Recently, I decided to read the
thriller that has been getting rave reviews in the press. It is called "Gone Girl" by Gillian
Flynn, and I looked on Amazon to purchase it for my Kindle. I love my Kindle and I have many books
loaded onto it, and it has been invaluable to me when travelling, because
previously I needed to carry with me as many as 10 paperbacks to last me for
the whole trip.
So I found it on Amazon and its price
was $12.82. This seemed high to me
because I usually expected Kindle books to be less than $10. There are a number of other sites I use
from time to time to access books, and one of them is The Book Depository, so I
checked that site, which is based in the UK, and found the book in paperback
form with free delivery to Australia for $9.98. Obviously, I decided to purchase it from them rather than
Amazon, but it got me thinking.
How is it possible that I can buy a paperback book and have it mailed to my
door from as far away as the UK for less than it costs me to download a digital
version from the internet? There
is something not right about this, and I have noticed that many of the books
available for my Kindle are now quite a lot more expensive than they used to
be. It appears that there have
been agreements made between the publishers and Amazon that artificially
inflate digital prices so they are less competitive than hard copies of the
books.
Once again the consumer suffers because of publishers protecting their traditional business of printing
books. I’m not happy about this
and I can only hope that in time, enough of us readers complain about it until
prices are adjusted.
But back to the much-hyped "Gone Girl". As is usually the
case with hyped up books, the reality was somewhat more mundane than I was led
to believe. Notwithstanding that,
it was a gripping read and kept me turning the pages, and there were a number
of twists that were surprising and shocking. However, the ending stretched my credulity too far, so I was
left a little deflated by it.
Other readers may not feel this way, and the reviewers in the Observer
and other newspapers and magazines clearly weren’t disappointed with it,
because they were the ones giving it “Thriller of the Year” type reviews.
The author is a good writer and has
come up with some amazing plot twists, and I would suggest that if a person who
is single reads it, they may end up staying that way. It is quite a terrifying exposé of what a marriage can be. I believe the film rights have been
purchased. So it may be coming to the big screen soon.