So, Saturday, armed with a fistful of gift certificates and some parentally-donated Christmas Cash, I headed off to the local bookstores to do me a little book buyin'.
Because, you know, I don't have anywhere near enough books.*
My first stop was Books-A-Million, the poor man's Barnes & Noble and a store I rarely visit for just that reason (I'm a snob; sue me), but my co-worker Carolyn had given me four (!) gift cards meant for her and her kids saying she had neither the time nor inclination to use 'em. Oh well, her loss, my gain, and in less than ten minutes I settled on Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (because I'm LOVING The Fortress of Solitude) and Heart-Shaped Box by Joe "Stephen King's My Father But Don't Tell Anyone" Hill, which has been getting rave reviews in the horror community.**
A couple of oatmeal raisin cookies later and it was off to the more familiar stomping grounds of Barnes & Noble where I picked up A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, If You Liked School, You'll Love Work by Irvine Welsh, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology ed. by James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, books that look really interesting (your mileage may vary) and have been languishing on my Amazon.com wish list for far too long.
Bottom line: I have a comforting pile o' books to read in the coming weeks.
In other news, author Tony Ruggiero {Aliens and Satanic Creatures Wanted (Humans Need Not Apply)} is making an appearance Saturday, January 12 at one of my favorite local bookstores, Creatures 'n' Crooks, which means, I suppose, that I'll be adding a few more items to the aforementioned pile.
Science fiction/science fact fans will have noted that Wednesday was Isaac Asimov's birthday, but, sadly, for devotees of Historical Novels Which Do Not Suck, this was also the day George MacDonald Fraser, creator of the wonderfully slapstick and outrageously funny Flashman*** series, died (nice tribute here). I've been a fan ever since reading Playboy's serialization of Flashman At the Charge way back in (gasp!) 1973 (and, no, I didn't buy Playboy for the articles, but I read 'em anyway), so I'm pretty much sad and nostalgic in equal parts.
By the way, I finished Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants the other day and in one of those...interesting (interesting to me, at least) coincidences, finished it on January 4th. "So, what?" I hear you thinking. "What's interesting about that?" Well, as you might have guessed from the title a crucial plot element revolves around a circus elephant named Rosie who, the author notes, is a composite of a number of real-life circus elephants including the notorious Topsy, responsible for the deaths of three men within three years (though, as far as I'm concerned, for good reason). Topsy was deemed dangerous and in 1903 was killed by electrocution at the (self-serving****) suggestion of Thomas Edison, who also filmed the event. The date? January 4th.
* There are those who claim my book hoarding is merely an attempt to create a gravitational locus strong enough to shift the earth's orbit in such a way as to end global warming. I only wish my motives were that honorable.
** Horror novels are strict adherents to Sturgeon's Law--90% of 'em are pure, unadulterated crap--and having wasted far too much money on what aren't even polished turds (*cough* Dean Koontz *cough*) I'm leery of anything not first recommended to me by people whose opinions I respect. In this case, however, the reviews have been so strongly positive I was more than willing to risk someone else's money.
*** You've got to love a character who freely admits his only talents are horsemanship, languages, fornication, and cricket!
**** Edison was pimping... uh... extolling the virtues of DC current and warning of the dangers of rival George Westinghouse's AC system. See Jan. 4. 1903: Edison Fries An Elephant to Prove His Point.
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