I had ordered a couple of books from Bol.com (a Dutch Amazon of sorts) and they were due to be delivered this week. On Tuesday, I received three emails.

• At 3.53pm, the first email stated my books had been shipped, but it mentioned only two out of the three titles I’d ordered.
• At 7.09pm, the second email informed me the third book was not in store after all and they had to order it from the publisher. They were very sorry, but it would take another five to seven days to get it to me.
• At 11.55pm, the third email said the third book had just been shipped.

Indeed, all three books arrived the next day. So what happened between the first and the third email? How can a book not be in stock one moment, need a week to get in from the publisher, and yet be there again later that day?

Not that I mind, of course. I have the books and that’s what counts for me. And here they are, in case you were wondering (I know you were!):

That’s right: the illustrated hardcover editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion”, “The Hobbit” and “The Lord Of The Rings”. (The latter three volumes count as one book in the story above, because they came as one boxed set.) These titles had been on my wish list for a long time. I could have gotten them as cheap paperbacks, but I thought I might as well indulge myself and get the deluxe versions. I’m glad I did!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 23:10 and is filed under Books, Computers/Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.