Today, after many, many long weeks and months of waiting, I finally made my return to Barnes & Noble. Not because I don't like them, but because of the fact that we have to go all the way across the bridge from here in Rockwall, and to Sasche just to get there, and the first time we went we went to the wrong one. In fact, the first time, near Town East, we found that B&N wasn't even there anymore. So, we rode for what seemed like ages and finally got there. Once I got there, I rushed in with my laptop bag slapping my thigh, and hurried to find the Teen Fiction section. Since last year, I had been waiting to read Fear by Michael Grant because Light would be coming out. I had high hopes that I would finish Fear on time, and how wrong I was. When I arrived at the Teen Fiction section, I was crestfallen.
They didn't have Fear, or any of the other Gone books for that matter except Light and Gone. I don't know what it is with Bookstores and Michael Grant novels, but no one seems to have them. I don't understand why, when his books are extraordinarily popular, and they're so friggin' good. It really pisses me off to know that I have to order Fear from online, and be months behind on finishing the astonishing Gone series. It's not fun being the only one who hasn't read the finale, to know that even though you read most of the books in the series within a day, or less, yet you can't seem to get your hands on the fifth and sixth ones no matter how hard you try.
I tricked himself into thinking that maybe I had overlooked it, or maybe they had it on one of their little show off tables, and again, I was met with nothing but books I had either already read or didn't have the will to even think about. So I wandered, probably looking stupid as I circled around bookcase after bookcase, finding nothing. It seems that I have fallen out of love with YA fiction unless I had already started the series, I guess I just don't hold the capacity for it like I used to. Maybe it has something to do with my reading of Fantasy, Stephen King, and George R. R. Martin, and other adult writers that has me no longer wanting to read the books I used to love the most. It seems that it is true that you can fall out of love with something, and into love with another. It seems that my heart wanes from the meager 300 page books that live in the realm of Teen Fiction, and then it palpitates with joy at the sight of a hardy 1,000 pager.
So, after finding that Fear and I would never dance in the late hours of night, I wandered, aimlessly around the store, bumping into several people in the process, finding myself unable to keep my composure, wanting out, but knowing that I'd only just gotten there. I decided, then, that I would buy A Game of Thrones and start reading the Song of Ice and Fire series with passion. Now, beside me, are the first three books in the series, and I am on page 114 of it out of 807-no I don't count the Appendix as the actual book sense it is only an extension and a reference guide.
I walked around the little shopping mall area that was Firewheel, finding nothing to my liking since I care little about clothes and whatnot, and I didn't have the money nor the confidence to sit at a restaurant and eat. I'd look fatter than I am.
So, I later returned to B&N and walked around aimlessly some more, looked at some writing books, some of the B&N classics, checked the Teen Section again to see if Fear had miraculously appeared from the 7th dimension. It had not. Instead, I found myself at the Fantasy section again, and I nearly bought The Eye of the World, but I told myself that I'd buy it the next time, and I ended up buying A Storm of Swords, though this wasn't that bad because I had a nice little chat with the cashier who was currently on A Clash of Kings.
And thus, I am angered with bookstores. How dare you call yourself a book store when you are missing several books in the series, how dare you call yourself a bookstore when you don't even have the first edition paperbacks of A Clash of Kings, and only one TV Tie-In version, how dare you call yourself a book store where you can only buy one book unless you're a billionaire because all of your books are hideously overpriced, and some of them aren't even that good. It just goes to show that this is the reason a lot of older readers remember the time when you could go to the bookshop at the corner and buy a paperback for a buck fifty. Damn, I wish we lived in those times.
Also, can I say that having a B&N membership isn't even that very well worth it? You get a few cents off an item, instead of actual cash. I had to use a gift card I got a year ago and my membership to get the 9.00 A Storm of Swords for 6.49. Whereas, the membership would have only allowed me to get it for 8.81, and that's not very much a bargain.
Sometimes, as much as I detest them, I see why people prefer eBooks. You don't have to worry about the book you've been waiting so long and patiently to get not being there.
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