From boats to book reviews
You will be pleased to hear that the wind did die down and the boats were able to come and go. In fact we had two on Wednesday, the Blue Star and the Dodekanisos. I noticed that the Symi Visitor Travel Blog has details about the now published timetables for the ferries; Blue Star up until the end of August and Dodekanisos Seaways for the summer. This is going to be of great use to everyone planning a holiday in Symi this year.
By the way, if you are thinking of a holiday in Greece this year, don’t be put off booking now. We’ve been hearing of some islands expecting a massive drop in tourism this year, those who are at the frontline of the refugee situation. I’ve not heard that about Symi or Rhodes, however. Mind you, I am sure that most, if not all, of my blog readers would not be put off their plans by what they might see on television, or read in the papers. Those islands, more than some, need support.
Anyway, back to Symi and your possible holiday. Here are a couple of books you might like to get hold of before you come. Actually one is a map and it’s good for walkers, being the most like an OS map that you might find. It’s Symi Terrain Maps, one of the Terrain Editions and is well worth ordering in advance so you can look at the terrain and plan your walks. (I love looking at maps. I could sit and read an atlas for hours; which reminds me, I must get an Atlas.)
Another idea for a pre-holiday book would be a guide book, and if you are planning time on Rhodes as well as Symi, then you might find The Rough Guide to the Greek Islands, by Nick Edwards, useful. There are loads of other guide books out there as well of course and you can pick up maps and guide books locally when you arrive. And now we do a quick segue into Amazon reviews via a lilac, plastic loofah found on the shore en route to St Nicks.
These are vital if an author is to sell more books on Amazon. (Reviews, I mean, not plastic loofahs.) The more positive reviews a book gets, the more chance there is of Amazon promoting it. As I understand it, you don’t have to have bought the book from Amazon in order to put up a review (you may need to register), and it’s a quick and easy process and so helpful to the author. (That ‘so’ was meant to be read as ‘sooooooo.’) What’s also good about the set-up is that books that receive more than average bad reviews get reviewed (there’s a revue to be made out of this one day); someone at Amazon looks at them and, if they really are not up to scratch (and the bad reviews were not a vendetta), then they withdraw the book until the publisher can put things right. So, your reviews help us authors sell more books and help protect us readers from badly produced books. And behind this paragraph is the broad hint that if you have one of mine on your shelf – more, if you have one and I’ve signed it – see if you can head to Amazon, search for it and put up a review (if you haven’t already). Thank you!
