Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A Thousand Years in One Piece of Silver.

Heidi fell asleep using "A Filed Guide to Iowa's Birds" as her pillow. I hope she had sweet dreams.

So, today I will drop some bookish names. Partly, because I love it when other people do it on their blogs and I get more reading suggestions, and partly because it is part of my story.

Yesterday RJT of Illiterati blog updated her FB status, raving about how wonderfully engrossing Justin Cronin's books are. She was talking about The Passage, in particular, but others were talking about all of his work. So, I Googled him and read some reviews. When I read that it was another vampire story, I almost stopped there. Not that I don't love vampires as much as everyone else, but I'm starting to reach my saturation point with them. I read on, and review after review complained about houses going to hell and marriages dissolving because the book was THAT distracting and addictive.

Archie was a little cranky that I was on the other side of the screened in porch from him. Big baby.

Even though I'm still only about 200 pages into the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon, and I have a to-read list about a mile long, I decided I must possess The Passage. I checked out Amazon and they had it for about $10 (not including shipping). Because I like to try to support local businesses, I stopped off at our local, independent book store, Prairie Lights over my lunch break.

I walked in and my favorite employee, Paul was working. He is just as big a book nerd as I am, and we are always happy to see each other. He came over and gave me a hug and asked me what I wanted. I told him and he said, "Oh, then. let's go upstairs and get you a signed copy of that." We walked up and another employee who I really like and on who's suggestion I bought Anne Patchett's latest book, State of Wonder, was working. I'm always happy to see her, as well. I got my book and looked inside and it was a first edition, paperback. Because it is signed, it might actually be worth some money someday.

I'm not exactly sure what the moral of this story is, except that for 4 more dollars, I got a free hug, and a signed first edition paperback. Not too bad at all.

6 comments:

rel said...

Churlita,
I wish we had a bookstore anymore.
I do drive to Canton, 30 miles, to the St. Lawrence Univ. bookstore a couple times a year, but.....
rel

silly rabbit said...

What a bonus! A good book and a hug for free is very cool. BTW I loved The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay!

NoRegrets said...

shop local is the moral! and I'll have to look up that author for sure...

laura b. said...

I read The Passage. Go into this behemoth knowing it is part one of a projected trilogy!
I thought it was pretty good...MrManuel LOVED it.

Tara said...

Aw, I love the photo of napping Heidi, and the one of Archie looks like he's about to sneeze!

I think I've reached my vampire saturation point, except I am anxiously awaiting the movie versions of "Breaking Dawn". Other than that, I'm done for awhile.

SkylersDad said...

I only charge two bucks per hug, but I understand the commute is a bitch for you...