New Zealand Online Book Stores - (Where to buy books online!)

Books, I love buying them from the Internet, you know what you are getting and there are no fears of wrong colour, size, or poorly made products.

Now that the NZ dollar has fallen back down to reasonable levels, purchases from Amazon are no longer as cost effective and most bargains are lost with the extra postage costs.

So what options are available for Buying Local, who has competitive prices and what are the shipping rates like?

I've picked two books. One is my favourite comfort read and the other is a fairly in depth comparison of scientific research and data on nutrition. Both have affected my life in a significant way. I'll find the cheapest version of each at the websites for very brief idea of prices.

Be sure to check shipping times on the books you select, a lot of these stores work from catalogues and do not have all the books in stock. You could end up waiting for 2-3 weeks if you select a book not currently in stock that has to be shipped internationally.

Most retailers off a variety of ways to pay, credit card, credit card via phone, online banking, cheques and even paypal are available at some retailers.

Another thing to check for before you buy is contact details, does the website have an free call number and an address listed. Trustworthy companies will have no qualms about publishing these details and although most problems can be sorted out with an email or two, it still doesn't beat talking to a real live person.



Fishpond books
I've bought a few books from here, prices seem competitive, lots of specials. I like the emails, I get a few, but every second one seems to be a $10 discount voucher for anything on my wish list. So sign up and get a Wish list!Free shipping for spending over $50 otherwise $5.99. States if UK or USA version. Affiliate Program and credit for writing reviews. Gift wrapping $5.95
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $38.23
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $18.97


The Nile
Nice slick looking website, free shipping on orders over $50 otherwise $5 per order. Gift wrapping available for $3.95. Wish list.


Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $39.99
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $21.99


Seek Books
Basic but usable site. Gift wrapping $3. Shipping $6.50

Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $56.87
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $22.74


Ziwi
Has some very competitive prices. Free delivery on orders over $40, or $3.95 flat rate. Wish list, affiliate program with good rates, seems to be broken at the moment though. Points scheme, points = $ and can be spent on your next purchase. Price matching. Gift wrapping $2.95. Phone number is 0800 and displayed prominently on the site. Customer service seems to be the focus.
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $33.85
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $23.46


Good Books
100% of retail profits go to Oxfam so you can feel good about your consumerism! Free delivery. The books are all sourced from a UK distributor so may take a short while to reach New Zealand. The idea of buying something for yourself while giving to charity at the same time is brilliant!
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $43.42
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $18.17


The Mighty Ape
Previously a gaming and DVD store, now stocks books as well. Wish list. Free shipping on orders over $50. Shipping varies on individual items $4.50 for the Gary Taubes book. Request a better price option. Loyalty "Banana"points scheme earned through writing reviews and making purchases - points can be used to buy limited items. Has a mobile phone version of the site for shopping on the go. Gift wrapping is the most expensive $7, Gift note $3.
The Diet Delusion by Gary Taubes $36.99 (Different title same book)
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $22.99

Whitcoulls
Whatever - Books are "Not available online, please contact your local store for price and availability" Okay so they claim to be revamping the site, wait and see I guess.

Real Groovy
They almost went bust, but now they're back. Free shipping on orders over $30. Affiliate program. Real groovey "club"Points System 200pts = $20 off next purchase ($5 to join). Wishlist. Packing slip with price excluded available.
Good Calories Bad Calories by Gary Taubes $29.99
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb $17.95


Specialist bookstores of note

Techbooks - Technical books
Arts Centre Bookshop New Zealand books

Worth a Mention

The Book Depository - UK site, free international shipping.

New Pac n' Save Open in Wairau

The north shore is a pretty calm place. The most scandalous thing thats been happening here is the "Supermarket Wars." Two rivals battle it out for customers and will go to insane length like court cases and appeals that take 20 years. All over biscuits and cheese. Groceries must be big bucks.

1)staff on minimum wages
2) ?????
3) profit!!!!

