What can we say, except a HUGE congratulations to the wonderful Dame Judith Binney on her 2010 NZ Post Book of the Year win.
I keep writing sentences and deleting them as seeming unfitting – all I can think of is “bloody good choice”.
Category : BookieMonster News, Books for Sale, Featured
Father’s Day is almost here! And aren’t Dads just great to shop for? They’re always so easy, right, you know exactly what to get them, there’s always something they need…
Ahem. Sorry, I was lost in some strange parallel universe there for a minute. Dads are awful to shop for. You never know what to get them. You want to get them something that tells them how amazing you think they are, yet doesn’t look like something you made in Standard 3 with macaroni.
So they end up with another BBQ tool set. *sigh*
Fear not, gentle readers! BookieMonster’s here to save the day with our handydandysuperduper Father’s Day Gift Generator! Just scan the detailed “Dad Descriptors” and choose the nearest fit to your Dad, click on the link, and before you know it it’s Father’s Day and you can present your gift with little-to-no embarrassment.
And, helpfully, we’ll keep running these over the next few days so you can keep checking back for more ideas.
Get purchasing! Those perfect presents don’t buy themselves you know!
Category : BookieMonster News, Competitions, Fun Stuff, New Releases
Competition time! Hurrah!
I am going to giveaway my review copies of three wonderful books that I lurrrrved and you will too!
I wish I could make my photos look purdier. Anyway…
Yep – What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell, Cannibal Jack by Trevor Bentley aaaaaand Family Album by Penelope Lively! I’m going to give these away individually so you have three chances to win! Does that make sense?
That’s right, three brandspanking new release great reads. So to enter please fill in the form below. That’s all you have to do!
But if you’re really keen you can also get extra entries by:
- Leaving a comment on the blog during the time the competition is running.
- Purchasing a book from us on Trade Me – visit http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=1998646 to check out our aaawwwesome range of books for sale – new and secondhand! You can tell us what you’ve bought in the form below and every purchase gets you another entry.
Competition is only open to New Zealand residents (or at least, I can only post winnings within New Zealand, sorry), and runs from the time this post is up until midnight Sunday August 29. Judges decision is final and we reserve the right to change details if mistakes have been made.
And we WILL email you if you have won, and make an announcement post, so please check back on Monday 30 August for announcement and look out for an email (coz we aren’t dirty spammers, oh no).
So get browsing, get filling in, get commenting…
What the Dog Saw and other adventures by Malcolm Gladwell, Penguin, RRP $30, ISBN 9780141044804, Available now.
You can always count on Malcolm Gladwell to deliver an entertaining and informative read – the one problem is when you gather the shorter essays in a long form like this it starts to look a little repetitive.
But, honestly, when you’re dealing with journalism/essay-writing as good as this that becomes a small distraction. Gladwell just has a great knack for taking odd subjects (the history of the birth control pill, reading a mammogram, the secrets of informercial hawkers, plagiarism) and making them engaging for everyone.
Because what he’s really about here is not the subjects themselves, per se. He’s not a journalist in the traditional reporter sense, or even in the traditional features writer sense. Gladwell is definitely an essayist and what he’s essaying is what goes on inside brains. Not just human brains, we’ve got dog brains here also, but mostly human brains. (“Braaaains”)
Gladwell is a consummate observer of people and interpreter of their words and their actions. And in many of these essays he shows us how the ways in which we think can link the most seemingly disparate things that we do (e.g. interpreting mammograms and interpreting intelligence photos from foreign countries).
And he knows how to serve up a page-turner. This is great writing, fun to read and damn interesting to think about for several weeks afterwards. In the words of the man himself:
Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. Not the kind you’ll find in this book, anyway. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think.
So I am a bad blogger, bad bad BAD blogging monkey! I have not been entertaining you like I should with my witty words and general gab.
But SRSLY I am BUSY you guys! I just have an amazing amount of stuff going on. My life is stuffed with stuff. Some of it involves reading and books but at the moment, not enough!
You can help – please buy from us! We’ve got almost 800 listings at the moment and I know it’s a lot to go through but duuuuuuuude – there’s got to be something in there for everyone!
Father’s Day is coming up you know. Hint, hint.
And if you don’t feel like buying anything then please tell (send the link http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=1998646, go on) your family, your friends, your enemies, your workmates, your neighbours, your cats, your dogs – open up a bank account in your guinea pig’s name and get them to buy a book! (“Hello, I’d like to open an account.” “Certainly sir, and first may I have your name?” “Mr Fluffykins McSnugglebottom the Third.”)
However if, by same insanely crazy thousand to one chance you don’t want any of the books we have for sale (srsly, what are you on?) then check out Book Depository UK and our affiliate link – they have MILLIONS AND MILLIONS (and miwwions) of books for sale and you don’t pay any shipping at all whatsoever nosirreebob so help them.
And, if after all that you’re wondering what’s keeping me busy (apart from the usual) then you should check out my Posterous blog AtNgaire in which I link to all sorts of web malarkey that captures my fancy and write about exciting things like social media, online marketing, community management and basically anything else I want. Yes, I’m one of those wonks. But you can be one of them too, just by commenting – or really, just send me cool stuff to put on there. It’s fun.
Not leastly you should totally check out the amazingly awesomely extraordinarily choice Groupy and grab yourself a besty deal. They’ve been keeping me busy too.
Right-o! 
Addition: I meant to add also if your Dad isn’t the reading type but is the obsessive with detail and military models type – or just a military buff then check out Mr Monster’s site at www.militarymodels.co.nz – he’s running a huuuuuge Father’s Day sale over there! Plus he’s all real clever and stuff. We loves him. ♥ Awwwwwwwww.
