Books etc. closing down in Canary Wharf

Wah...(well sort-of-wah)...spotted the other day that my nearest book shop in Canary Wharf, was closing down! I don't buy a huge number of books in book shops (as it's so much cheaper online), but if I've had a bad day, or if I've finished a book off and need something new for the way home, or if I'm off on holiday and need to quickly stock up, or even the odd present - suffice it to say it's saved my bacon on a couple of occasions (in a number of ways) and is near enough to not eat too much into the commute...so you can understand I was just a little bit upset when I saw the signs, but just not upset enough to run in and buy a load of 50% off books with a smile on my face...

Today I am wondering what on earth they bothered for...another shop is opening -but- it's a Waterstones (as you can clearly see if you click that picture and peer through the silver covering on the windows)...! Found a news story confirming it here...but the crazy thing is, they had the front doors open today, and when I peered in I noticed that they haven't even bothered to re-fit the store, it's exactly the same layout, same shelves, same tables...same books? Well, almost certainly not if they belonged to a different retailer, but I imagine the stocks arriving now won't be *much* different from those which populated them previously...

Rather a curious move...but not one I am going to question (as a consumer)...I'm just going to say "thanks for staying as a book shop"... ;)

Dexter - Differences between the book and the TV show

I decided (as I mentioned previously), to take a dip into the original books after enjoying the TV series so much, and guess what? They are *rather* different (same basic storyline, but the TV show adds a lot more depth to the sub-characters)...

Hmm, now can I do this without any serious spoilers...?

Right at the start of the book Dexter himself introduces the reader to his "Dark Passenger" - when he is comitting murder he tends to refer to himself as "We" and "Us" (even when speaking out loud) - it isn't until season 2 of the TV show that this dual personality is in any way acknowledged and even so he always refers to himself as "I"...

Dexter's 'methods' vary, following a "searching for some hidden truth" theme, like by using his knife (in one example) he can literally find tangible answers hiding under the skin, it's just a matter of discovering the correct method...oh and he always wears a mask...

Dexter uses the word "important" a lot in the book, for example "the body was completely drained of blood, this was important" or "the girls were all fair haired, this was important" without a lot of further explaination, as if the reader were just supposed to understand (which is quite haunting and powerful)...not a mention of the word on TV, but I think I can understand the need for them to make him a more 'friendly' person...

The book is all from Dexter's point of view, a little like you are taking a ride along with him (sat quietly next to the aforementioned passenger), the TV series explores all sorts of different characters point of view (expanding many of them considerably into side-plots)...

Deborah in the book is suspicious of Dexter right from the start - saying things like "How do you *know* that?", prompting Dexter to carefully insert little mistakes into his predictions of what killers might be thinking...it doesn't work though (and without going into details) from the conclusion of the first book, she discovers that her brother is a serial killer (which is going to make things interesting!), in the TV show she is still none-the-wiser as of the season two finale...

Rita’s abusive ex-husband Paul doesn't exist, or isn't mentioned anyway...(much simplifying the girlfriend situation)...

Angel is referred to as "Angel (no relation)" and we don't hear much about him, and even less about his ex-wife (nothing in fact)...

Dexter doesn't have a real 'buddy' at the station (sorry Masuka)...the Dexter in the book actually rather dislikes him...

It's not the "Ice Truck Killer" it's the "Tamiami Butcher" (smacks a bit of dumbing down, I think I could have been introduced to the area with a nice panning shot of a "Welcome to Tamiami" sign)...

Camilla Figg is much younger and infatuated with Dexter (working nearby in the lab) rather than a filing clerk and mother figure who worked with Dexter's father (back in the day)...

Oh and one of the main characters is murdered...but I'll let you find out who, where, how and why... ;)

I have also learned that the second book ("Dearly Devoted Dexter") has virtually nothing to do with the TV show (yes!)...the first one did actually follow the same story arc, only the end being *considerably* different (but I won't ruin it)...so that means I have some nice fresh Dexter fiction to chew on while I wait for September...excellent... ;)

Bookmooch - swap books free worldwide

This is worth a post all of it's own - Bookmooch - basically it lets you swap books with people the world over (free apart from the price of postage), it works like this - you go around your spare room, blowing dust off all the books you don't want any more, then type in their ISBN number to build a catalogue (just by doing this you can earn credit (10 books put up for offer earns you one free book in return)...if one of the other members wants a book you have listed you pop it in the post to them and when they get it you earn more points, 1 point if they live in the same country as you, 3 points if they are in a different one (to offset the extra postage cost)...so then you take your earned points, browse through all the books listed (you can browse by location, so in London, for example, there are 3082 free books listed at the moment) and pick away, each locally sourced book costs 1 point, each one from abroad costs 2 points...simple as that, the only other thing is that you must maintain a 2:1 ratio (send one out for every two you get, just in order to keep everything moving)...

Have a go!

Mc Libel (McLibel) UK Libel law & McDonalds

I just finished reading this facinating book about (what became known as) the "McLibel" case which was written (while on sabatical) by John Vidal (Environment Editor at the Guardian)...a thoroughly good read, I won't spoil the end of the story (if you don't already know the outcome) but it is about what happened when McDonalds (a massive, multinational, super rich corporation) decided to sue a couple of unemployed people who handed out a leaflet (which they had no involvement in writing) entitled "What is wrong with McDonalds".

Now, I didn't know much about Libel law before reading this book (and so, rightly or wrongly, I am going to assume you have a similar level of understanding) but did you realise that those two poor souls, being the "defamators", bore the burden of proof? In essence - it was up to them to prove that vague statements someone else had written (like "McDonalds is responsible for destroying rainforest in order to create grazing land for beef herds")...they had to find experts to come before the court, nothing previously written (not even in a scientific journal) was admissable, and the judge is bound to proceed from a state of absolute lack of knowledge or bias, he can make absolutely no assumption about what, say, "a rainforest" is...this must all be defined by expert testimony, argued and proved beyond reasonable doubt...

Consider also -

• McDonalds hired private detectives to infiltrate the protesters group (one of whom went as far as sleeping with a member in order to establish credibility)
• They hired the top libel lawer in England and put behind him a crack team of researchers and assistants - the defendants had to defend themselves
• The Judge dismissed the defendants right to legal aid (as did the EU court of appeal), McDonalds effectively allocated an infinite budget, the defendents only just had enough money to pay for their witnesses bus fare and hire a photocopier
• The Judge dismissed the defendants right to a trial by jury
• One of the defendants was a single parent
• That this case went on to become the single longest trial in English legal history

Great, great story...raises some really interesting questions, not least, in my mind about whether William Gibson's view of a future largely ruled by massive mega-corporations (housed in huge "Arcologies", like a city within an office block (think Logans Run) - multi-Noah's ark-like oases, filed with salary-men and associated family members, separated by ancient, sadly un-abandoned city-slums from the former city/country based borders...these Corporations employing their own armies, their own secret service agents and (as seems to be nastily likely to happen) answering to no-one) is actually going to come to pass...

Did you know, for example, that the General Motor company has a greater GDP than many whole nation states including Saudi Arabia, Poland, Thailand and the entirity of South Africa? Were you aware the Shell corporation now owns more land than 146 (of the offically, globally recognised) countries in the World?

Interesting facts eh?

Anyway, excellent book...have a go... ;)