I got a free coffee so that was all good, it was a bit of a nightmare getting into the supermarket, they've created a bit of a bottle neck with the fruit and vege area. And usual supermarket nonsense of having to follow the ONE route paste the butchery and the bakery and the fruit and vege and the "value aisle" before you can start wandering off in your own direction to find the shampoo and conditioner.

But I doubt I will ever supermarket shelves so fully stocked, ah it was food shopping glory. Too bad I only wanted shampoo and conditioner. Oh and an impulse buy of deodorant. One can never be too deodorised.

So thats my Sunday morning thrill, I need to get out more.

Easy cooking is easy!

Apparently you can cook whole meals in the rice cooker. I got the idea from a Bento food blog

Add rice and water as usual, then throw the following on top, sliced chicken breast, 1/4 cup teriyaki sauce, A big massive pile of mushrooms ( I used brown field and oyster mushrooms).
If you look carefully you can see that I used free range chicken! Yes, chickens that got to go outside before being murdered for my benefit.

Turn rice cooker on, return when rice is cooked and stir the chicken and mushrooms through.

Its delicious, tastes like a mushroom risotto but without all the hard work.

Oh and I went running..JUST FOR FUN!

This is me after running 5km. I look rather chipper if I do say so myself. We are all hanging round for the prize giving. Run Auckland events are awesome. If you win your race, you get a box of powerade. whopp de doo. But the spot prizes are awesome! The emphasis is on participation, getting auckland off its collective butt.

I ran a rather slow pace. But I finished, next race is in three weeks so I'll see if I can better my time.

Living the High Life.

Of course during periods of crisis on must stay strong. Stiff upper lip and all that. So a Sunday afternoon was spent listening to Jazz at Sale st in the city. Just above glengarry wine shop near Victoria park, this surprisingly large bar has a really nice outdoor area/garden bar kinda thing. Very cool for the inner city.
Of course it was a cold grey Sunday afternoon when we went, but you get the idea.

Delightful Nina and her band were playing. They are called Nina and the Misdeeds. But I think they should be called Nina's Misdeeds or Nina and her Misdeeds. Zed even got up and played tambourine for a bit. Pose for the camera my darlings! A lovely afternoon that could only have been enhanced by better weather or more beer.

This is me thinking my husband is looking awfully suspicious with that camera.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN? AND WHY?

Oh man, I have been disconnected for so long now! Hanging on to the Internets by a small thread, of slow work Internets and Zeds laptop. All thanks to this little bastard. Crummy old motherboard. Oh and crummy old power supply.

So my motherboard was dying and corrupting my hard drive with it. It wasn't going down alone. Thanks to genius husband and apple computers all my data was saved! (though still unacessable to me as its on his work computer, but one day soon I shall have all my files back!)

So I had to go shopping to replace parts galore. mmm 500W power supply! zzzzzzzzap!

Yes yes yes I went with athlon again, I know, I know the intels are better,faster,more productive LA de da. But I was on a budget. Motherboards and chips were cheaper for athlon, and hey, I'm not exactly pushing my PC to the limit with all my "blogging" and civilisation games. So I settled for 2nd tier speeds.

But hey, I got 4gig of ram now (compared to pathetic 1 gig before) and I used to have a crappy 1Ghz chip. Now I got 2.7 with speedy bus and dual core whatsits. I'm FLYING BABY!

Of course now I am brokes, but not as bad as you might think.

I worry about families, who when their computer begins to get a bit slow, run out and buy a WHOLE NEW COMPUTER. Hey WTF! you Don't go and buy a new car when the battery dies and the alternator is fracked. Just replace parts as needed.

I just upgraded my computer to something fast enough to run the enterprise and it only cost me $550.

Oh and then realising my terabyte drive was never coming back form the dead I bought a new one of those too. $229

Details for the geeks:
Chip: 2.7GHz AMD ATHLON X2 7750 Black edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte MA78GM-S2HP
Rams: Super Talent DDR2 800 4gig
Hard drive: Western Digital 1 TB

Small Pleasures AND PAINS!

