2011 in summation

This has been a year of many changes and challenges, and it's interesting to see how well my reading list has reflected that. The biggest change, of course, has been the birth of my son. This has been an upheaval in many ways, beyond the obvious of shifting my lifestyle to accommodate a new little dude.

In response to my new responsibilities, I've turned to the "experts."

• Raising A Secure Child by Zeynep Biringen


• Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth


• Emotionally Intelligent Parenting by Maurice J. Elias, Steven E. Tobias, and Brian S. Friedlander


• How to have your second child first by Kerry Colburn and Rob Sorensen


• Baby Signs by Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn

I also read books on more general parenting philosophies, and kid-related issues.

• NurtureShock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman


• What does it mean to be well educated? by Alfie Kohn


• Free-Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy

And, of course, the obligatory "silly tell-all of parenting/pregnancy."

• Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy

One of the major new obstacles to reading has been my son's penchant for devouring books in the non-figurative sense. This has steered me in the direction of AudioBooks, which I'm not generally a great fan of.

I've taken a bit more of an interest in Non-Fiction this year than I generally do, especially pop-journalism. Since I've focused so much this year on my Bible blog and on volunteering for my local Atheist community, many of these have centred around religion/skepticism.

• The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs


• My Life As An Experiment by A.J. Jacobs


• The Men Who Stare at Goats by Jon Ronson


• Flim-Flam by James Randi


• Godless by Dan Barker


• The Reasonableness of Faith and Other Addresses by W.S. Rainsford

I started watching the show Big Love in 2010 and took an interest in Mormon polygamy.

• Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer


• The 19th Wife by David Eershoff

After a bit of a slump in 2010, I made a point to read more classics and get back into the habit of reading books written around the Victorian era, which was, of course, the focus of my university degree.

• Flatland by Edwin Abbott


• Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy


• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne


• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I continued to read through the series that I've enjoyed over the years.

• Gaius Ruso mystery #4: Caveat Emptor by Ruth Downie


• Earth's Children #4: The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel by Jean M. Auel

And last but not least, the unexpected gem I picked up off a shelf in someone else's home.

• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Opportunities to sit down and read have been limited, so I haven't felt like much of a reader in 2011. I've also always been a commute reader, so being on maternity leave for much of the year has further decreased my available time. Even so, making this list and realizing just how many entries there actually are has made me feel quite a bit better about myself.

I will be going back to work next year, although I don't know if my commute will return in quite the same form. On the other hand, as my son grows and discovers that there's more to books than flavour, there may be more of a call for reading - at least out loud. I suspect that my focus will be much more on picture books, although my goal is to read at least 25 "grown-up" books before the world ends in 2012.

Learning everything you need to know about a person by looking at their bookshelves

I always love going to people's houses for the first time, because there's just so much you can learn about a person by looking at their living environment. By the same token, I'm often a little shy to have people in my own home because it makes me feel vulnerable and exposed, like I'm letting them see a bit too much of my psyche.

One of the most revealing areas of the home is the bookshelf. Here are a few of my observations (to be taken with a grain of salt, of course - this is, as psychics say, for "entertainment purposes only"):

No books: None at all? Very rare, but I've seen it. Generally people who watch a whole lot of TV and don't have a whole lot of respect for intellectual pursuits (for example, they probably don't know how to play chess, or they may think that a post-secondary degree is something one gets to get ahead in their career rather than an end in itself).

No shelves, but a few books lying around: Books may be found by the couch or on the nightstand. There will almost certainly be at least one in the bathroom (although some people hide their bathroom books when company is coming over in an effort to convince people that they don't poop). These people fall into two categories, and you can generally tell the difference based on the type of books you find. Some are simply casual readers, similar to the no books people. Others are avid library-borrowers (either for ideological or for economic reasons). Either way, you will need to pay attention to the types of books you find to make a better diagnosis.

Reading material tends to be magazines: Magazines are obvious indicators of hobbies and interests. If you find magazines, you've struck gold. A "girly" mag like Cosmo tells you that your friend is either single or probably doesn't have a long-standing beau (or, if she does, chances are that they fight like cats and dogs). A home-decorating mag tells you that your friend is either about to start renovating, or is the kind of person who is never quite satisfied with life - leaping into pursuit of the next goal when the last one has barely been accomplished.

Reading material tends to be pulp: Pulp comes in a variety of forms, from detective novels, to spy novels, to romance, &etc. Pulp books may run in the 300+ pages, but they are very fast reads and offer no challenge. People who read pulp tend to feel that reading is something one should do, but they don't value it enough to put a lot of effort into it. Pulp readers may be career professionals with very little downtime available, for example.

Lots of classics, but no contemporary pieces that aren't on high school reading lists: There's a Dickens but no Gaskell, there's Frederick Douglass but no Equiano. Check the spines and you're likely to find them uncracked (or, if your friend is particularly fastidious about keeping up appearances, they are cracked too uniformly to have happened naturally by reading). These are the people who value intellectualism, but who aren't willing to put in the work to cultivate it in themselves. These people are probably insecure about their intelligence, so they surround themselves with the gaudy trappings of it. They may have read these books in high school, or at least the cliff notes, but they haven't opened them since. You'll make a very good impression if you comment admiringly at their collection, drawing attention to how smart they must be to have all these books.

Lots of classics and lots of pulp: A frequent mix, the standard high schooler's reading list and a bunch of junk food for the brain. See point above.

An indiscriminate mixture: I'm often given books by friends and family members who have typecast me as "the one who loves books" but don't know me (or books) well enough to figure out which ones I might like. I'll also sometimes accept second hand books in bulk from friends (or garage sale dealers) and sort through them once I get home. To get rid of undesirable excess (duplicates, abridgements, crap), I'll occasionally put ups ads and pass the books on to new homes. From time to time, I'll get offers for the whole lot. One such person told me, as she was picking up her boxes, that she "loves books." These are people who value books and reading, but who don't have the taste to discriminate between good reading and bad reading, and have no preferences of their own. These people are similar to those who own classics and pulp - they've identified reading as a desirable trait, and they want to convey that they are readers. As a redeeming feature, they at least they lack the pretentiousness of the classics-owners.

A wide variety, but with some common themes: This person is an avid reader who reads out of enjoyment rather than a sense that it is what one should do. This person has preferences, seeking out certain kinds of books over others. Unfortunately, if too eclectic, the variety found in their reading habits can probably also be found in their other pursuits. This person may have spent a year learning to play the piano before getting bored and picking up the violin (opting instead for the recorder shortly thereafter).

Overwhelmingly in one genre: There may be a little variety, but most of the books this person owns fall into a certain genre or category. For example, this person might have a few novels and a whole lot of books about astronomy. This person is focused, perhaps even obsessed. Unlike the fickle individual we saw above, this person sees things through. This is someone who played a single instrument all through grade school. If they started a post-secondary education, they probably finished it (or are currently). I hope that you share some interests because this relationship could get real boring real fast if not!

This isn't a precise science and there are several confounding factors. For example, when multiple people live in one home, it can be difficult to determine which books belong to which person, possibly leading to a misdiagnosis. I find that this is a bigger issue for roommates than it is for couples since couples (especially if they've been together for a long time) tend to gravitate towards each other in their personalities and interests. Gifts can also throw you off, as the person may be displaying a parent's tastes, for example, rather than their own.

So, what kind of reader are you?

BlackBerry's PlayBook and Kobo - A Review

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about how resistant I am to the idea of eReading. Then fate decided to be funny and arranged for me to get a BlackBerry PlayBook for free (through work, long story). The PlayBook comes with Kobo, an eReader software.

I received it yesterday, so these are my impressions after only a couple hours of playing with it.

