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Wednesday 6 March 2013

Awesome books

I don't think I've told you about Awesome Books before have I? I found them via Amazon a few years ago. I don't read much fiction these days but really enjoy foodie books, travel writing, design books and practically anything on living in France. Or as Andrew calls them, my "Driving over squashed figs in Provence" books.  Sometimes I can manage to combine all of these ('Table in the Tarn' being one example) which is a real bonus.

Anyway back to Awesome Books. They sell new books but it's their second hand - or if you prefer pre-loved - section that I really enjoy. They have thousands at £2.59 each with free delivery to the U.K, Western Europe and the U.S. The area that we're concentrating on for French house hunting is loosely based in the Quercy region so it made sense to type that into Awesome's search facility. This gave me the obvious, guide books and maps, which was a good start. Then I got creative and put in related words such as truffles, which gave me Anne Gregg's book on French markets  "Tarragon & truffles". As you can see from the photograph, from the last two orders, there's a huge range of books. I'm even happy with the ones in French.


My latest purchases

Apart from good value and free delivery their customer service is excellent. I had placed an order about a month before Christmas and it was only after a couple of weeks I realised they hadn't arrived. On the Sunday evening I dropped them an email and got a response back within an hour. They had been despatched but as it was just standard Royal Mail there was no tracking. So they would check to see if they had duplicates in store and send them out with no extra charge. They arrived within four days.


Beautifully packaged

Like Amazon they have a wish list facility - I'm currently waiting for a second hand version of 'Honey from a weed' by Patience Gray - and will send you an email when they have a copy. Talking of emails they do send you offers but at sensible intervals that don't clog up my inbox.

So if you love books, have a browse at Awesome, you never know what you may find!

6 comments:

  1. I popping over to Awesome books now to have a look, thanks for the tip!

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    1. No problems - hope you find something you like Sara!

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  2. What an appropriate post for World Book Day (British branch). I can't actually imagine a world without fiction: I've just been listening to Radio 4 Bookclub, discussing Andrew Miller's 'Pure', set in pre-Revolutionary Paris. Since it's about France, might it tempt you? Brilliant book!

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  3. I heard the same programme Margaret ( I was doing the ironing!) and was a bit tempted. I used to read 4-6 fiction books a month but when we were sailing, books were harder to get. They were like currency and basically I would read anything I could get my hands on - did you know there is a huge market for cat detective stories in the U.S........? So since then I've been very selective with written fiction but that doesn't stop me reading (or listening to R4 plays).

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  4. Cat detective fiction? Stolen cats? Or super-sleuthing moggies?

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    1. Super sleuthing moggies who guide their owners to the truth! I remember a whole series of 'The Cat who......'. After eight days at sea without a soul around life can become surreal.

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