So, the hubby and I are on a self-imposed book buying budget. So, on the budget for this month was to buy The Last Olympian in Paperback, and Naomi Novik’ s newest novel Tongue of Serpents. So, we went to our lovely Barnes and Noble, and searched around.
First, off the store was quite confusing as the staff was reorganizing book shelves for back to school displays. So, I finally found where I wanted to be, and there were no Last Olympians in paperback. There should be a huge stack of them, but no, they were not there.
I meet up with the hubby. No luck finding Tongue of Serpents. So I ask the customer service desk if they had these two books. The results of the interrogation were not very heartening.
The Last Olympian is not slated to come out in paperback until Jan 2011. Seriously?! This book was published in May 2009. That is like two years people, two years that I’ve been waiting to buy and read this book in paperback. I swear it was another Barnes and Noble worker THIS MAY that told me this book was going to come out MID JULY. What happened? Was the printing delayed for some reason?
So yeah, I should just get over myself and buy the hardback, but that would ruin our collection! I have to buy a series all in hardback or all in paperback or else it looks stupid on your book shelf. This is a nerdy obsession I realize and not entirely rational, but the hubby agrees and so we will persist in waiting for it to come out in paperback before we shell out the cash. I can wait 6 more months! Arggg!
So, this experience leads up to Tongue of Serpents. The customer service guy was really nice and a good sport, and showed us that is was on a special display table of new releases. (note: I was very nice and polite to him. I did not rant at him as I am ranting in this post.) Guess what? To our horror it was in HARDBACK! WHAT?!
Every single other book in the series (five books, people, five books!) came out in paperback, and now on the sixth book the publisher decides to publish in hardback? What? NOOOO! We are thwarted again. We can’t just buy a hardback when all the other books in the series we own are in paperback. That just won’t do. So, I basically just laughed about our bad luck and told the customer service guy thanks. He went his merry way, and we searched for some other books to buy, but we are a picky lot and get pickier as each year goes by, and so we did not buy any books.
Hear that? We went to Barnes and Noble to buy books and didn’t buy anything! It was a very sad day for us book nerds. Alas, we will wait a year to read and buy Novik’s book. We are still loyal fans, but we must have our lovely Temeraire books in paperback.
3 comments:
Oh no! That's horrible! Hehe, and pretty funny. I guess that's what happens when they make a movie of your book--you keep it in hardback for as long as you can milk it. Don't know what's up with Novik's books, though.
I am exactly the same way. I can't bring myself to purchase a hardcover if I have the rest in paperback. I'm actually a hardback freak, and most of my books are hardcovers, so I would never buy a paperback if I had the rest in hardcover. I hope you find a book to buy soon! Oh how I love buying books. :D
Yeah, I don't buy series book in hardback unless I really like the author. I almost look at like a financial investment. If I buy this book in hardback, I have to buy all the the rest in hardback. If there are say 7 books that is significantly more money than say 7 books in paperback. Sometimes it is worth it though. I got Leviathan by Westerfeld in hardback and it was worth every penny, and I plan to buy all the other books in the series in hardback.
I have heard that authors make more money on hardbacks though. So maybe I should be happy for Novik instead of distraught. It is probably a sign that she is selling well and making her publisher money that they invested enough to put her book out in hardback.
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