Friday, May 25, 2012

Book shopping or I'm fickle

This post was going to be a review about Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King. But there's a Chopped marathon on right now so I can't concentrate enough to write a review. Instead I want to talk about shopping.
Probably because I'm currently reading Jane Austen's Emma which as you (should) know is the inspiration for Clueless. Which means the whole time I'm reading this I'm going "OH so this is like after the "Rolling with my Homies" party scene. And Sir George Knightly is Josh, aka Paul Rudd. Got it." I also maaaay have bought a DVD combo pack of Clueless and Mean Girls, because my copy of Clueless was on VHS. How '90s.

Now since this is a book blog, the shopping will focus on book shopping. Where do you get your books?

I know a lot of my fellow bloggers have crazy TBR piles. There are several TBR challenges. I don't do this. I have a TBR list. It's my Goodreads list. But I usually buy a book, read it, repeat. It's probably why I re-read so much. At least one of the reasons. I'm not great at planning my reading. It's why challenges intimidate me so. I have to commit to reading stuff? What happens when the time comes and I don't feel like reading that? WHAT THEN? So normally when I buy a book, I read it right away. Which means I can go into a bookstore and find a bunch of books that are on my Goodreads TBR list, but unless I'm in the mood to read it right then, it will stay in the bookstore.

Unless of course, the book is on one of those remainder tables. If a book is on sale I feel less inclined to have to read it right then. Because what if later when I do really want to read the book, it's not on sale anymore?? I'm cheap, so I still don't go too crazy, but I can't leave a bookstore if I see something on one of these tables that I sorta maybe want to read. Remainder tables for the win!

Now I said I'm cheap, which is part of the reason I don't buy ALL the books when I'm at a bookstore. You'd think this would mean I used the library a lot cos hey, free is the best. I do not. I should. I know I should. And I'm pretty sure there's a library around the corner from me. And definitely one not too far from our local indie bookstore. But  I don't want to borrow the book. I want the book to be mine. I want to be able to reread it whenever I choose or be able to pick it up and look for a passage. I want to display it on a shelf and go "Oh yeah, I read that" even if I'm only saying it to myself. I'm vain that way.

I do buy books from Amazon, at least for my Kindle. I don't typically order physical books online but not because of "grr Amazon." I am very impatient. If I want to read a book, I want to read it right then. I don't want to wait for it to come in the mail. This is also why Netflix* never worked for me. We'd pick out movies to rent but the few days later, when they actually showed up, I didn't care about watching them anymore. Why yes, I am annoyingly fickle. This is also why I love downloading books because I can be anywhere and get a book. I've done this on my commute when I finished the book I brought with me, but I still had train time. Of course I can't display these on my shelf, so my vanity and my impatience have to battle it out

What do you do? Do you have crazy TBR piles? Do you pick your reads in the moment?

*For those that might go off topic and ask why I don't just do Netflix Streaming, we did. And you know what's on Netflix streaming? Not much. Every time I went to look for a movie, it said "Oh nope, not available. But don't you want to watch Ninja Bimbos Part III?" After watching all of the Archer and Party Down episodes available, we cancelled our account.