Copy copy

Did you know the Chinese make cheap fake kiwifruit? But did you know they make cheap copies of their own cheap stuff too? A few months ago, I bought one of those clip-on LED reading lights from one of the $2 stores about town. It was quite cool as it looked like something you could use for scratch modelling as an engine pod on a spaceship - complete with light effects. It works very well for what is essentially a cheap toy. So I was in another $2 shop today and I saw what appeared to be the same lights on sale. So I bought another one. But when I got it home it didn't work. A dissection showed that it was much more shoddily made than the original and was missing a vital component - the internal switch mechanism. So, a cheap knock-off of what was just a piece of cheap ephemera in the first place. Isn't the free marketplace wonderful.

Not unlucky

Another Janet Evanovich book. It's called Lean Mean Thirteen so it is another Stephanie Plum book. It is hard to know what to say about such books after there have been thirteen of them plus specials. You gotta know what to expect by now and if you are a fan you won't be disappointed by this one. I did try to manufacture some disappointment anyway, just to give me something to write about. First I looked at the large font, line spacing and margins. The word count is pretty low and the appearance of the book inflated to make it look bigger. But it isn't as if you are short changed by the story - it is densely plotted with lots of action and very little padding. You might even find something to admire in that. So, secondly I have tried to find fault in the content. There was a time during the Stephanie Plum stories where they got a bit hackneyed. The plots and characters seemed to be an exercise in going through the paces - pot boilers in other words. Then a couple of books ago, it all changed for the better and everything was reinvigorated. For a bit it looked like the series had slipped back to the pot boiler state with this one. But no, the quality is still well up there. Not as good as the previous one but still one of the better ones. So back to the original point - if you know the others then you will like this one. Nothing more to be said really.