I have just finished reading you book and loved it. The only thing I would change is more absorbant pages as I was reading it while drinking tea and ended up spitting out my tea on more than one occassion.

Although I had read most of the posts that are in the book, I still loved reading them all again in book format.

But what I really enjoyed was the little comments Tom has made in the book almost like a p.s. to let us know the outcome of some of the tales in there.

Well, I just this second purchased it from Amazon, and definatly looking forward to getting a copy! I just wish i hadnt wasted the last two weeks of my life, reading every single post beforehand....

Not disagreeing with you about cc, but could it be selling well just because you've written a really good book?

I think that the existing and loyal fanbase for the blog, all wanting to show personal support for the author, and all having access to the internet (in other words, to Amazon, most reliable stockists of Da Book) might have helped a bit too.

Although, to go full circle, we wouldn't have all been hooked on the blog for the last however long it's been, if it wasn't a good read in the first place.

Way to go, Tom! Nothing left to say now but "I knew him when ...."

Told you, its the whole 'looking pretty on the train' thing that makes people want to buy it instead of downloading!
But seriously its great and I loved it and have recommended it to a few of my friends who really can't believe the trouble you have getting a preggers lady into maternity of a night!!
Just a note...if you ever happen to pick up a girl around 19years old for whatever reason and you happen to find a copy of your book in her bag....care to sign it for me?? :-P

Congratulations, it's a cracking read!

For those of us on the other side of th pond, what the &%*$ is "Waterstone's 3 for 2"?

Oh, and:

Jolly good show, mate!    :-D

Hmm...I should really think about these before first, so as to be more efficient.

So how many books were printed in the first run? It said simply "sold 'em all", not "sold all 50 that we printed" or "sold all kajillion that we printed"...which is it? ;-)

It's a secret, but needless to say it is surprisingly many. There were more in the first printing than I imagined there would be.

This, of course, makes me happy.

Waterstones is a large chain of bookstores in the UK. "3 for 2" is a very common offer that they seem to run pretty much permanently - buy three books for the price of 2. A surprising number of "sleeper hits" and even new paperbacks by established authors make their way in here. It's an excellent way to find new authors!

but it's not all the books in the store, just the ones on the big tables with the stickers on them saying "3 for 2".

There is an unwritten rule that once you have your first two books in hand and are browsing for the Third Book, to take advantage of the offer, any book you pick up and think looks interesting will NOT have the sticker on it and will NOT be included in the offer.

Soooo true!!! And when you DO find a third, it's twice the price of any of the others in the offer.
Den

Thank you, Mosh - much appreciated.    Especially since Tom couldn't be arsed to answer...you'd think he was sick of questions or somethin'!!    ("Gentleman", my ass!)

First thing is congratulations on a really good book - my copy turned up friday, and it was a really good read, although I have seen much of the content before its still good to get it in a more coherent chunk. I also started reading the blog after the AIDS scare and although I had read that back its better put in that context.

I think the Creative Commons stuff is actually fairly irrelevant to book sales - at least in the relatively short term. Reading that much material off a screen is not my idea of fun, and I can't print it in a portable format for significantly less than the cover price (especially if you figure in my time in doing so), so unless services like Lulu get much more ubiquitous and cheap that is not going to hit the sales figures. Frankly, unless the pricing is unreasonable, I would far rather just buy a copy and get a decently produced nice portable read.

People loaning their copy out will hit your sales harder than CC. For example my wife will read my copy after me, and I'm afraid you don't get a brass farthing for that (much that I feel you deserve every profit from the book).

Inicidently I was suprised at the reveal at the end - I expected you to keep up your superhero secret identity.

First thing is congratulations on a really good book - my copy turned up friday, and it was a really good read, although I have seen much of the content before its still good to get it in a more coherent chunk. I also started reading the blog after the AIDS scare and although I had read that back its better put in that context.

I think the Creative Commons stuff is actually fairly irrelevant to book sales - at least in the relatively short term. Reading that much material off a screen is not my idea of fun, and I can't print it in a portable format for significantly less than the cover price (especially if you figure in my time in doing so), so unless services like Lulu get much more ubiquitous and cheap that is not going to hit the sales figures. Frankly, unless the pricing is unreasonable, I would far rather just buy a copy and get a decently produced nice portable read.

People loaning their copy out will hit your sales harder than CC. For example my wife will read my copy after me, and I'm afraid you don't get a brass farthing for that (much that I feel you deserve every profit from the book).

Inicidently I was suprised at the reveal at the end - I expected you to keep up your superhero secret identity.

Sorry for the dupe - the system told me the comment submission had failed the first time :-(

Hi Tom,

Just finished the book, LOVED it and, having taken your advice, read it before I read the archives (which I'm now going to read to get bang up to date). I think my favourite piece was the description of the race to a call in "Not Breathing" - and wonder if anyone, as I did, found that they were out of breath when they finished it! (I won't spoil the punch line!)

In general, a great mix of humour and poignancy and your empathy for the "real" patients shines through - some of the stories of brave little old ladies bring a tear to the eye while those of individuals who look on the LAS as a taxi service beggar belief.

SO glad to hear of the book's success. It says much for the shite that the main line booksellers are peddling nowadays that they haven't taken it on (I cite, in particular Wayne Rooney's biog - with 4 more to come!!!).

I missed the Q&A opportunity, so can I ask, please:

James Herriot chose his nom de plume because he happened to be watching soccer while musing on one - and chose the Birmingham City goalkeeper's name (you could have had Random Acts of Reality by Bruce Grobbelaar!). How did you choose your name?

Regards,

Dave Rogers

Congrats on the success of BS&T. Have been brandishing my copy of da book with pride on the tube over the last week and getting lots of intriguing glances in return (the book - not me alas!).

I have in fact just lent my copy to a colleague - whom I was surprised to discover was a member of the LAS in the 70s (based sarf of the river) - he is enjoying it very much, says it brings back a lot of memories and that nothing changes very much.

Well, I was gonna save the book for my hols, but hey ive read it now.... from cover to cover, fantastic. Its now on loan and have a queue for people waiting to borrow it!

Start technician training in Nov and cant wait, but for now ill be able to read the blogs to pass the long 12hr night shifts at the coastguard! Keep writing i can read an awful lot in 12 hours.

Stop nagging

I've ordered it tonight - along with a few other blog-related books