Books Archives - Paul Mackenzie Ross

A Year in Books: 2024

January 23, 2025December 31, 2024 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

I read just 13 books this year or the equivalent of just 1 per month. Now that would normally be good going but there are two factors to consider: I Now Have the Taste for Audiobooks Ever since I worked at Johnson & Johnson, I have been listening to audiobooks more regularly. The commute was … Read more

2021 Reading Challenge – Smashed It

January 2, 2022December 31, 2021 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

In 2020 I read just 8 books. In 2021 I apparently read 31 books. As you can surmise from this blog post’s featured image, there are some duplicates for some reason and I can’t work out why. The real number of books I completed in 2021 was actually 27. So I smashed my goal by … Read more

Another Alternative to Amazon

May 8, 2013May 8, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

With the threat of our beloved and run-down pub, the Tumbledown Dick, being turned into a McDonald’s restaurant somebody pointed me in the direction of a very interesting book – The McDonaldization of Society.

The book, first published in 1993, is written by sociologist George Ritzer and looks at the increasing rationalisation of the world as conducted by big bureaucratic organisations such as McDonald’s. The processes used by the fast food giant streamline the production and delivery of burgers & fries, impose the division of labour, force a formal manifesto and make the company’s “character” impersonal and technocratic…

Beetroot Books

May 8, 2013May 4, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

The Money-less Man - A Year of Freeconomic Living - from Beetroot Books In my quest to find alternatives to Amazon, my latest discovery has been an interesting one.

A couple of weekends ago I made a brief trip to Avebury in Wiltshire, a picturesque little English village and home to an impressive neolithic henge monument.

Once I was home that same Sunday evening I had a sudden flash of inspiration and wondered what Britain’s leading Druid, Philip Carr-Gomm, was up to these days…

Hive: Books Arrived

June 25, 2025February 16, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

Hive Network As previously posted, I was recently looking for an alternative to Amazon. The thought process came about after I was accused, quite reasonably, of putting money into Amazon’s pockets when there were serious questions to be asked about their ethics and morality. The main points of contention are that:

1) Amazon have been accused of paying very little UK tax on billions of pounds worth of turnover (2011 – £3.35 billion turnover with a tax expense of £1.8 million according to the BBC)

2) If that’s the case then small businesses are being subjected to unfair competition (Because they pay full UK taxes on their profits and their Goliath-sized competitors do not)

3) High streets are apparently suffering because of online retailers and some of those are based in tax havens

4) Buying from local businesses puts money INTO the local economy. Purchases to big corporations ensure that money is drained OUT of the local economy.

Alternatives to Amazon: First Book Order Through the Hive

May 4, 2013February 6, 2013 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

A recent conversation on one of the comments sections of the Friends of the Tumble Down Dick website got me thinking:

“Are there any alternatives to Amazon?”

For many years now I’ve been an Amazon affiliate and earned a few pennies here and there from my web and blog posts. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever had a cheque from Amazon, but one day I’ll probably earn that £25 threshold payout from linking to obscure Haynes Manuals for the Opel Manta.

When the opportunity came up to make some pennies for the Tumbledown campaign, I set up an Amazon affiliate account. I haven’t looked yet, but I don’t expect it’s earned very much at all. (Update: I just looked – Zero pence)

Cash Mobbing Lifts Local Business

June 4, 2015August 10, 2012 by Paul Mackenzie Ross

Cash Mobbing Lifts Local Business” was first written by Paul Mackenzie Ross for the is4profit small business blog

Cash Mob - Cash Mobbing Pages of Hackney The flash mob is a public gathering where people use social media or other communications to organise and congregate on a public place and perform some usually pointless act and then disperse again. Now, after the flash mob, we have the cash mob – or cash mobbing.

So what is cash mobbing?