I have been reading about Amazon's latest problems with Wall Street in Publishers Weekly. Most of us would be more than content with sales growth of 16% but it is amazing how an organisation the size and quality of Amazon can show operating income of just 2.5% (and I bet that's before all sorts of dadeda - as in EBITDA - and one-offs). On the other hand, for Wall Street to savage a company for investing in its future does seem a bit harsh. Perhaps Amazon should pay a bit more attention to the bottom line by focussing less on the price 'flywheel' and more on range and service - at least when it comes to books.

But while reading this article my eye skipped to an ad for big bad book blog which is an excellent, informative and entertaining site put together by the Greenleaf Book Group who look to be a really sensible publishing company except for one thing. Why pay for an ad on PW Online when they could have had this plug for free?

Someone who never failed to understand the bottom line was my old boss, Paul Hamlyn. I was delighted to see that his Foundation is still going strong and dishing out money intelligently and generously - typical of the man whom I and many others miss enormously.