Okay, I hate spending money I don't have to, so a remainders outlet like Foozles is the next best thing to the public library. Which I use heavily.*
Still, for someone with literary ambitions,** a store like Foozles can really make you wonder why you ever thought you had something to add to the world of letters. You can rationalize, though: the publishing houses are putting this stuff out there and people are zoning out to American Idol and Extreme Makeover instead.
Or you can look at some examples and say, maybe if they didn't publish such crapola, people would buy their books.
But here we have a hardback I bought for $7 minus a 40% going-out-of-business discount. What? $4.20 plus tax, down from $24.95. But it's worse than that: this is an autographed copy (as the sticker on the cover exclaims).
I haven't read any Kent Nelson yet, this will be my first, but for a guy who's published a half dozen novels to stop in at some Borders or B&N store to sign stock, then have it still get remaindered as unsailable...damn.
*By heavily, I mean: I've been frustrated at times when the system won't let me request more items because I already have forty holds placed (their idea of a reasonable limit); See also the ten ILL limit (now a 'total,' a step backward from when they'd process up to ten a day, a restriction I think was aimed personally at moi); most of the people who work at the library go to the hold shelf when I walk through the door, knowing me on a first name basis (including the ones I haven't asked out).
**I haven't worked on my novel in a meaningful way in over a year. I still have my moments, like when I hear of seven smash-and-grab robberies in my town that echo the setup of my suburban crime sendup, I think of getting back to it. And of other ideas I've kicked around, including the scandalous memoir of my career in yellow journalism, my numerous half-baked short stories, etc.
Still, for someone with literary ambitions,** a store like Foozles can really make you wonder why you ever thought you had something to add to the world of letters. You can rationalize, though: the publishing houses are putting this stuff out there and people are zoning out to American Idol and Extreme Makeover instead.
Or you can look at some examples and say, maybe if they didn't publish such crapola, people would buy their books.
But here we have a hardback I bought for $7 minus a 40% going-out-of-business discount. What? $4.20 plus tax, down from $24.95. But it's worse than that: this is an autographed copy (as the sticker on the cover exclaims).
I haven't read any Kent Nelson yet, this will be my first, but for a guy who's published a half dozen novels to stop in at some Borders or B&N store to sign stock, then have it still get remaindered as unsailable...damn.
*By heavily, I mean: I've been frustrated at times when the system won't let me request more items because I already have forty holds placed (their idea of a reasonable limit); See also the ten ILL limit (now a 'total,' a step backward from when they'd process up to ten a day, a restriction I think was aimed personally at moi); most of the people who work at the library go to the hold shelf when I walk through the door, knowing me on a first name basis (including the ones I haven't asked out).
**I haven't worked on my novel in a meaningful way in over a year. I still have my moments, like when I hear of seven smash-and-grab robberies in my town that echo the setup of my suburban crime sendup, I think of getting back to it. And of other ideas I've kicked around, including the scandalous memoir of my career in yellow journalism, my numerous half-baked short stories, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment