Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Read part 1 (get part 2 free): It's that time of the year again, already. Newsagents are piled high with printed partworks on a variety of topics, the first part of which is always at a knockdown price. The magazines are always "lavishly illustrated" (for which read "there's not much to read"), and packed with "behind the scenes information" (for which read "copied from the internet"). There's always a "free" gift attached (which usually means an out-of-copyright DVD or a cheap plastic model) and everything slots conveniently into a special ring binder ("first binder free with issue 3, additional binders £5.99) This year you can choose from Star Wars figurines, Movie Musicals and Teach Yourself Calligraphy, amongst several others. Maybe you'd like to assemble Arthur the skeleton bone by bone, or build up a complete Mind Body Spirit collection including tealights, oils and "genuine crystals". Or maybe not. Because although part one is always reasonably priced and packaged with an alluring free gift, remaining issues revert to a rather scarier full price. These are published fortnightly for an indefinite, unspecified period, eventually disappearing from newsagents' shelves into the netherworld of "by mail subscription" only. Stay on until the bitter end and you'll probably end up forking out over £100 for something whose equivalent you could have bought rather cheaper all in one go at the budget bookshop, or on Amazon, or even borrowed from the local library. It's a mug's game, and the only people to benefit are the cynical money-grabbing publishers.
So, yes, I thought I'd have a go myself...
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