Sometimes a girl has got to treat herself...... yes treat herself to 15 minutes of agony. Treat my arse.

Anyway sometimes I get my eyebrows done, its $18 but I always feel a million bucks afterwards so its a good investment. If I look a little shiny in this photo I must admit I have been slaving in the kitchen making spinach and ricotta cannelloni. SLAVING. I'm actually having people over for dinner. Shock horror.

Anyway back to my eyebrow story, I usually get a frightful eastern block woman with a thick accent and an eye for the glamorous. I walk away with eyebrows usually only found on Russian super models. But today I got a shy little Indian lady, who asked if I would like to try threading instead. (Anythings got to be better than hot wax I thought) I was very wrong.

So while I sat through paid pain therapy I asked her about her life to distract her from my watering eyes. She used to work in a Fancy hotel in Delhi, India, she made okay money but got lots of tips. She gets paid worse here. Yep, New Zealand wages suck but money sure ain't everything.

There are many cheap pleasures in life. For example eyebrow shapes $18 and new bath mats $9.95

Shiney New Things

Polarised lenses bitches!

These I officially saved up for. I bought them, then had to wait weeks and weeks, but finally they arrived. Shiny new prescription sunglasses! I have uploaded a variety of poses. All self shot because darling husband ain't home yet. And check out my awesome "work" hair. My job, it is scienticiany, and I can't have loose hair dangling down all over the place y'know!!!! My hair might fall into some acid, or a dissected bowel, or even into my eyes at some MEGA critical point. (my cousin Talia says mega a LOT on her facebook. I may adopt it.)

Man I have a big forehead.

Must be for all those scienticiany brains. HAH!

I hate having a joint Credit card

When we got a mortgage the bank didn't like the idea of us having two credit cards, so we cancelled mine and got a joint account. AND I HATE IT.

It never shows who bought what, and you can't tell who made what repayments.

Also I am crap at managing it. I think a part of me ignores the small purchases I make thinking my husband will pay for it (wishful thinking), however when I had my own credit card I was responsible for every dollar and managed things just fine. I know my husband blames me for the credit card bill never going down, always holding steady. He's probably right. (Okay, Okay, he is right but its the only time you'll see that in writing.)

I AM SPENDING CRAZY WIFE.....(the kind you read about in novels, buying Prada sunglasses and Gucci handbags while the insurance clerk husband has to take a second job and becomes weakened and sick due to working 16 hour days!!!!!!!)

Although its not that bad (I don't think I'm sending my husband to an early grave just yet), after all it's not a crazy amount, sigh, but its an annoying amount. And I loath seeing it carried over month after month.

So perhaps it is time to remove myself from the credit card world. Yes, in fact... I resign! Its a horrible system encouraging consumerism. bah. Good riddance. Goodbye cruel credit!

** It is done, I phoned them, and said, "NO MORE of your temptations cruel serpent, I repent and will destroy this foul plastic that corrupts my wallet so!" then I pressed 1 for customer service.
sigh.

All that is left to do is the ritual sacrifice of the credit card:

a) Burning
b) Microwaving
c) Chemical disruption
d) Traditional - cut to smithereens!!!!

Your vote counts!

I Liked Kayaking

In my books it really rates as a sport. Anything I can do sitting down without moving my legs has always rated highly with me. But kayaking is outdoors, in fresh air and could actually count as exercise!

For my birthday we paddled the calm waters of the Puhoi river and Wenderholm estuary. While I'm sure ocean kayaking is no where near as relaxing or pleasant, it is something I would like to have a go at. I'm sure I could enjoy some scenic sewrage and avoid the container ships on a quick punt across to Rangitoto, if I really tried!

Oh and by the way I'm 29 now. Beginning to suspect I will never grow up. All this responsible shit is stil HARD. Like saving (bah, who can do that) and home maintenance (gak! I know nothing and have to pay people to do EVERYTHING --> see saving problem, the deck will fall down before we can afford to fix it) but I am redonkulously happy. I think I got the happy part sorted now.

Off to have pre dinner wines loves to you all!