What luck

What a stroke of luck

A great start to the day. Unbelievable, really. By email at ten past eleven yesterday, Mr Bari Gandoki informed me that he's the manager, auditing and account department, at Coris Bank International Burkina Faso, and, he needs my assistant (sic) because he has the opportunity of transferring $11 million into my bank account. All I have to do is reply for more details, if I'm interested. How's that for a stroke of luck. $11,000,000 is £6,868,400.00. That's not to be sniffed at. Mr Gandoki, who I've never met or heard from before today, has chosen me out of everyone to receive the money. Into my bank account. I imagine all he needs is the account details, numbers, names, pin codes, that sort of thing and by this afternoon I'll be almost seven very large better off.

It is unbelievable, really unbelievable. What a poor attempt. You must do better Mr Gandoki (I doubt that's your real name) if you want to fool anyone. Mr Bandoki with the inheritance from a distant relative (try Mr Bandoski, that might sound more feasible) and Mr Fandoki with the chance to buy shares he had to dispose of quickly were (marginally) more believable.

Amazon HP Lovecraft collections

Got another email (05:03, does no-one email during sensible hours?) from Amazon. This was offering ebooks for my Kindle. There's pictures of the book covers on the left, price and learn more / order buttons to the right. From the top:

HP Lovecraft, the complete collection [Kindle edition] at £1.92 (a bargain).

The Complete Works of HP Lovecraft [Kindle edition] at £0.77 (at £1.15 less than the bargain above, even more of a bargain, and it raises the obvious question, who would buy...etc).

Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction of HP Lovecraft (GOLLANCZ S.F.) [kindle edition] at £10.99 (how much?).

The definitive Lovecraft, 67 Tale of Horror in one Volume (Halcyon Classics) [kindle edition] at £0.77 (there's a price comparison theme here, and the 77p is competitive, but the billing is 67 tales, not the complete works, second place award to Halcyon).

The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack: 40 modern and classic Lovecraftian stories [kindle edition]. At 49p, were firmly in 'what's to lose' territory now.

Now, despite the email subject header, we leave Lovecraft for others.

The complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (illustrated) at £1.31. Less than the (unillustrated) complete Lovecraft at £1.92. More than the 77p Lovecrafts, but, at under the price of a Sunday paper, great value, I think.

The complete works of Edgar Allan Poe (no, wait, honestly) [with active TOC], at £1.02. Took a while to work it out. TOC is Table of Contents. So, lose the illustrations, gain the active TOC, save 29p...a chin scratcher this one.

Complete Jules Verne (two quid) and William Hope Hodgson (75p) are next.

Then there's a Lovecraft omnibus with some of the complete works at £2.99, followed by other non-starters, like a single Lovecraft (The Call of Cthulhu) at 77p, and £4.64, and £7.20 (duh?).

Finally Bram Stoker weighs in with his complete works at £1.99. No bargain as you can get Dracula from project Gutenburg for free, and I'm not sure there's much more to the Stoker opus (I'm ready to stand corrected).

Thanks Amazon. Love the random pricing as much as the Kindle and the wi-fi delivery service.