(no subject)

[oyceter]

Bought for the bookstore again today. On one hand, having to get up early (aka, before noon, since I have a horrible sleep schedule) wasn't so great. On the other hand, we didn't have too many plans for the weekend, and it was nice being back and sort of hanging out and having fun there. Although my feet hurt like crazy now because I'm not used to eight hours on my feet anymore. But, oh, it was so nice being around all those books again.

Some strange books seen today:
- How to Sell Footwear
- a book for biology students that put various important processes (photosynthesis, making urea, etc.) to the tune of songs like "Battle Hymn of the Republic." That one made me giggle for quite some time.

Also met one of the new employees there, hee. He's still figuring out all the sections and whatnot. I remember when I used to get totally confused when a customer would ask me stuff, and now it's just, "Oh, real estate? That's in aisle 18, bottom two shelves of the first bookcase on your left, right after the break in the aisle."

And I hunted around the bookstore and found Pamela Dean's The Dubious Hills (whoo!) and Greer Gilman's Moonwise and Geoff Ryman's The Warrior Who Carried Life, because I was going through old LJ entries and realized someone had recced Ryman. Unfortunately, no Unconquered Countries, which had been the specific rec. I also forgot to look for Swanwick's Iron Dragon's Daughter, oh well. Maybe next time. But I am very happy, especially about Dubious Hills, which I've been looking for for a while now.

I've found I'm really sort of addicted to used bookstores now. One of the bookstore people mentioned getting really depressed looking up books online because they were all going for fifty cents or so used, which devalued the book. But then, I almost never buy used books online. I only do if I've hunted for it for quite some time and am getting really impatient for it to show up (i.e., the Cuevas books). Otherwise, I love sort of hunting through the stacks of used bookstores and looking for out of print stuff. And it's great because you never quite know what you're going to get. New bookstores all carry fairly similar stock (which is good in a whole 'nother way), but I really enjoy the hunt itself.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Me too, I have very rarely bought used books online because it ruins the thrill of stalking them in their natural habitat.

I found the The Warrior Who Carried Life really, really disturbing-- there's some violent scenes in the beginning which freaked me out so much that I never finished it. This may be a purely personal reaction, but maybe not. Just to warn you...

[oyceter]

Whooboy, I'm really bad with violence. We'll see how squicked out I get.

[gwynnega]

I do buy some used books online nowadays, but I do rather miss hunting for out of print stuff at used bookstores. I used to go up to San Francisco/Berkeley/Santa Cruz several times a year and spent hours in the used bookstores up there - found some truly amazing stuff (out of print poetry etc.). I do still go to used bookstores, of course, but knowing I can find a lot of this stuff online does change the dynamic to some extent...

[oyceter]

Sometimes I just pretend that I don't realize I can get the stuff online easily. But I've also bought some stuff online and been annoyed because one person never sent me my book (grrr), or the book was in worse condition than I imagined, etc. etc. Plus, after hanging out at the bookstore for so long, I have a fairly good idea of what it gets and what it doesn't. And of course, everything I end up looking for for a while turns out to be a lot of money online, sigh.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

I bought used books online a few times when I was working for a publisher and didn't have the time to hunt for them out of the office, but that was different. Personally, I much prefer the thrill of the chase and the joy of finding the unexpected and unlooked for.

My sister, when she was in Gr. 10 biology class, wrote a song about amoebas set to the tune of "Venus" by Bananarama (popular at the time) to memorize words like "phagocytosis" and "protonema." I still remember it, and I still laugh.

[oyceter]

I just love wandering into random bookstores and not knowing if they will have that rare out-of-print book or not. It's just so very satisfying.