All New Birmingham Rag Market

Advantages: Cheap, diverse product range
Disadvantages: Difficult to get to, can't always get what you want

...Those local (and maybe not so local) to Birmingham and the Midlands will know Birmingham is undergoing a major face lift at the moment - this includes the demolition and reconstruction of all things Bull Ring related. The Rag Market in its original place moved temporarily to the old Bus Depot about 2 years ago. As this was only ever a temporary home, Brum council set about building new homes for the fruit and veg and rag markets. Both these buildings opened earlier this year. Well done Brum Council! Not only are the new buildings warmer, cleaner, brighter, safer and generally better - they have managed to keep the diversity, all round funkiness and general atmosphere of the old rag market well and truly alive. I always go to the Rag market to buy toiletries (find shower gels half price compared to high-street on some stalls...

cate_wheatley 15.04.2001 · Read review
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Review of Rag Market

Oscar Wilde's obsession with books

Advantages: Full of fascinating information about Wilde's life and love of books
Disadvantages: None really, except maybe best enjoyed by those with some prior knowledge of Wilde

...The controversial Victorian playwright and poet Oscar Wilde, so the introduction to this book tells us, ?devoured and luxuriated in books?. He had a lifelong thirst for reading, so it?s not surprising to find that his house in Chelsea was packed with them. Not only was he an avid collector, but he was also an accomplished speed reader with a remarkable ? and to some extent photographic ? memory which helped him to absorb and recall instantly vast amounts of prose and verse. As a reviewer for the Pall Mall Gazette, he could master a book's content, plot or argument in minutes. (If only ciao had been around in those days as well). Maybe it is only fair to get the one major chink in his armour out of the way quickly. Once, when he was preparing a lecture on the poet Chatterton, most of his notes were made up of entire pages and paragraphs...

JOHNV 24.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Oscar's Books - Thomas Wright

A Book Lover

Advantages: Well-drawn characters. Creative use of words.
Disadvantages: A little difficult to adjust to the changing style of writing

...The Book Thief written by Australian author Marcus Zusak was published in Australia in 2005 as an adult novel and in America in 2006 as a children?s novel. It finally came to the UK in 2007 published by Doubleday and Black Swan in both adult and teen-age versions. Though I have to admit, I do not know what the differences between the two versions are! My copy and the one I am reviewing is the adult version. The novel proved to be a triumphant success greeted by glowing accolades from a wide range of literary reviewers ? excerpts of which can be found in the book. The most apt from The Irish Examiner, ?A peculiar tale, whose deceptively plain language and cryptic style describe the most profound of human emotions and the most hideous of human actions . . . an unusual and compelling novel? Set in Nazi Germany during the Second World...

MAFARRIMOND 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Remington Hair Envy Rag Rollers

Advantages: Case, fantastic soft curls, do not damage hair
Disadvantages: Wire become too bent to be of use, heavy, not for short hair

...after each use in the exact reverse of the way you bent them, then the ends become shorter and shorter as the wire inside the rag bends over on itself very easily. I can see me having to replace them within 6 months unless I unpick the stitching on the affected rollers and straighten the wire when I can see which way it has bent. I now have 3 rollers that are unusable as the wire is too short too bend. For that reason alone I would try another brand next time....

kathryns 26.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Remington HAIR ENVY RAG Rollers

Tweenies Book

Advantages: children will enjoy it
Disadvantages: none unless your child wants you to read it about 10 times a day

...I got this book from a book club for my eldest and now my youngest likes to look at it. It's a hard back book with each page inside being double thin card so that the pull out pictures are fitted in the middle of them. The book is called 'Come Back Colours' because Doodles (The red dog) has lost its colour and so have all the Tweenies toys. The front cover has a picture of the youngest Tweenie Jake and the colourless Doodles, when you open the book you see a picture of the other Tweenies (Milo, Bella and Fizz) on the opposite page is Jake with his special cape opening his arms to the colourless Doodles. The story starts ' One day, Jake put on his special coloured cape.' His job was to look after the colours but where have Doodles colours gone? Jake comes to the rescue waves his arms and says 'Colours come and colours go...

rojm 26.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tweenies: Come Back Colours - BBC Books

Rags to Richie

Advantages: Excellent and descriptive
Disadvantages: It has to end!