[caption id="attachment_1051" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="The young prince plays with his future inheritance..."][/caption]

Availability of books

Kobo has the ability to sort its site so that it displays only free books. I'm pretty cheap, so that's what I went for straight away. There isn't a huge selection, but it's pretty good and will keep even a speedy reader occupied for a good amount of time. There are quite a few Star Wars books, and a reasonable selection of what looks to be either Christian books or pulp romances - it's hard to tell by the covers and titles.

But more interestingly, there's a fairly good collection of classics. I was able to find quite a few books that I've been wanting to read, so that was rather nice. If you want more, they have a fairly good selection of books for under $10.

Text presentation

One of the things that I complained about in my post about eReaders is that I remember books far better when they are in book format, as opposed to the types of pages that you get in a Word document, for example. Kobo does its best by giving the option of displaying books as double pages (or, if you prefer, as single pages). This gives something of a book-y feel, although they still haven't solved the issue of being able to feel, with your hands, how far into the book you are.

There are other ways that you can manipulate the display, such as changing the font style (serif or non), altering the brightness, or, best of all, changing the font size. As I get older and my eyes start to fail I think that this will be the best argument in favour of eReaders.

Page turner

They clearly tried to replicate the book experience. Turning the page involves actually turning the page - or, rather, tapping the screen in the direction that you would like to navigate. I like it better than scrolling, but it does feel a little gimmicky.

There's also a quick button back to the table of contents, so it's easy enough to jump from one section of the book to another. That being said, page numbers are gone, so referencing could be a problem.

Kobo automatically remembers your place in each book, so it's quite easy to pick up where you left off in a previous reading session.

Referencing

As I noted above, page numbers are missing. This is a pretty serious issue if you're the kind of person who likes to take notes while you read. It wouldn't be so bad if there were some kind of marginal notes feature, but there isn't that I could find.

The only option is what Kobo calls "dogears." By tapping the upper corner of the screen, you can "fold" the page to leave a place mark. These can then be searched in their own list to make navigation between your favourite passages a bit easier. It's something, but it really isn't enough for people like me who are in the habit of marking up books.

Battery life

One thing you don't have to worry about with paper books is how long the batteries will last. I haven't really pushed the boundaries, but I did keep it on for about two hours while writing this review and the battery icon showed only a sliver lost. I take that as a pretty good sign.

Conclusion

It seems nice to have, especially since the PlayBook can be used for a fairly wide range of things. For example, it has Word installed, so I transferred over my notes for my Bible reading project, which will make it a bit easier to work on while "on the go." There are also some apps available for free, and the PlayBook can be used to surf the internet. I'm definitely glad to have it and I think I'll get some use out of it.

But I got it for free. From my perspective, it would have to be pretty awful for me not to like it in at least some ways. But this model costs $700 in Canadian stores. At that price, it's definitely not worth buying just as an eReader, and I think it would be hard to justify even with all the other features factored in.

On the experience of books

My mother recently bought herself a Kindle and has been urging me to get one. She says that the ability to resize the text makes it far more readable than print. It seems to have many of the benefits of print books, such as the ability to highlight passages and write notes. It's also far more convenient to travel with than a backpack full of paperbacks.

A friend, who also keeps a book review blog, has recommended listening to audio books for the speed (he speeds up the audio, burning through books at an incredible pace). Another reason is the ability to listen while driving or, more relevant in my case, while standing because no seats where available on the bus. Since my son was born with an apparent aversion to spending even so much as a few seconds without being held, I thought I would give it a try, attracted to the hands-free nature of audio.

But despite all the points in favour of both e-readers and audio books, I just can't get into them. With my ridiculously long introduction out of the way, here are my reasons for preferring to read it old school:

1. Memory: I learn best when I'm reading - so much so that I developed the habit of transcribing my professors' lectures in university and reading my notes after the class was over. I found that this significantly improved my retention rate. Combined with the mnemonic act of writing, I rarely needed to study for exams. So when I 'read' by audio book, I quickly forget what's going on. Unless I write my review within a day or two, I won't remember enough about the book to form a coherent commentary.


2. Finding a passage quickly: I tend to associate what I'm reading with many other factors that are going on around the text. So if I think of a specific passage and I want to find it in a book, I can normally remember a) the weight of the book in each hand, telling me approximately what page the passage is on, and b) the location of the passage relative to the page (left page or right page, upper quadrant or lower). When I read via audio book or on a screen, these other experiences aren't present, making it almost impossible for me to find a specific passage. This is something of a deal-breaker when I'm reading non-fiction.


3. Other people's notes: I enjoy buying second-hand books to read the notes that other people have left. I used to find it annoying, but I've grown to enjoy them - particularly when the author is reflecting on the text. I believe that Kindles allow for downloading other people's notes, so perhaps this complaint is only applicable to audio books.


4. The book's history: Second hand books bear the marks of their history. Do they smell heavily perfumed? Are they dog-eared or neat? Is the spine cared for? Are passages underlined or highlighted? Have any bookmarks, photographs, or shopping lists been left in the book? All these things appeal to my inner detective and enrich my experience of a book, which in turn  relates back to points one and two. The more I experience of the books, the better my memory is of it and its contents.


5. Décor: I just love the look of books. The wall of colours add quite an interesting focal point for rooms that are otherwise kept in Builder's White so as not to break my rental agreement.


6. Sentimentality: The various book smells (new paper versus old, binding glue, cover card), the sensation of cracking a spine for the very first time, and the feel of its weight in my hands. While entirely irrational, these experiences are hard to give up.

All this isn't to say that I'm opposed to Kindles and audio books. As I said, the convenience of audio books have forced my hand somewhat since my son was born, and I wouldn't refuse to use a Kindle were one gifted to me. But I don't think that I'm quite ready to give up the experience of physical books just yet...

Meeting David Sedaris

I saw a sign a while ago advertising that David Sedaris would be speaking at my local Chapters branch. I read Me Talk Pretty One Day several years ago while vacationing in Switzerland and scrounging through my father's large collection of pass-around books. I really enjoyed it and always intended to read more, but I just never got around to it. In any case, I was fairly interested to attend the event.

And then promptly forgot all about it.

That is, until a friend who also writes a book review blog just happened to review Sedaris's new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. Hoping I hadn't missed it, I looked it up online and found that it was going to be on the next day! I do love coincidences!

My husband picked me up from work and we went out to dinner and did a little New Year shopping. The event wasn't until 7pm and I finish work at 4pm, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. Of course, it was freezing and so at about 5:30, we decided just to go to Chapters and hang around until the event began. Good thing we did because the place was already pretty packed.

We bought a copy of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and then my husband left (due to his work schedule, he has to get to sleep early). So I was standing in line until my back started hurting too much and I sat on the floor.

More and more people were showing up, and someone asked the woman behind me if she could move up to give more people room. "There's a pregnant girl here," she said, perhaps a little indignantly. Then she leans down to me: "Honey, you just sit right there, okay? You can come up in front of me when we get close, but you don't have to move, okay?" I thanked her and the line moved on without me.

A minute or two later, another older woman leans down to me and says "they're getting a chair for you." I was rather surprised, and I asked her if she was the one who had told the staff to do so. "A pregnant woman shouldn't have to sit on the floor," she responded. Then I see it - the chair was floating above the crowd, slowly making its way in my direction. A short woman in staff uniform was carrying it raised above her head and trying to make it through the press of people. She put it down when she got to me and motioned to a young man also in uniform. "He's organizing the event. He's going to take care of you, okay?"

