And This is Why

I prefer to buy my books used.

I had forgotten about The Astronaut Wives Club TV show that started a couple of weeks ago on ABC, so I missed the first 2 episodes but remembered to watch it last week. I'm not sure if the show is good or not, but I do love shows set in the 60s simply because of the costumes and the hairstyles and everyone wearing lipstick even if they are just going outside to pick up the mail. I had seen the book when it first came out but wasn't all that interested in it, preferring fiction to non, but after watching the one episode of the TV show I really really wanted to read the book.

So yesterday morning I asked Keith if he wanted to go to Barnes and Noble so I could get the book, we haven't been in there in a long time since it's just too expensive to buy full price books, plus the lines and lack of cashiers annoyed me a whole lot last time I was there and I wasn't as nice to the cashier as I should have been when she went through her required spiel about joining their rewards program or whatever they call it. I had to listen to it again this time, even being asked for my nonexistent card when I went and got an iced coffee at the Starbucks in the store after paying for my books.

Yes, I got books, plural, because it's kind of like potato chips, you can't get just one when you go to the bookstore. I ended up with four. Which wasn't very many for me.

Anyway, I read the Astronaut Wives book the rest of the day and it was fascinating and not dry like some non fiction can be. I really enjoyed it, having lived through the space program in the 60s but not really remembering all that much about it. I don't know where I was when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, but I don't think it was in front of the TV. I don't usually finish a book in a day, usually it takes a couple of days but I didn't feel like doing anything else yesterday, so finished the book in one sitting.

However, one of the other books that I got is just not engaging me as much as I'd hoped it would, having liked one of this particular author's other books, The Orphan Train, a great deal, but this book is just kind of leaving me bored and not really caring about the characters enough to keep reading. I paid full price for the book so I feel that I should finish it, and that is why I like to buy my books at my favorite used book store (Bookhounds) so that if I don't like the book I just toss it aside, having spent at most $1.99 on it. Usually less because they always have a sale going, the books are priced with different colored stickers according to when they got them in, and they always have the older books at up to 50% off.

So, I think I'm going to give up on the full price book for now and start on one of my bargain books.

And I survived the face cutting open thing but it was not a fun day, more on that in a day or two. Just call me Frankenstein face, I have an incistion about 1 1/2" long with 6 big black stitches that I have to keep covered by a big huge bandage. If anyone has the nerve to ask me why I have a big bandage on my face it's a toss up between being bitten by a shark and being attacked by a ninja and his sword.

Goodbye Forever Barnes and Noble

Besides shopping at the Goodwill bookstore and ordering books from Amazon so that I don't have to wait in line while chatty salespeople have their social time at Barnes and Noble, I found another bookstore that will be getting my money.

I had seen signs along Rosedale Hwy for BOOKS MOVIES MUSIC turn right here for a few months now, and the other day as I was coming back down the road from a trip to Beverly Fabrics downtown, I decided to turn right and check out the store. It's called Bookhounds and is in one of those industrial building complexes, and it's absolutely WONDERFUL! I was expecting the usual used bookstore prices of half off the cover but the prices are the same as at Goodwill, 99c for a paperback, $1.29 for a hardback, and anything with a blue sticker was another 25% off. I had to go to the bathroom and didn't see a customer restroom so cut my visit short and just got a few books, but went back yesterday and spent a lot longer browsing around and filling up my shopping cart. They had a lot to choose from and I had made a list of books I've had on my Amazon wishlist so found a few of those and then a lot more that weren't on my list. About half the books I got had blue stickers, so my huge stack of books that filled up three big bags cost a little over $30.00. The seven or so books from Barnes and Noble that were so annoying to stand in line to buy were $55.00. Hmm, let me see, which store will I be shopping at from now on?

Buddy has been a real pain this week, he's either really bored or missing Keith, who has been out on the coast working this week. The last two evenings he has been wandering around the living room doing his restless meowing thing and then BITING me. I've tried playing with him but that doesn't seem to do the trick. I have to walk carefully if I head to the bathroom or something because he follows me around rubbing on everything and getting under my feet and I'm afraid he is going to BITE me again. Keith says to just throw him out of the house when he acts like that, but I'm also afraid that then all the other cats will want to go out, too, and I'll spend all evening trying to get them to come back inside so that I can go to bed.

Today is Keith's last day at work, he will be driving back from the coast and getting back to the shop in time to do his exit interview and pick up his last paycheck and on Monday will start training to be a BNSF conductor. A job that he has been trying to get for about six years now. I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that there will be no family or personal crises this time to derail things because I want this to be the last job he gets and be a job that he doesn't dread getting up in the morning (or evening in the case of railroad work) to go do.