29 December 2011

Mecca

My brothers each gave me a Barnes & Noble giftcard, as did Kevin.  This is my favorite kind of gift, for sure. I walked into the store today with $125 worth of gift cards! 

The one book I wanted really badly was Paul Carr's The Upgrade but it wasn't there. I have to order it from Amazon and then I have to decide if I want it in actual book form or on my droid.  This is not a serious problem, I realize, but disappointing for sure.

I usually buy my calendar this time of year but I bought one for my birthday.   I glanced at the journals but I already have too many unused ones.  They sure are tempting though, aren't they?  I already did the after-Christmas shopping for cards so I started with the sale racks.

Some day I am going to buy the classics and read/reread them.  They had a lovely set of classics that I considered but it felt like buying homework so I continued on.

I did check my Amazon wish list for books I had saved but there wasn't really one that jumped out at me.  I thought Emily Giffin had a new book out but I was wrong.  Then I blanked on author names that I wanted to check.

This turned out to be a good thing though as it forced me to go one by one down each bookshelf.  I did eventually remember who I wanted to look for but it didn't much help.  One book that I read & loved the author only wrote one book, how unfair is that?

I must have made the security folk nervous because I kept circling and circling the same shelves.  There are entire areas of the store that I am not interested in: science fiction, cookbooks, and self-help.  I glanced at teen fiction and history section but it was more out of boredom than anything else.

Eventually I realized that I was carrying eight, EIGHT, books.  I did some quick math and realized that I was finished shopping.  This didn't stop me from checking out the magazine racks though.

Then I spotted the Nook kiosk. My cards would pay for a Nook and I enjoyed playing with one of the bigs Kindle. (great story I will share later)  I looked at the stack of books then back at the Nook then back at the stack.

There is just something about holding an actual book that I can't let go.  I understand the lure of having many books in a device smaller than a magazine but it's just not the same.

I don't believe that the cashier quite understood my delight/embarrassment at having a stack of gift cards and still having to pay $5.33.

 You know where to find me

3 comments:

Swistle said...

What a fun haul!

YES, the journals are SO TEMPTING. If I didn't use control, I'd have about thirty of them, I think. ...Fine, probably more like fifty. Or eighty, WHATEVER.

YES to feeling like buying homework! What a good way to put it! I think I'll check the classics out of the library. Well, unless they'd look pretty on the shelf: I love those ones that came out recently with gorgeous covers!

Sarah said...

Mecca is right - had there been a Barnes & Noble anywhere in my known world when I was in my teens, I would probably be working there still with no further career goals ever considered. I love the feeling of holding a book too - but I did succomb to a nook a couple years ago. Love it. But just walking into a B&N store? Heavenly!

Jennifer said...

I am a book hoarder. We have a Planned Parenthood book sale twice a year, and I end up with boxes of books for like $20. I also go to Goodwill and look through their books...and it's pretty much the best reason to go to garage sales. (I'm not snobbish about second hand books.)

I am slowly making a dent in the list of classics I feel like I should have read or should remember better. I finally made it through "Wuthering Heights" a few months back after having declared it unreadable in my teens.

My mom has a Nook, and I think sticking to tree-killing books is the way to go. She's had to replace it once, and had to replace the charging cord twice. I never have to charge my books, and can take them anywhere.

:-) Rambling, but there you go.