Sometimes ideas get stuck in my head and refuse to leave until I indulge them. Luckily, most of my whims are harmless (except on my budget) and involve vacations, cultural outings, and other activities.
Recently I decided that I wanted to read the Kathy Reichs books upon which the TV series Bones is based. I enjoy the TV show, mostly for the characters, as I see a lot of myself in Temperance, or maybe the other way around, and a bit for the science (not very much for the dead bodies). I assumed I'd like the books, too, but I didn't want to buy them new, just in case they didn't live up to the awesomeness of the TV show. I decided to pursue other options for acquiring them.
First I investigated the used options on Amazon but didn't find anything in the price range that I had deemed acceptable. Next I turned to the used section of bn.com. This site had many options; however, the shipping costs were prohibitively expensive, and I couldn't find any sellers offering discounts for multiple books. For instance, a book might be $.50, but shipping is $3.99. If you buy a second book from the same seller, you have to pay $3.99 in shipping for the second book, even though the seller is likely to package the books together.
I suspect my reluctance stems from an illogical but unavoidably human trait about not wanting the other person to get a better deal than I was getting, even if the deal was still good for me. I decided to move on.
My next stop was ebay. I became aware of ebay eleven or twelve years ago while in college but never got around to establishing an account or buying anything. When my apartment was broken into a few years after college, the police officer warned us all against ebay ("It's full of stolen items!"), and I continued my indifferent boycott.
I decided that books were unlikely to be stolen items and were a safe purchase. Any burglar who tried to make his living by stealing mystery novels would quickly learn his lesson.
And it was on ebay that I discovered book lots. Book lots, where have you been all my life? Apparently, you've been on ebay, and I've been ignoring you.
Knowing about these magical lots would certainly have been useful these past couple months as I have been collecting all of the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters and reading them in anticipation of the next novel coming out next week. Alas.
Back to Kathy Reichs. I found several lots, some priced by reasonable people, others priced by burglars who haven't discovered that used books are not the pot of gold that they had hoped for. I chose one of the reasonable lots, sent it to B, and asked him to work his ebay magic.
He put in his bid, and then we forgot about the lot until several days later, when he checked his account and saw that we had lost. I could have looked for another lot, but ebay was more work than I wanted. Ebay needs a complex wiki-style taxonomy, and until it exists, the site is simply too frustrating for me. I can deal with many inadequacies on websites but poor organization is not one of them.
Out of ideas and unwilling to spend more than $2 per book, I decided to do what I should have done in the beginning--go to the library, where books are plentiful and free.
One night last week (one of the non-rainy nights, of which there have been few lately), we hopped over to the library, applied for library cards, and got lost in the stacks for a while. Ok, we didn't get lost; the library is teeny, even by my small-town standards. But they had Deja Dead, the first book in the series, as well as The Geography of Bliss, which I've been meaning to read, and a Rosamunde Pilcher novel that I haven't read.
Reading three books in three weeks is ambitious, especially since I was only halfway through a lengthy Peters book at home and have more on the way, but I reasoned that I could always renew or return and try again later. B picked up a book about basketball that he secretly wanted to hate but has actually been enjoying immensely.
While at the library, I learned that my collection of travel books rivals my town's. I suppose if one is going to have an addiction, buying travel guides is one of the more tolerable ones.
After arriving home, I enthusiastically dove in to the Reichs book. I quickly learned that the Tempe in the books is not very much like the Temperance in the TV show, and I was woefully unprepared for the graphic descriptions of violent deaths that characterized the first 75 pages of the book. Perhaps the remaining pages feature similar accounts, but I don't intend to find out. I no longer feel the need to finish a book for the sake of finishing it.
I put down Reichs, grateful for having lost the ebay auction. I picked up Bliss and have been learning about happiness ever since. The book is making me want to travel even more than I already do (dangerous).
The near-constant rain that has been plaguing New England these past few weeks, on the other hand, is making me want to stay home and read, so I am glad that I am prepared for hours (days?) of this activity. Spring came early this year, and so, apparently, did the April showers.
While I wait for the rain to end, I'm sitting in our comfy armless leather chair, which during the winter months lives as close to the fireplace as I can get without actually sitting in the fire, devouring my books one at a time, listening to Jimmy Buffett and dreaming about the sunshine.
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