Girls love this movie. They sing the songs all the time. There are tons of videos on YouTube relating to this movie. It's a bit annoying, actually. It's not my cup of tea but it is suitable for a child and for other people interested in the mechanisms. I'm seeing a lot of Reinhart's repertoire of mechanisms repeated and it's interesting to me to see him put them to different and imaginative uses and his new and wholly unique idiosyncratic mechanism blow my mind even for the little sub-mechanisms he tucks into the corners to fill otherwise empty space. So then, the story and the art are not so interesting to me while the work is riveting.
And so what if I don't care for the story myself. So what if the art doesn't grab me. It's still interesting to other people and that makes this book a splendid gift, especially so for Amazon Prime members. If you have granddaughters, or nieces, or even children of friends or acquaintances I can guarantee this book will make an impressive gift.
One boy I didn't even know except through brief clipped stories that nevertheless revealed the young boy is the center of a woman life who I do know. I bought the pop-book Gods and Heroes for the woman to pass along to her boy. I did not expect the strong response. The woman reported he loves the book. He never received a book of his own. He slept with the book. He read all the words in the book. He studied the book. He took the book to school for show-and-tell and explained each page to his class. This would be such a book for girls.
And here's the thing, an offer you cannot refuse. This book retails for $40.00 and it is discounted on Amazon Prime for $24.00. That's a 40% discount, I think.
This pop-up book is less suitable for very young people. It's a bit dark and bleak and speaks to psychological discomfort. Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.
The book is not so intensely compacted with pop-up mechanisms. It's art is more satisfying for adults. Teenagers would appreciate this book. The poem was one of my favorites back then. It is less of a great deal on Amazon as the Reinhart's Frozen but still a very good deal. In pop-up terms there is less pop-up for your pop-up dollar, less to learn from while the art is more satisfying. It retails for $27.50, discounted on Amazon to $21.78 and that's a 19% discount. I think.
Who wouldn't like to have this?
Who wouldn't like to have this?
The Game of Thrones pop-up book is amazing. I have that one. I haven't even seen one single television show episode, and I found the Twitter discussions about it intrusive and unwanted, but there is no denying the pop-up version of the television show is a tour de force. It contains a fold-out map of the whole place that takes up the whole living room floor. Fans of the television show woud love the pop-up book. It's expensive though. $43.43 discounted from $65.00. A 33% discount from retail, I think.
11 comments:
The word for that is anchoring. The claim is that people "anchor" onto the first bit of information they receive and are then biased (e.g. confirmation) when using subsequent information to make a decision. MSRP. Their Regular Price. Our Regular Price. On Sale Now For The Amazingly Low Price . . . Oh boy! What a great deal!
It's deceit, pure and simple.
Don't think about it too much or you'll drive yourself mad.
There was a scene in Mad Men where they're discussing the serious artiness of advertising. Roger passes by and gets to drop the squelcher: "I'll tell you what's brilliance in advertising. Ninety-nine cents. [pause for effect] Somebody thought of that."
I haven't been to a brick and mortar bookstore in a decade but when I did buy books there I recall paying the full manufacturer's retail price that's printed right there on the jacket. Sure, they had sales too but I was rarely interested in the books they were pimping. And I didn't mind. At the time I had just finished college where all the textbooks I bought were at least 4X as expensive. Then, they were all priced at around $80 to $100.00 and now they're even more. I spent a lot of time at the Auraria campus bookstore and they never ran discounts on books. I never bought a used text book. I didn't want to be distracted by what some dummkopf marked up highlighting what they thought was important to recall. But now I probably would just for a laugh. I'd go, ha ha ha, look a this, they marked this passage but didn't mark this one, heh heh heh, this is why I bend the curve. And I never sold those books back either. Although now I probably would. At the time my attitude was, man I really did read those books from cover to cover. As time went by the row on the bookshelf lengthened. It was visual outside palpable proof that my inside knowledge growing longer and longer. It became a thing to see the line of books get longer and longer. Until they all went to storage. Then all went to the new place in the basement. Until I got so ill that I dispersed my possessions. And if I had all those books now and all the books that followed the textbooks then they'd be nothing but nonsense and useless burden that never get looked at again. Never. Just vain proof of my reading. And nothing at all like that bookcases of pop-up books that really do get looked at and read over and over by myself and my guests no matter their age. I've pulled out the best ones like these two and people sit with a pile of them flipping through them. And few of the other books do. Except for the Nature's aquarium books and the gardening books. Frankly, those three categories of books are the best books that I've owned. And they're no longer purchased at full bookstore price since the advent of Amazon and other online used bookstores.
For example, I'll bet if you buy Milo's new book in a bookstore you'll pay the full price. I doubt they will pimp that one on their table of "on sale" books.
And whoever invented the 99¢ thing is just an annoying asshole. They print 27.99 and I see and think and say 28.00, it simply doesn't work and I can't imagine it works on anyone. Maybe it does work, but I find it annoying as hell. It makes me consider them cynical. And that's all it does.
This pop-up book is less suitable for very young people. It's a bit dark and bleak and speaks to psychological discomfort. Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven.
By that standard all of the Grimm Fairy Tales were unsuitable. Very young people actually crave exposure - in the safety of the pages between a book's covers - to a bit of harsh reality. As opposed to the pablum of Frozen, which is, from what I understand, a fantasy of girl power overcoming monsters.
The kid may accept it but their parents tend to protect them from dark things. From what I see and hear, they want their precious little darlings to be unexposed to horror for long as possible. (I have my two newest nephews in mind and I'm basing my opinion mostly on what my brother tells me. I have no idea what the kids are actually attracted to beyond pirates and ninja) I might just buy them the Raven book to provoke a response.
My daughter sings the Frozen songs a lot.
I always liked the poem, and grew to like it even more when I read how Edgar Allan Poe constructed it. He was truly a brilliant writer who had way more than his share of bad luck, including a biographer who trashed his reputation.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.
Brilliant, I tells ya!
Homer!
On deck for memorizing is that "Dream Within a Dream" thing by Poe. I've been putting it off, frankly, because I don't think it's very good. Why did I resolve to memorize it in the first place? Well, that's a long story.
Anyway, last night we finished up the last episode of "Still Game." I was hoping to pick up the ability to do a Scottish accent by dint of pure repetition for purposes of reciting "To a Mouse," Robert Burns Night drawing near but no such luck.
I did, however, learn a few new insults and profanities. And, hey, at least that's something.
Perhaps I should add that the beer fridge is stocked with three wee heavies: (1) The Duck-Rabbit; (2) Founder's Dirty Bastard; and (3) Oskar Blue's Old Chub.
A bit of poor judgment on my part and (who knows?) maybe it'll all come together!
I just now asked my brother if the book is too dark for his tots.
He's very protective.
And then I thought, the thing has 7 pop-up pages and they're each rather good.
And the book is only 21.78.
Consider each page a card.
That's 3.11 per card.
And that sounds like an excellent bargain.
Because if I made one card I'd charge $150.00 for it being a major pain in the beau tox.
All that scritchy-scratching drawing, all that scoring and cutting, the multiple prototypes, the compositions, the coloring, the mess, the glue, the cover, the envelope. I'm exhausted already just thinking about it. Yes, 3.11 per page is an excellent price. It sounds like an outrageous bargain. And the kids will freak the f out, it will introduce them to Poe, and in the best way imaginable and so young, and my brother can read it to them is a horror voice to set them to bed and FREAK them out. For fun.
You gotta get 'em while they're young.
You should buy a couple and spread around the love.
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