Books and Germs

   Really hoping to start going to both places again soon.

The smell of a bookstore

    It's true!

Buying Books

    Truer words were never spoken.

Readers without Borders

So long, Borders Bookstore. We've had a long and fruitful relationship, but I see you're filing for bankruptcy and closing 1/3 of your stores, including my "home store" here in Mesa, pictured below. The MSNBC article on your demise is here. . I'm gonna miss you. Yes, I think Barnes & Noble has a better (and wider) selection of books, but you had the more obscure ones, which always seemed to be what I was seeking out. Your choice of magazines was much better than B&N's. Once upon a time, your music CD selection was fantastic, but I can see why you had to slim it down. Almost every French and Spanish music CD I own came from you, and you were the only local place where I could find music from groups such as the Strawbs, Renaissance, Loreena McKennitt, and Tom Paxton. . Saturday, I will visit you and use all the Borders gift cards I got for Xmas. Gotta use them before your inventory gets too picked over. Lord knows, I don't need any more books. Last count on my TBR shelf showed about 80 there, and I've been slogging through a couple of thousand-pagers since the holidays, so the pile has not dwindled much so far in 2011. . I'm OCD, but I will learn to visit B&N regularly. Their store is actually closer to my house, but still, to quote Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Adventure, we fear change. At least you're not going fully out-of-business. For now.

New Store !!

Oh, sweetness! I found another used books - CD's - DVD's - LP's - Cassettes store today. Who knows how long it's been two doors down from Best Buy and I never bothered to investigate it. For some reason, I always assumed it was just selling used/discontinued textbooks. . The vinyl selection is so-so. The DVD selection is above average, which was quite useful in tracking down some of the obscure movies Jason wants for Xmas. But the books... . Ah, the books! Which is its main raison d'être. The cost of any book is half its original list price. I got H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy for less than a buck (because it was published in the 1960's) and Mark Billingham's debut murder/mystery novel Sleepyhead. I've been looking for both of these for months. . Best of all are the stacks and stacks of "overflow" paperbacks. $1 each. Liz scarfed up a half-dozen $1 chick-lit novels (Nora Roberts, et. al.) and I found a book by Robert Harris, author of the very good murder-mystery alt-history novel Fatherland. . The store is having a "20% off everything" sale during the whole week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. I foresee significant (and totally unnecessary) additions to my TBR shelf before the year is out.