Welcome to the new Millennium...I had my very first frappuccino today! Some time ago I received a B&N discount card as a gift. Since then I have kept renewing it each year, as I spend enough money (yes, scary) to make it worth my while. From time to time B&N sends out or emails coupons to card members. This week I received an "additional 15% off" coupon in the mail, which justified a trip to the bookstore today. Then yesterday I received a coupon for a free frappuccino. Bonus. You know of course they do these things on purpose. Frappuccinos are pretty good...now I am going to have to try every flavor they sell. So while I was wondering the store with my frappuccino--giving myself brain freeze, I had to decide which books to buy with my last gift card! My family very generously gives me gift cards to the bookstore for my birthday and Christmas. I managed to drag them out until June, but now they are all gone...so it will be back to the library for me. That is okay, as I managed to find plenty of books to keep me occupied all summer long.
First off...wander over to the mystery section. There is nothing in particular on my list, but I heard there is a new paperback edition out of Ruth Rendell's 13 Steps Down. I have heard good things, so into the basket this goes. Notice that there are several of Arthur Conan Doyle's mysteries. In the past I would not have even looked at them, but now that I have read him, I need to see what else there is to tempt me. A Study in Scarlet is his first published mystery. And I need to have some short stories, too; The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I thought this was a good selection, but just how many stories did he actually write. I think this might just be the tip of the iceberg! And did you click on the links? Did you see the covers to the paperback Modern Library editions? I love ML editions.
On my list I have written Mary Wollstonecraft. Unfortunately the only thing I can find is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, but since it is her most famous work I can easily start here. I know my library has her other works (particularly I want to read her travel narrative), as well as the Claire Tomalin biography. Actually both happen to be sitting on my desk at work, as I had a feeling I would find neither in the bookstore. I have been reading a variety of posts about her by other bloggers, and I am very intrigued by her. I have always been a bit afraid that her work would not be accessible to me, since it was written in the late 1700s. I am confident though that I can at least give it a good go--who knows, I might be happily surprised that it is not as difficult as I am imagining it to be.
I took a little peek at the travel section. I found none of the recommendations I was given, but my eye was caught by The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. I have seen this one mentioned as well out and about. I was quite happy with this find. It even has illustrations (a welcome thing in travel books--even if the photos are in B&W).
I was looking for a particular novel in the fiction section, The Observations by Jane Harris, but apparently it is too new for them to have it, as it was nowhere to be found. Instead I came away with, The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, and The Code of Love by Cheryl Sawyer. The Krauss book has gotten too many good reviews for me to ignore any longer, the Waugh book I look for every time I go to the bookstore--and finally they have a copy!, and the Sawyer book is pure impulse buy--historical fiction--don't know anything about it, but the cover grabbed me.
And now to the section that was the main impetus for this bookstore visit. I am a bit embarrassed to say that I had to ask where they kept their essays. I never go to this section, but I think this will change in the future! Hidden away in a corner of the store they only had a few shelves filled with essays, but I found what I was looking for. The Art of the Personal Essay by Philip Lopate was the book I decided that I would use my coupon on. As a matter of fact between my coupon and discount card, I essentially got this one for free. As tempting as it was to recall this at the library, I decided I wanted a copy of my own. It has a great introduction, a wonderful bibliography, and a wide variety of essays to refer to. I think it is well worth the money. Essays are my particular interest at the moment, so it was hard to choose. I found: Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree (which I just heard about this week), A Reading Diary by Alberto Manguel (subtitle: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books), and lastly E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel. I was particularly happy to discover the last title--perhaps this will help me be a more critical and appreciative reader.
Now I am off to go and peruse my books. I have to read the back and inside flaps, scan the pages, look at illustrations--surely I am not alone in this? And most importantly, I need to decide where to start reading...