The young man took up the chair and told me that they were going to put me at the front, asking if that was all right. Who am I to say no? So we went through the crowd (something of a walk of shame, I felt like some VIP who doesn't have to obey all the rules for 'commoners'), and he set the chair down all the way at the front, extending the front row of seats so that I was sitting next to a security guard and a speaker. "Is it okay for the speaker to be here? Is this going to be okay?" asked the staffer. Are you kidding me? Like I'm going to fuss at this point!

It was still very early, with perhaps another hour to go before the official start of the event, when David Sedaris showed up. To keep things moving, he started signing books right away. An announcement was made that he would be staying until everyone had their books signed, no matter how long it took, but that there were two conditions: 1) No photography of any kind (close-up or from far), and 2) That to get a book signed, David Sedaris was requesting that we tell him a joke in exchange. I don't know if the first rule was David's or Chapters's, but I think it might be the latter since my book doesn't have an author portrait in it.

In any case, I was now in the first line, so I got to move up for the signing pretty quickly. I overheard him trying to guess people's Zodiac signs, which was rather funny because people sounded impressed when he got them right even though he was mostly getting them wrong. "I don't believe in astrology," he said. "But it's fun to try guessing."

The girl two spots ahead of me told her joke and David howled with laughter. When the next one came up, he asked her if she'd heard the joke. When she replied that she hadn't, he told it to her:

What did the pedophile say when he was released from jail? I feel like a kid again!

The person in front of my wanted a book-on-tape signed, so David pulled out his trousse and got a silver pen. He came prepared!

As I stepped up, he was talking about how he prefers listening to books on tape rather than reading them because it means he can get his ironing done at the same time. "You can read and iron at the same time, it just takes a bit of practice," I said - being an expert at doing chores one-handed since my university days offered me the choice between learning to do both or skipping out on one (sleep was already being minimized as far as it would go). "You can do that because you're a Sagittarius," he replied. I'm not.

"How many of these have you actually gotten right?" I asked.

"I'm not doing to well tonight, but..." He motioned to the Chapters events rep standing behind him, "she can back me up on this, I was getting them all right last night!"

"Oh yes," chimed in the woman. "I don't think you missed any!"

Then he asked me for my joke. I'd been thinking ever since the announcement was made, but I couldn't think of anything to say. In a panic, I said that I only know the ones about the two tomatoes crossing the road.

"Ketchup?" he asked. Yes. "Yeah... Listen, why don't I tell you a joke instead?" I failed. Here's the joke he told me:

Why does it suck having sex with Jesus? Because he's always trying to come into your heart.

So there you have it!

I went back to my seat and read Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk until 7pm.

He read the title story of the book, as well as a story about a fly eating vomit that was apparently excluded from the print version of the book (but is on the audio version) because his editors told him it was too gross. He played with two little sound-effects toys, then he recommended that we all buy a book called Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned (saying that we ought to buy this book before any of his own) and read a few passages from it. To finish off, he read out some passages from his diary.

While I was listening to him speak, I kept hearing this snorting noise coming from the right. The only person there was a dour security guard. It was truly a mystery. So I decided to keep an eye on that guard (clandestinely, of course, because security guards don't generally like it when you stare...).

Sure enough, I soon caught him snorting, face all scrunched up, trying to keep control of himself. The poor man had an image to protect, and here was this author, this comedian, ruining everything!

It was a great night and I really enjoyed the experience. David Sedaris seems like a really nice guy - or, at least, a really good actor. I was also very impressed with the staff and customers who worked together to provide assistance to a complete stranger!

100 Books Meme

Stolen from Lost Fort, just cause I love these sorts of things...

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own blog

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – J.K. Rowling (Just The Prisoner of Azkaban)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible (the New Testament, but only bits and pieces of the Old)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles– Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (not *all* of them, but a fairly sizeable number)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – C.S. Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
47 Far From the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón
57 A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary – Helen Fielding (no, but I've read the sequel!)
69 Midnight's Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby-Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce (I started and then gave up. Dubliners ruled, but this was just kinda boring)
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – A.S. Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web – E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Quality Paperback Book Club

WARNING: Really long post ahead! It's essentially about why DoubleDay sucks and you should never EVER shop with them. Must-read if you love books and have ever considered ordering from a company that claims to offer cheaper books in exchange for a membership!

