TSP FYI
Have you ever clicked on one of the adverts at the top of this page? I actually joined TSP because of the initial offer; yes, I really did. Since then, despite trying to force an interest in the kind of books they offer in their monthly pamphlet, I have never bought a thing. They’re the kind of people who promote the latest middlebrow apologia for literary fiction (Franzen, Tartt), which is forgivable, but then offer crass self-help books like “How to Write Damn Good Fiction” (which I’m not even going to dignify with a link). This comes with the recommendation that if you want to write: “don�t aim for a Booker prize if you want an audience for your work, and please your reader not your ego” Apparently, it is “just the thing to set you on the road to writing really readable … fiction”. Have these people ever thought about literature for longer than it takes to reach for the remote?
Anyway, in October I ordered not one but TWO books. Book Lovers’ London and Museums and Galleries of London (the links are to Amazon UK by the way). You might guess that this was in advance of a visit to the capital city. Anyway, TWO months later, still no books. So I went to the website and ask why. Today, they replied thus:
“Unfortunately I can advise that as your account with us was closed on the 20.09.02, we were unable to process your recent order for you as requested as this order was placed after this date. Therefore although your order may still appear as ‘On Order’ on your online account this order will never be despatched to you.”
Great. They never advised my account had been closed. Perhaps it was in the small print and I missed it because I was too busy pleasing my ego by reading the only really readable bits. Who knows. What I do know is that “despatched” is spelt with an “i”.
They end the email with: “we hope to be able to welcome you back as a member in the future”. Well, it would be nice, but I’m afraid if I order some books I might get thrown out again. Meanwhile, my order has been transferred to the ever-reliable Amazon.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- My villa in the south of France
- Atwood on Dystopia
- Write (not write) One of the ironies of startin…
- That scummy little film
- Fudging the issue
