Before this morning, I’d never heard of the Book Depository. Apparently it’s Amazon’s big challenger. It’s a website for those who are fascinated by what other people are reading:
It’s the ultimate book voyeurism. I can see exactly what someone bought without following them around the crime and thriller aisle for half an hour. I can relax with a cup of coffee and watch someone in Canada buying a book on quilting, someone in England purchasing a phonics textbook (no summer holidays in their house!) and an inordinate number of graphic novels being sold in Belgium.
How accurate the map is I don’t know – and I don’t really care. Watching those little speech balloons pop up across the globe is utterly mesmerising. So much so, that I may never stare at a lotion-stained copy of a Tilly Bagshawe novel on the beach ever again. In fact, I … oh, look. Someone in New Zealand just bought a copy of Twilight.
Well, shucks. It appears no one in Uzbekistan is buying……or reading.