I'm a sucker for good deals on books. Dangle a marked down book in front of my face and you can get me to sign almost anything. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB) counted on.

They have this deal going that if you agree to purchase at least 4 books at full price over the next two years, you get five books for $5. Sounds awesome, right? Well, that's what I thought. So I ordered those five books and I paid $5 (plus shipping and handling). They got here, everything was awesome, so I looked at some of the other book clubs owned by the same company. There's a Crafter's Choice Book Club that I signed up for. I ordered my five books from them as well (it counts as a separate account, in case you were wondering, so the sign up deal still applies).

Instead of the five books I ordered, however, Crafter's Choice sent me only two books and charged me full price for both. I wrote back to them explaining the situation and, while I waited, QPB sent me four books that I never ordered (apparently, I am supposed to call every month and tell them that I don't want to buy the "books of the month" - an awful feature that, to my understanding, has been cancelled). Since their boxes aren't marked and, since I was expecting some other packages, I opened the box. At the time, I didn't know how to return them (since I didn't want to pay for postage) with the box already opened. So I wrote them a letter explaining that situation as well and asking them what I should do.

Now, it all gets a little complicated from this point on, so I will deal with the Crafter's Choice issue first and then with QPB. They sent me a letter back saying that I could order my first five books using a card that they sent me. In the same letter, they sent me another copy of my bill that still charged me full price for the two books I had already ordered. It had taken them several months to reply, by the way. I wrote back that same day explaining that the issue is that I am being asked to pay full price for two books that I never agreed to pay full price on - they were overcharging me by about $30.

Again, it took them several months to respond. This time, they said that I could order just three books for $3 instead. In the same envelope was another copy of the bill that still charged me full price for the two books I received and had added a late fee onto it! That's right, I got charged with a $5 late fee because they failed to answer me in a timely manner. By this time, I had found out that if I just package something and mail it, I don't have to pay postage. They will just have to pay it on their end. So I found an old Chapters box, put the two books in with a letter explaining that, since they aren't willing to fix my issue, I am returning all books I've ordered and asking that they close the account. I also explained that I have a late fee only because the issue involved my billing (I was being overcharged) and it had taken them so long to address the issue (which they, in fact, never really did) that I was charged a late fee.

The next letter I got wasn't from them, but rather from their lawyers. It explained that if I didn't pay the $5 late fee, they would ruin my credit and pursue "serious legal action." I wrote them another letter explaining why I hadn't paid and never received a response. Instead, I just got a series of letters from the lawyer threatening me. Finally, I decided that $5 wasn't worth all the stress it was causing me, so I just paid (along with a very nasty letter, I readily admit).

Back to QPB - So I had written them a letter asking them how I should return the books since the box had already been opened. It took about three months for me to receive a response and it was one of those copy/paste jobs that essentially told me that I can return any books I am not satisfied and they hope this addresses my issue. Thanks. I decided that their snail-mail customer service department was obviously on vacation, so I found their e-mail address (which, by the way, is NOT easy to find) and wrote them an e-mail explaining the whole situation. I sent it on September 7, 2007 (yes, actual dates! All my e-mails are saved on Gmail, so I can actually look up precise dates for this part).

On Septemer 11, 2007, I received a response from a woman telling me, again, that I could return any books I wasn't satisfied with. This time, however, she also explained to me that those books had been sent to me as part of a "special membership feature" and told me that she had cancelled any future mailings of that sort for me. So I wrote back that same day and explained (again) the issue.

