one, I prefered Fellowship of the Ring, that's my fave.

I read a good book the other day too, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I'm not going to tell you what it's about, but it's really good, everyone should read it!

Anyway, that's it for now!