Thanks to a gift certificate from our son we just sent off a massive order to Amazon U.K. for videos, books and a cribbage board to get us through the winter. It was great fun browsing the January sale offers and then less fun paring it down to affordable size. Free shipping does not apply to Greece but over-all cost is still good value.

Normally we patronize the used book stores and amateur book-exchanges on Paros and Antiparos. If you have diverse tastes, the selection is plentiful and works out about 4 Euro per book after returning it for 33% credit. We also maintain a library for the hotel and guests do exchanges from it. So that is free reading for me, if they are in English, of course. The Danish and Norwegian books are our slowest movers.

My only complaint is that I like to read fantasy and science fiction trilogies, but I rarely find more than one book in a series. I keep looking though, but then I can’t remember which I have read. This year I actually read a detective story that I read a few years ago. Somehow it wasn’t as good the second time.