She did not respond to that e-mail until January 28, 2008. That's right, about four and a half months later. All she said was that she has no record of me every trying to contact by mail, and didn't even bother to answer the part about the issue I was having. So I sent back another e-mail (again, on the same day - hey, maybe I should go into customer service!) and asked (again) how to solve my issue. She never answered. So I sent another e-mail on February 27 explaining my issue again and asking why my e-mail had gone unanswered. Again, she never answered. That ought to put a little perspective on the quality of the company's customer service. Finally, I called and got through to a woman who told me that I could just repackage the books and mail them and I wouldn't have to pay shipping. PERFECT!

Unfortunately, all this had taken so long that I now owed them a $5 late fee as well (that would be for not paying for books that I hadn't ordered in the first place, I might add). I sent the books back the same day that she told me how and included a letter explaining that the only reason I hadn't paid for the books in a timely manner is that I was trying to deal with their customer service representative and that's just how long it took.

A few weeks later, I received a letter from QPB's lawyer (the same company that did the attack-dog work for Crafter's Choice) telling me that I had to pay the late fee immediately or serious legal action would be taken. Great. Bear in mind that I received NO RESPONSE regarding the letter I had sent explaining the situation. So I finally decided to call them. It took me a while to find the phone number (the company certainly doesn't advertise how to get in touch with them). I explained the whole situation to the phone representative and she seemed very sympathetic. She told me that she was very sorry that my experience had been so poor and that she would take care of my account immediately. She assured me that it would all be settled and that I wouldn't have to pay the late fee.

A few weeks later, I got another letter from their lawyer asking why I didn't pay and threatening legal action. So I called again. Granted, I was rather angry by this point, but I tried very hard to maintain my composure. I calmly explained that I had mailed them and received no response and that I had called and a phone representative had told me that my account was cleared. This representative told me that she had no records of any previous phone calls, letters, or e-mails from me (this was, by the way, something the e-mail lady had told me as well - that there was no records of any letters from me despite my frequent attempts to contact the company). When I asked her if the previous representative had lied to me when she told me that the late fee had been taken off, the representative hung up on me.

So I called again. I explained everything once more (omitting my question about lying) and, again, was told that there were no records of my every contacting the company. They didn't even have a record of the call I had made not five minutes previously! This representative was nice enough, apologized "if you have had poor experiences previously" (even if it was in one of those tones that just screamed "yeah, whatever, if you say so... liar"). She agreed with me that it was unfair that I should be charged a late fee and told me that she had cleared my account of that obligation.

Then I got another letter from the lawyer. Yes, that's right. I was lied to TWICE, right into my ear. I attempted to e-mail the same address I had used previously several more times, but they either went unanswered or I only got copy/paste responses back.

It was at about this point that a friend recommended that I report QPB to the Better Business Bureau (BBB). I did this. My compensation request was simply that my account be closed (without the obligation of fulfilling my contract) and that my late fee be waved. Time went on and I received several more threatening letters from QPB's lawyers. Finally, I gave in. I have perfect credit and it just wasn't worth jeopardizing that on the off chance that the BBB would actually be able to resolve anything. So I sent them a $5 cheque, informed them that I had contacted the BBB, and requested that my account be terminated immediately.

A few weeks later, I received a bill indicating that I needed to pay $43 to be able to cancel my account (since I hadn't ordered four books at full price). Well, I'll be damned if I'm to simply part with $43 without getting anything for it, so I went on the website and ordered the four cheapest books that I would like to own.

A few days after that, I finally received an e-mail from the customer service representative dealing with the BBB report. The letter goes on about how "contrary to the BBB report," QPB had received a membership request in my name (something that I never mentioned in the BBB statement I wrote since I know perfectly well that I'm the one who signed up) and that they still haven't received the introductory package that I had been advised to return. There's two major things wrong with that statement: 1) The introductory package was fine. My complaint had to do with the membership "books of the month" package. 2) The customer service representatives I had spoken to on the phone had claimed that they had no record of any attempts on my part to contact QPB, while this guy is just admitting that my e-mails are on file.

