Just got back from today's "Day Out"
Feb. 5th, 2008 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
capri0mniAnd I actually spent money...
At Audrey's suggestion, we went to the localDen of Evilness in Bookseller Form Barnes and Noble. She likes to look through the remainders bins for unusual and quirky books, and I... Well, I was feeling weak.
Right smack dab in the middle of my birthday octave, I heard this story on NPR about the annual awards from the American Library Association for children's literature, and what was said about the winner of the Caldecot (illustration): that it was a highly controversial decision and all the librarians in the audince stood up and cheered -- made me Want.
So we went.
We stopped in the "Cafe" first, and I thoroughly spoiled my appitite on a hot chocolate, and a chocolate cupcake. And then we split up and went hunting. I headed for the children's section, and was greatly annoyed that the recent most winner of the big award was not front and center. Neither was the staffmember for the section (she was there -- but there was no centralized counter for her to stand at, so I couldn't find her until I got help from the Customer Service desk.
So in the end, I did indeed snag myself a copy of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and so far, after a few brief glances, it does indeed look shiny.
I also wanted a paperpack edition of a complete Jane Austen -- if I'm going to study her for the nuts and bolts of her writing craft, it would do me good to have a copy of my own that I can go back to and reread. ... They had a special Jane Austen display (No doubt to tie into the current run on PBS's Masterpiece: Classics), but half the stuff on that display were just Jane Austen spin-offs: notecards, fanfiction-that-pretends-it's-not, criticsm, etc.. So I go looking for the general fiction section (Which was nearly impossible to find -- a set of shelves in the center of the store, completely surrounded by a maze of specialized subgenres of non-fiction. If I were walking, it might have been easier to locate, but being down so low, I felt like I was trying to navigate one of those Victorian Garden privet hedge mazes). And once I got to the fiction section, I couldn't find Austen in with the "A"s... Audrey finally located me, and said that she'd seen a Complete Austen in the Bargain shelves, so I bought that, too... even though it's a hardcover, and therefore harder to read without a table... interestingly, it contains seven novels (Including Lady Susan -- a really early, really rough draft, that she never intended to publish, I think).
So I guess that counts as a win and a half-win. Really, I think that Barnes and Noble is deliberately designed to get you lost and confused, so you wander around more, and are therefore more likely to buy stuff on impulse. ... If I had come under my own power, or with someone like-minded, that design concept would have backfired in my case, because I would have left a lot sooner, out of frustration, and just gone home to buy the books on Amazon. But because I was there with Audrey, and she was shopping happily, I stuck it out... Still, I got out with only two books, and none that I hadn't gone in looking to buy.
Yay, Me?
ETA: Also, there was a woman directly in front of us in the check-out line who saw all the books Audrey was carrying (her half-dozen of paperbacks, and my two hardcovers) and said: "Boy, it looks like you're really buying books to read!" (she, herself, was carrying one slim paperback... I didn't see what it was).
Audrey and I exchanged a look, and after the woman was out of earshot, Audrey said: "...Actually, I bought this one to be a coaster..."
At Audrey's suggestion, we went to the local
Right smack dab in the middle of my birthday octave, I heard this story on NPR about the annual awards from the American Library Association for children's literature, and what was said about the winner of the Caldecot (illustration): that it was a highly controversial decision and all the librarians in the audince stood up and cheered -- made me Want.
So we went.
We stopped in the "Cafe" first, and I thoroughly spoiled my appitite on a hot chocolate, and a chocolate cupcake. And then we split up and went hunting. I headed for the children's section, and was greatly annoyed that the recent most winner of the big award was not front and center. Neither was the staffmember for the section (she was there -- but there was no centralized counter for her to stand at, so I couldn't find her until I got help from the Customer Service desk.
So in the end, I did indeed snag myself a copy of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and so far, after a few brief glances, it does indeed look shiny.
I also wanted a paperpack edition of a complete Jane Austen -- if I'm going to study her for the nuts and bolts of her writing craft, it would do me good to have a copy of my own that I can go back to and reread. ... They had a special Jane Austen display (No doubt to tie into the current run on PBS's Masterpiece: Classics), but half the stuff on that display were just Jane Austen spin-offs: notecards, fanfiction-that-pretends-it's-not, criticsm, etc.. So I go looking for the general fiction section (Which was nearly impossible to find -- a set of shelves in the center of the store, completely surrounded by a maze of specialized subgenres of non-fiction. If I were walking, it might have been easier to locate, but being down so low, I felt like I was trying to navigate one of those Victorian Garden privet hedge mazes). And once I got to the fiction section, I couldn't find Austen in with the "A"s... Audrey finally located me, and said that she'd seen a Complete Austen in the Bargain shelves, so I bought that, too... even though it's a hardcover, and therefore harder to read without a table... interestingly, it contains seven novels (Including Lady Susan -- a really early, really rough draft, that she never intended to publish, I think).
So I guess that counts as a win and a half-win. Really, I think that Barnes and Noble is deliberately designed to get you lost and confused, so you wander around more, and are therefore more likely to buy stuff on impulse. ... If I had come under my own power, or with someone like-minded, that design concept would have backfired in my case, because I would have left a lot sooner, out of frustration, and just gone home to buy the books on Amazon. But because I was there with Audrey, and she was shopping happily, I stuck it out... Still, I got out with only two books, and none that I hadn't gone in looking to buy.
Yay, Me?
ETA: Also, there was a woman directly in front of us in the check-out line who saw all the books Audrey was carrying (her half-dozen of paperbacks, and my two hardcovers) and said: "Boy, it looks like you're really buying books to read!" (she, herself, was carrying one slim paperback... I didn't see what it was).
Audrey and I exchanged a look, and after the woman was out of earshot, Audrey said: "...Actually, I bought this one to be a coaster..."
