It's getting windy!

The Atlantic storms have been hitting the north of Spain, as well as other countries like Ireland and the UK. But this blog entry was originally meant to discuss the diet here in winter. Contrary to many articles, there are lots of Spanish dishes that contain vegetables. A lot of them though, are bean based - there are a lot of different varieties, including fabes (used in fabada), alubias, judias verdes etc. And then there are the pulses - garbanzos (chickpeas) and lentejas (lentils) are used in many dishes.

So, it's not hard to maintain a diet containing vegetables here in winter, when perhaps the desire for a salad is lower. However, ahem, one has to bear in mind, that things can get a bit ..err.. windy. :)
Meanwhile, in the bookshop, I'm as busy as ever, despite meagre daily sales in the shop itself. Offside Books now has a marketplace on Amazon for customers throughout Spain. You can see our offerings on Amazon.es. It may seem strange for an independent bookstore to sell via Amazon, but they have really cornered the market. No point spending thousands on setting up an independent website, then thousands more on marketing it, when it's already done by the American giant.
It's not just a case of cataloguing, describing and posting the books on the web - you then have to revisit your offers on a regular basis. Often a competitor will sneak in and try and undercut you - there is one dealer under the name DealES that always comes in with 3 separate offers (I wonder if they actually have certain titles in stock), just below the price you have offered. Of course we will try to offer the best price (for a similar quality book) so we will keep monitoring our books and adjust our price when necessary. Even so, we try and keep the best prices for physical visitors to our shop - if you find this is not so you can always try and haggle a better price!
That is really what our shop is about - we try and offer good quality books at the best price you can find in Madrid and much of Spain. If you live in Spain and value independent bookshops, please try and visit us, either at our physical store (calle Torija 8 Madrid ) or via the Amazon marketplace link. And if you're not looking to buy books - perhaps you actually need to get rid of some to make space - we accept donations gratefully, especially any books in Spanish as our current selection is somewhat limited.