So anyways, he goes on about how QPB has made several attempts to assist me in resolving my problems but that I haven't followed instructions. He then finishes up his implications with the statement that "In fact, our records further show a 2nd account in your name that was also closed under similar circumstances" (referring to the Crafter's Choice account, obviously). So maybe I am too emotionally invested in this to think objectively, but that sounds a whole lot like he just accused me of trying to scam the company. Now, I realize that he probably has to put up a lot of this bravado to paint me as the bad guy since BBB is involved, but this is just incredible!

But let's look at the actual statement, shall we? What qualifies as "similar circumstances"? In the one case, I returned the initial package and asked that my account be completely closed as though I had never signed up in the first place. In the second case, I received the initial package, paid for it, and then ordered the books needed to complete the contract (which he mentioned in his e-mail). How are those similar? The only similarity I can find is that, in both cases, I was forced to pay a late fee because something had gone wrong and I couldn't get hold of them for so long. In both cases, I cancelled my accounts due to gross incompetence on the part of their customer service department. Is that the "similar circumstances" he's referring to? Should I interpret all of this as a coded admission of guilt? Or is it more likely that the "similar circumstances" refers to his stance that I tried to scam the company and was thwarted?

And finally, the end of his letter said that my account will be closed as soon as I pay the remaining balance of $49.56 (the final price of the four books I ordered. Well, I did get the books, but the bill charged me $54.55 instead. I would assume that this was because he credited the wrongfully-charged late fee to my account (after the books were sent? which wouldn't make sense because they were sent several days after I received his e-mail), but he certainly made no mention of it. It's like he knew he was wrong, but he couldn't admit any part of it - even just to tell me that I've received a refund! Either way, I paid the amount on the bill lest I get another letter in three month's time telling me that I didn't pay the full amount and will be charged another $5 late fee!

Just to close up this (lengthy) complaint, I would like to say that I have no idea whether DoubleDay (QPB and Crafter's Choice's parent company) is a deliberate scam or if they are just completely incompetent. The fact that they have made mistakes with almost every order I placed with them and that NONE of them have been resolved to my satisfaction in a timely manner despite repeated attempts on my part to contact that (not to mention a costly phone bill as they are located in Toronto) tells me that it could be either. Then again, I've looked them up on wikipedia and they seem to be an old and established company, so it could just be that they have a really terrible customer service department.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. Whether a scam or just a hopelessly incompetent company, the end result is a lot of headache and a lot of money for the consumer (it does add up - $10 in late fees, another $10 in phone calls, at least $20 in postage, not to mention the extra $5 added to my final bill). If you ever see an advertisement for any of the DoubleDay book clubs, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you just forget about it and go to amazon, chapters, or whatever book provider you prefer instead. The deals may seem good, but they just aren't worth it in the long run.

EDIT: Right after writing this, I checked out the status of my BBB report. Apparently, they sent the first notice to DoubleDay on 15 May and received no response, so they had to send a second notice on 2 June before a reply was made. At least it's not just me they don't respond to!

EDIT 2: Well, I certainly wish that I'd checked this or this out before signing anything!

EDIT 3: So I got another letter from this guy. He's now claiming that he has communicated with me in a "timely manner" and gives me dates that directly contradict not only my own e-mail records, but also the Better Business Bureau's records. However, he did finally apologize. Here's the apology: "Nevertheless, though our versions of events differ substantially, we apologize for the problems you have had with your memberships."

Translation: "We don't believe a word you've said, but if we have to apologize - fine." Well, I e-mailed him copies of all the e-mails I received back in 2007 and early 2006 (which directly contradict his "version of events," I might add) and pointed out to him how insincere his apology was. I then informed him that it was an apology, such as it was, and that since this had been my terms when I contacted the BBB, I would close my complaint with them. I then informed him that I made this post and that I also posted on ripoffreport.com, and closed with the hope that my treatment has been a fluke and that they haven't put anyone else through this. So there you have it. I'm hopefully done with these cretins.