Vampires

There seems to be a sort of horrible fascination among the book buying public for vampires. I wonder why? I think it started with Stephanie Meyer's books - Twilight, Eclipse,Breaking Dawn etc. Since she published the first one in the series there seem to be nothing but vampires coming out of the woodwork. I've just checked the Amazon bestseller list and 4 out of the top 10 are Stephanie Meyer.

Then if you look at the top selling new and not yet published books there are several dark fantasy themed offerings. Looks to me as though everyone's gone over to the dark side. To be fair I haven't read any of Meyer's books but it seems as though people either love or hate them. Predictably some religions abhor them and there are parts of America where they're banned, but this happened with Harry Potter and other less famous works.

I wonder whether it's to do with the economic situation and reading for escape?

Books in the bestseller lists

I was just glancing through Amazon's 'bestseller' and 'movers and shakers' lists and was interested to see that many of the most popular books at present are about such things as feeding a family cheaply, making your own bread, growing your own veg - most notably in poly tunnels, living on a pound a day etc. Is thrift the new black? If it is then the economy is doomed since the popular wisdom seems to be saying we should spend our way out of a recession.

The other top seller seems to be the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer. I have not read these not being particularly interested in vampires, but they seem to have taken the world by storm. I wonder whether that is something else to do with the economic climate? Do we turn to fiction which is as far removed from reality as possible when things get tough? An interesting thought.

The thrift bug has bitten me as well. I called in at Sainsburys on my way home last night because I needed some bacon - we fancied a bacon sandwich. I was standing at the checkout and glancing over some magazines and wondering whether to buy the Sainsbury's magazine. Then I saw the price - £1.40 - and decided against it. After all I bought Good Housekeeping before Christmas and still haven't read it and I have 4 other magazines to read - Mslexia,Writers' News and Writing Magazine and Writers' forum. At one time I'd have bought it and probably done no more than glance through it. I do think before buying these days.

Talking of which there have been some very good bargains in some of the shops - Christmas cards - boxed - for 99p each in W H Smith's. If you're a sad person who buys Christmas Cards in the sales then now is a good time to buy.

As for the domain name saga - watch this space . . . . .