Is it just me or are there some very similar covers out there right now? And this is just a sample…
This group I’ve entitled, ‘Bareback’
This pair ‘The Mysterious Allure of the Knee’
These two are ‘Green Dress Hussies’
And finally these…I’ve found no covers that even closely resemble these, so these are dubbed simply, ‘Mold Breakers’
I recently took my boys to Half-Price Books, thinking that maybe they’d find some dog-eared chapter books to get into, maybe start a collection, and not have to return so quickly to the library. Well, they didn’t. My older son was completely worried that if he picked something, he’d have to read it the second he got home, and since he was hoping, really hoping, to play video games instead, he couldn’t see past the idea that a book might be barring the way. (Nevermind that I’d already explained that the two events–purchasing a book and playing video games–were mutually exclusive.) The little one found a book quickly and was completely satisfied, so I decided to look around a bit for myself.
Half-Price Books isn’t really my thing. I think the concept is great, but I’m the type who when I discover a book I have to read, locate a borrowable version via my array of library cards or buy it myself on Amazon, at Target, or at an actual bookstore. So…by the time it reaches HPB, I’ve already read it or else I wasn’t too enthused to begin with. I did find a copy of Anne of Green Gables, which I still somehow haven’t read, and snapped it up, making it available now as a spur-of-the-moment read. Then, being entranced by Libba Bray’s Gemma Doyle trilogy, I looked for the third book in the series. When I didn’t find it in the YA section of the bookstore, I wandered over to adult fiction.
There I stumbled upon a older, bearded individual (a man, in case you’re wondering) shelving books. He asked me if I was looking for anything specific, and darn if I shouldn’t have listened to that internal voice that says, ‘Just keep your head down and find it yourself.’ But I didn’t. I told him what I was looking for, indicated the book was really a YA but that it was also a cross-over book, meaning maybe its popularity had pushed it into being considered as adult fiction as well.
His response:
‘We don’t let books cross-over.’
My comeback:
‘So if you had it, it would have been in the Young Adult section, huh?’
His:
‘Yep. But you know you can read adult books now?’
Huh? I’m not sure whether he was trying to be helpful or trying to not-so-subtly let me know that I’m too old to read YA. Either way, I wasn’t pleased.
It’ll probably be awhile before we head back to Half-Price Books. Maybe after I’ve finished with Anne. Maybe she’ll inspire me to a more snappy comeback if it should be required.
On our roadtrip to San Antonio a couple of months ago, we were flagged down by a passing SUV with the news that we had a flat tire. Well my husband pulled off the road to examine it but, preferring not to engage in any actually work while on the ROW, we continued slowly on to the next truck stop. As my husband filled the tire with air, it started to buckle and warp, and I, standing riveted, was told to step back. Seconds later it blew, all over the occupied Jeep parked next to us. Turns out we’d run over a nail–a first for me, and we got the tire replaced the next morning in San Antonio.
I know, good story, right? I do have a point…
So now, as another roadtrip looms on our scheduling horizon, my husband yesterday discovered that I had another nail lodged in the same tire–the new tire!! Two months, two nails. What are the odds of that? For now at least it’s taken care of, but I have to wonder where it is I’m driving that these daredevil nails are just jumping right out in front of me…
If I were on the ball for My Town Monday, I’d have taken a picture at Discount Tire this morning. But alas, I was unprepared for Monday once again.