Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Adventures to the bookstores

Hi everyone!

Miss me? I've been on blogland, lurking around and commenting... but for some reasons, I just couldn't blog. Whenever I sat down to write a post, I didn't know what to write or how to spin it... then when finally something came to mind, well it was lack of time... but here I am, catching up on the whole week-end! :) So bear with me, this might be a tad long.

Let's start with my adventure to the bookstore. If you've been on Canadian blogs (Ames, Cindy, Kristie and Chantal are the ones that come to mind), you'll know that Chapters Indigo were holding a double discount week-end. That means we were saving 20% on all the books bought instead of 10%. Seriously, who can resist to such a sale? So although I went crazy last Monday, I still went and bought more books this week-end.

So my adventure started early on Saturday morning when I checked online for books availability in the bookstore. Again, since I bought so many books in the past week, I didn't have much that I needed/wanted to buy except for new releases. To my utter joy, two bookstores already had received the new releases coming out on June 1 and 3... unfortunately, those two bookstores aren't my favorite ones... So my two choices were Indigo downtown and Indigo Brossard.

Here's my quirk with both bookstores... I used to love Indigo downtown. It's two floors and it's big and spacious and the selection is quite good. Problem is, it's also very busy and I think, recently, under-staffed. So for the past couples of months, although they get the new releases in advance, it always takes a while before they shelve the books. You also get the same problem with Indigo Brossard, except that it's smaller and the selection... well sucks compared to downtown. Ironically, they're always the first bookstores to get the new releases... I don't understand that. So my plan was to go to Indigo Downtown... because although it takes a while for them to shelve the books, they usually put them on carts or in boxes... so at least, we can look for the books we want... as opposed to Indigo Brossard where they keep all their stuff in the backroom and you have to ask the clerks to look for it. Then, there's always the "I'm sorry, but the book is not released yet" excuse or the fact that they couldn't find a needle in a stack of hay if they tried.

Anyway, here was my list:

Damien by Jacquelyn Frank (May 27, many copies)
In Twilight's Shadow by Patti O'Shea (June 03, 3 copies)
Tall Tales & Wedding Veils by Jane Graves (June 01, 4 copies)
Moose by Stephanie Klein (May 27, 4 copies)
Night Keepers by Jessica Andersen (June 03, 5 copies)
Through the Veil by Shiloh Walker (June 03, 7 copies)
How to Knit a Wild Bikini by Christie Ridgway (June 03, 3 copies)

My plan was to go to Indigo Downtown after work at the Fathers' place (9pm).

Lesson no. 1: do not go to the bookstore at 9pm on Friday or a week-end night anymore. Not only was it raining, but it took me 20-30 minutes to find parking space. Ugh. Lucky for me though, the spot I got was a good one, but still... with gas price so high, the last thing you want to be doing is circling around in the dark with reduced visibility due to rain and people jay-walking, looking for a parking place.

By the time I made it to the bookstore, it was somewhere along 9.30pm... that meant I had 30 minutes left to find all the books I wanted and I knew, I would have to search for them, so I hurried. I looked at the table of new releases and guess what? Lover Enshrined was there. Unfortunately Lover Enshrined I wasn't looking for. Damien* was the first book I picked up.

*Sidenote: Damien is the last try I'm giving to The NightWalkers series... If this book is no good, I'm not picking them anymore... unless Noah is the last book of the series...

Then to my great joy, they've already put out Night Keepers by Jessica Andersen on the shelves! Wow, that was a pleasant surprise! However, that was it... So still 4 books to go and let see, 3 carts and 7 boxes on the floor. I have to say, the nice thing about going so late to the bookstore is that there's less people and less clerks. So when you search through the books, people don't look at you weirdly (other customers) or annoyingly (clerks). As to my habits, I went to the carts first. Those carts are always packed full! Skipped the places with hardcovers and trade-size paperbacks. Lift, pull out, push back... nothing... look at the boxes, guess that's my only option. Oh a box with ROMANCE on it... look into it and see a yellow cover... and yes, found How to Knit a Wild Bikini. Three to go now... look in the box next to it, voila Through The Veil! I'm on a lucky streak! and since I've looked through 2 boxes already, why be shy? So looked through the others, move some of the boxes so I could get a look at the ones under... however, seems like my luck ran out. I went through the carts again just in case... and found Fire Study. Although I owned it already, I didn't have any keepsafe copay of it, so I bought another one.

They announce that the store is closing in 15 minutes. I decided to ask the clerk if perhaps she's seen Tall Tales and Wedding Veils or In the Twilight's Shadow. I mean, both covers kind of stand out so perhaps, perhaps she's seen them... but it's useless. The clerk takes a look at the release dates for both and tells me she can't "look" or "give" them to me since they are not "released" yet. Hmmm, I do my best not to point at Lover Enshrined on the new release tables or at some of the books I'm holding myself... but ugh. On my way to the cash, I quickly remembered Moose... which was in the biography section.

So I went to pay. Cindy mentioned that she bought her books on Friday so didn't get the 20%; however, the cashier told her to bring back the receipt on the week-end so she could get the missing 10%... so I tried and ask the cashier if I could get the 10% on my purchase on Monday.... but no :(

So at the end, I went home and was quite exhausted... and while searching the carts, I broke my nail... so injured as well... and disappointed because I couldn't find Tall Tales and Wedding Veils and In the Twilight's Shadow... those were the two books I was really looking forward to... TT&WV because it sounds funny and that's what I'm in the mood for and ItTsS... well it's by Patti O'shea, one of my favorite authors...

Of course, I couldn't let it go and on Sunday morning, at 9.10 (this time, am), I called Indigo Brossard and asked them if they had the two books. Of course, I knew they had them... the real question was, could they find them? Well the answer: they found one, Tall Tales and Wedding Veils. Sigh. So I went and at the same time, I bought some travel books for a friend, but still no In the Twilight's Shadow... which I'm definitively going to buy today... cos then, there'll be no excuse!

So that was my week-end adventures to the bookstores ^_^;

by the way, here's an update on my To Do List:

1. organize all my books and clean up my chaotic room
2. sign up at the gym
3. return one of the cell phone
4. get a hair cut

I'm still not done with my room, but I did clear out a path from my bed to the door :P That's a beginning, LOL :) and I add the haircut... my hair is quite long now and it's annoying me.

Okie, well this post was long :P I'll stop here... Oh and we're already in June... so I should have my list of monthly reads up soon.
ps. Kris, they got the cellphone on Saturday :P So either way (date of shipping or date of delivery), I was okay :)