Thursday, July 05, 2007

A Parcel From The Book Depository

Another day, another book parcel, this one containing a big, fat history book by David Kynaston titled Austerity Britain: 1945-51. Two rave reviews of it piqued my interest. The Guardian review opened with the statement: "This is a classic; buy at least three copies - one for yourself and two to give to friends and family," while the Observer review opined:

It is very hard to praise the author too highly. […] Austerity Britain is as supple as willow. For all its factual density, it reads wonderfully. And while its purely literary merits are kept skilfully (and modestly) under control, there can be no doubt that this book is both a history and a triumphant work of art.

Given my fascination with the historical period, how could I resist?

Ostensibly the book is available in Canada, but I haven’t seen it in any stores and amazon.ca advised that if I ordered it from them it could take as long as four months to reach me. So I ordered it directly from Britain via The Book Depository and, scarcely a week later, here it is in my eager hands. The icing on the cake is that shipping was free, even overseas. It was my first order from The Book Depository and it definitely won't be my last.

7 comments:

Gentle Reader said...

Thanks for the link to The Book Depository. Looks like a great resource!

Rebecca H. said...

I agree with Gentle Reader -- I'll have to check the Book Depository out.

Kerry said...

Books in the post! How exciting. You've piqued my interest. And the book looks good too.

Anonymous said...

I keep meaning to visit The Book Depository but I'm a bit scared that my prudence will go right out the window in the face of getting UK books without paying shipping.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kate, hi everyone,

Thanks for the kind words about The Book Depository -- we do our best!

And thanks, too, for the heads up about Kynaston's Austerity Britain: 1945-51. After having been very disappointed by Andrew Marr's A History of Britain this looks like it might be a much better read.

Kate S. said...

Mark,

You're doing great work with The Book Depository. It's a wonderful thing to have the British books that I covet so readily accessible. I gleefully received another two books from you this morning...

jenclair said...

Thanks for the link and a new book for the list!