I almost got teary when I had to take my members card off my keyring...it was an emotional moment!
You see, I'm a reader. A biiiig reader. I get it honest, both my parents love to read, and my family is real booky as well. I grew up from a tiny baby being read stories to while we drove back and forth from Mississippi to Arkansas. So I don't remember ever, in my life, not wanting to read or not liking to read. I may not have wanted to read a particular book I was assigned to...cough,Animal Farm,cough...but that just meant I'd have much rather been reading something better.
This is me and my aunt Tiffany 'reading'. I'm sure the division of labor is totally equal there :)
This is a really good habit in some ways. I can just scan over something fast to learn it. I'm never bored on airplanes or in doctor's offices, or even on long drives with my audiobooks. I read books in my free time growing up instead of playing video games or watching tv all day long, and I really feel like that had a huge impact of me as far as my learning ability and intellect. I may not have one whole degree's worth of one category of information, but I have about a tenth of about twenty degrees stored up. Too bad there isn't a 'random knowledge' major, and a job to go with it!
But every good thing has its bad side as well. As a kid, reading a lot of big books and being smart meant you were automatically the nerd. Sounds stupid now, but it hurt a lot back then. Still does sometimes, but that's a work in progress. Other bookworm problems include space to put all your collection, affording all the new books you want, having to wait months for the next installment of your series to come out... all that jazz.
Space is my biggest issue just now. When we built our house, I had two custom bookcases built into my room. Eight foot tall, three plus foot wide, customizable shelf height. I was estimating big then. That was almost two years ago...and they're pretty squished. Guess I'll be doing the box-under-the-bed routine again!
Well, the space issue...and price too. I can't hide it anymore. This blog is actually a rant blog, in desguise as an innocent blathering about books!
We ended our shopping trip Saturday night in Barnes & Noble. I haven't spent much time in Tupelo's B&N, since I was a loyal, card carrying follower of Book A Million long before Barney ever showed up, and pretty much any other Barnes and Noble is puny compared to MSU's awesome bookstore/monstrosity. And, there's always that ton of people in there just hanging out and never leaving...loudly.
I kind of want to be like 'Hey thug people...do I come where you hang out and shush you because I'm trying to read? No, so lets try this the way it's supposed to be, okay?' and 'Hey mom with the five kids...they have a kids section, but it's not the equivalent of 'leave my heathen kids unsupervised so Mommy can have a Starbucks moment', okay?'
I've always preferred BAM. Fully half of my bookcases have been filled by their clearance or sale books. Where else can you get new release hardbacks for six bucks? Or three for two on audiobooks? Regular prices aren't too bad either. Plus, I always felt their selection was wider, and they were great about ordering anything they didn't have in stock. Always nice and quiet, like my brain needs a bookstore to be, always friendly over-the-top helpful staff everywhere. And open late! One of the few things in Tupelo open past 9 pm.
Barnes & Noble has not impressed me much before this weekend. I haven't bought much in there, a book or two if I wanted it and was already in the mall, a cheap audiobook. The audiobook I had to return because one disk came up blank. Their policy on returns is that you can only return for exactly what you have, no refunds. I wouldn't have minded that normally, as I was enjoying my audiobook up until the blank cd. However, they didn't have any more of them. Nothing even close. So they tried to tell me I had to keep it. When I had the receipt, in less that 30 days of my purchase, when the item was defective. No sirree. I got a manager over there, and I got an exchange like normal people do. Not a great way to make me a repeat customer.
Another way to ensure I'm not buying your merchandice...100% markup. Saturday when I was with my family in there, I was looking for one specific book I had been watching for. I knew that it had just come out in paperback, and on Amazon it was going for around $13-15. I really didn't want to fool with shipping costs and all that, so I thought I'd just buy it at B&N. Wrong. That book was the same price as the hardcover - over $20! - and was the same huge size too. No paperback about it. I'll wait another six months when it's in WalMart.
The gigantic copy of Fall of Giants, with giant pricetag to match. Must be a theme sale.
They mark up everything so high! I saw one book, it's been out for a good long while. Long enough to have been sitting on a WalMart shelf with a $4 sticker since I lived down in Columbus, at least. Cheap paperback edition. Same copy at B&N...$11.99. That's triple price. For a cheap trade paperback. Who is crazy/gullible/desperate enough to pay that much? I love to read, but I also like to eat places other than the dollar menu.
$4 Walmart book, $12 B&N book. Wonder if it ends better from B&N?
And don't even get me started on their lack of clearance and sale racks. They have four towers of clearance oragami kits and magic kids and grow your own bonsai kits...but I'm sorry, I'm in a bookstore to buy books. The twenty or so clearance books they have are so bad beat up and ratty they're no doubt why they're on the Last Chance rack. The sales...let's just see I haven't seen any of my $6 new release hardbacks yet!
Okay, end of rant, I feel better. I just hope there's a Book A Million within driving distance, or Amazon.com is going to love the TLC I'm going to start showing it!
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