One of the small pleasures that were impossible thirty ago is Amazon in all its variants; not simply as an on-line place to buy things but a resource. One of the funniest books I've read recently (day before yesterday, to be exact) is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I wanted to write about it and didn't want to climb two sets of stairs to get the actual book and find out the necessary details. So I spent 30 seconds to bring up Amazon and type in the title and copy the results. A clip and a paste later:

Paperback (1 April 2009) by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains"  Thus is the one of the most famous first lines in English Literature re-written by Mr. Grahame-Smith. An England over-run with zombies is defended by the five Bennet sisters, and Lizzie is the most blood-thirsty of all.

Amazon has its downside - mainly the demise of local small specialist bookstores. Until a few years ago, Canterbury had a very good bookstore just off the High Street that specialized in murder mysteries and books and workbooks on teaching English as a Second Language. (I can only assume two owners with two passions.) It's gone.

We still have Waterstones, W.H.Smith and some remainder specialist book stores with a mix on the shelves.

Waterstone, despite being a chain, has employees that are passionate about books. They know they are not selling tinned pears and their recommendations are worth considering. They put up post-its under an appropriate book on the shelf with a brief description and why they liked it.

Another small pleasure is Waterstone's policy of 3 for 2 from a restricted set of books. The third book purchased, the cheapest, is free. That's why I bought Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in the first place. The first two books I buy are books I know something about and intend to get. The third is always a chancer, something I'm taking a gamble on. 

The downside of 3 for 2 is obvious - you spend more than you intended.

Back to the internet. If Waterstone and Amazon lure you into excess spending, assorted recipe resources saves a great deal of money. Future cook book buying has become an indulgence. All of the BBC cooking programs have an online component with the recipes used. Other online cooking sites provide thousands of recipes - with a button for US/Metric measurements. Unfortunately, the shifting does not change pan size. What's the cm equivalent to a 9" x 13" pan?

Fridge magnets. Fridge magnets are the answer. I've got a magnet on the fridge door that gives cm equivalents to inches. Before I bought my fridge magnet, I got out my tape measures. Two of them. One in inches, one in cm. I know there are tape measures with both, but I didn't have them. Looking on the fridge door is much easier - among other things, it stays there. Tape measures migrate.

Fridge magnets are another Good Thing. I used to buy tea towels and tshirts as holiday mementoes. Fridge magnets are cheaper, don't fill up a suit case, are easily stored and do not wear out. 

Fridge magnets are a good reminder of museum visits. Lucy, from the Houston Museum of Natural Science, lurks by my left shoulder on the filing cabinet (a gift from my husband.) Assorted visits to the Tate are commemorated on fridge and filing cabinet.

Museums are the next good thing. In the UK, they're free. Special exhibits sometimes charge, but the permanent collections do not. I suffer museum fatigue after about an hour and a half and can no longer look. If I'd paid £7.50 to get in, I would feel compelled to go from top to bottom. Free museums means I can make multiple visits just like free libraries means I can read a lot more books.

Libraries are the best of all. Better than buying books. You don't have to store them. I found Let the Right One In, by Lindvquist, and The Night Watch, Lukyanenko, in the public library in Canterbury. These are two of the best books I read last year. I bought them after checking them out of the library and buy anything else Lindvquist and Lukyanenko write.

Libraries have no down side. Except in their absence. These days, the Canterbury library is closed for renovation. They have a shed or bus or some such parked at the back of one of the parking lots here in town but I haven't been able to find it.

At least my library card is good for anywhere in Kent. I can use my free bus pass and go to Whitstable or Hearne Bay libraries.

Free Bus Passes: When you turn sixty, the Council gives you a free bus pass. Well, it's sort of free. You pay £10. and get a card with picture that covers local buses anywhere in England. I can use it on the buses in London and assorted adventurous OAP's (old age pensioners, for the non English reader) go all over the country, changing buses in villages and road sides.  The downside of this is obvious: you’ve hit sixty.

The upside is equally obvious.