StrangeThings...

.. can happen when you read two books at the same time...which is something I do not normally do. 

The book I am currently reading  - The Everything War  by Dana Mattioni - is a pretty heavy read, but one I did not want to give up on. According to the critics, it is  "an unflinching exposé of thuggish strategies employed by Amazon" that  "hobble competition and cripple aspiring start-ups." Wow..this is something I need to know...I have been a loyal customer of said company!   I am not all that far into the book, but so far it has been a real eye-opener.

To give me a more light-hearted and easy-to-read break from all that complicated thuggishness, I started reading The Diary of a Bookseller  by Shaun Bythell, a book that a fellow blipper was reading and it sounded right up my alley...

Well...I was not very far into that lighter read, when the author was making comments about the difficulties he was having of dealing with Amazon....and right there before my eyes? ...the other side of the story...the impact on independent booksellers. What he was saying in his diary was just what I had been reading about in the Amazon book. An unexpected look at the consequences of those ruthless Amazon marketing strategies on real people.

How neat is that? Two totally different books that actually relate to each other like that? What are the chances? 
 
Even if I do not work my way all the way through the heavier read, I will, as one critic promised, never look at those little cardboard boxes on my doorstep the same way again."