...This biography from Shane Richie, was the first biography I have ever read, and I thought that these books can be quite boring unless you really idolise the person who the book is about! I only knew Shane Richie through my parents and I had never seen a show with him before Eastenders, when my mum said that he was going to be in it and how thrilled she was, I was looking forward to seeing what all the fuss was about! I watched the episodes and grew to like Shane very much, the show would be different about him, so I decided to get his book for myself at Christmas! I started to read it on Christmas Day and I had finished it by Boxing Day night! I just couldn't put it down, it explained all his highs and lows in his life and he was very truthful in the relationship with coleen nolan, and the affairs he had during his life. How he...

lisaterryuk 11.03.2004 · Read review
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Review of Rags To Richie: the Story so Far - Shane Richie

Book Heaven

Advantages: Price, amazing offers, points
Disadvantages: Only one, see below

...If you love books and enjoy a good bargain, then look no further! The Book People are exactly what you need. Now, this isnt your 'usual' type of book club, like World Books for example, you will not be expected to buy a certain amount of books per year and you will not be sent books every month which you have to send back or pay for. When you join, all you will be sent is a thin brochure which shows a selection of the books they offer at fantastic prices. That is it. Read on for more amazement! The key features are: The books are cheap (examples below) The books are good quality You earn 1 point per pound spent and these can be saved up and redeemed for books. This can be done when ordering from both the catalogue and online. 75 points = £2.99, 100 points = £3.99, 125 points = £4.99 Usually free postage and packaging...

watkins11 29.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of The Book People (Shop)

The Book With No Plot

Advantages: It's different...
Disadvantages: Not terribly cohesive, too many characters and sub-plots.

...This was a very strange book and one that I picked up as I was intrigued by the title and the fact that the author was Anonymous. According to the blurb on the back of the book this was originally self-published on the internet. The plot centres around (unsurprisingly) "The Book With No Name" - a book which if read leads to the death of the reader. I thought this sounded quite interesting but the mysterious book is not as central as you would assume from the premise. The other main plot focus is on the retrieval of a precious stone known as "The Eye of the Moon". This stone is rumoured to have magical powers and is guarded by a group of monks known as Hubals who live on an island. The book is set in Santa Mondega, a town that is a dangerous place to live and one that is conveniently forgotten about by the rest of the country. We are...

mogdred1 10.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Book With No Name - Anonymous

Books for free!

Advantages: see review
Disadvantages: see review

...Like most people I love a bargain! I also love buying books, both for myself as presents. So when I discovered The book people a few months ago I was very happy indeed! The book people. ************** The Book people are a company selling discounted books. They are not a club so there is no minimum number of books to purchase or any other catches. They simply sell books at hugely discounted prices. There is no shop to browse but you can either order from their web site at www.thebookpeople.co.uk or you can request a catalogue and use the enclosed order form or alternatively you can phone your order by calling 0845-602-4040. I have always ordered on line although once you have ordered you will receive regular catalogues through the post. The web site. *********** The first thing to say is that the web site is nothing fancy...

anwar 24.10.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Book People (Shop)

A cook book for students

Advantages: easy to read
Disadvantages: not appealing

...I was bought this when I went to university. My auntie bought it me thinking that it would suddenly turn me into the next Deliah Smith or something but it didn't really have this effect on me at all! I didn't really use it and it was a good job it was quite a cheap buy so I didn't feel guilty for the fact it sat on my book shelf, hidden by all the huge text books I had to buy! Who is it for? This book is really very obviously aimed at students as you can tell by the title; "The New Students' Cook Book". When I first saw it I presumed that a cook book for students would contain very quick and simple recipes. When I was a student I didnt have much time for cooking and if I did want to cook something instead of order the usual pizza I didn't want to spend hours reading a recipe or fiddling around in the kitchen. This, isn...

lorriellah 26.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of The New Students' Cook Book - Carolyn Humphries