Friday, October 9, 2009

New Books Today.

I've been without a book for the last couple of days. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! I would have panicked if I hadn't been falling asleep.

So, this afternoon, I found myself near Lincoln Center and there's a perfectly good Barnes & Noble there, so...duh...I went in.

First thing: I've been to that bookstore more than a few times so I went straight up the escalators and headed toward the SciFi section. They've rearranged. I found myself in Religious Fiction. I can't decide if that was ironic or a case of "What's the dif?"

Then I discovered another problem. Things I want to read all came out at the same time.

-Emissary by Fiona McIntosh isn't new, but it's the next book in the series I started.
-I'd heard about Cherie Priest's Boneshaker and there it was...book number two into the cart.
-A new Terry Pratchett? Holy Shit! MUST HAVE. Unseen Academicals into the cart.
-And my super sekrit -- I'm obsessed with a romance series. Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone. Diana Gabaldon has finally published the next book in the Jaimie & Claire series...An Echo in the Bone. I don't think it's officially the Jaimie & Claire series, but that's what GF and I call them. Couldn't leave without it.

So, I make my way to the checkout with my 15 lbs. of 4 books and I get to the cashier and he wants to know if I have a B&N discount card. I say, "No". He asks, "Do I want one.?" I could SAVE MONEY if I got one. I say, "Don't I have to spend a fortune before I actually save the price of the discount card?" He says, "Uh...yeah, a bit more than you're buying here."

I didn't buy the discount card.

I think I'll read the Pratchett first.

6 comments:

ntsc said...

Unfortunately Pratchett got associated with my ex in a bad way and I can't read him anymore. Perhaps again when things have worn back down.

The B&N discount card is worth it if you spend $250 a year there (or online) or more. They don't need the card, the phone number is sufficient. This latter is also true of most grocery chain cards.

I used to be able to go into the Colosseum when it was still open and drop $60, so that card does save me some money, and with the phone # thing, my wife can use it as well.

Nathan said...

I know how it works but i just have an aversion, (possibly unreasonable), to letting them hold onto my money until I spend enough to rate an actual discount. If they really want to give me a discount, they can keep track of my purchases (like they don't already anyway), and just start the discount after I spend enough without making me pay for the privilege.

And your ex was fooling around with Terry Pratchett? That sucks! XD

WendyB_09 said...

That's the difference with the Borders card. There is no charge for Borders Rewards. They let me know when my favorite authors release new books.

Plus Borders is much easier to get to on the buses I frequent.

PS- Met Cherie Priest a couple years ago, cool chick. Need to read more of her work.

ntsc said...

You get the B&N discount at once, or at least I did, but needed to spend $250 for it to pay back. I do. No Borders near me.

My ex only would have liked to do Pratchett, she did manage Mike Seeger (Pete's brother) in college (I'm fairly certain of that one as she got in trouble for staying out past hours) and claimed to have done Boris.

Tom said...

Ntsc, as Nathan says, it doesn't matter if you get the discount immediately. Until you spend the $250, they are holding on to your money. Plus, I don't like the idea that they want me to pay them so I'll put them on my preferential bookstore list. I don't have a preferred bookstore. No bookstore I've found yet always has what I'm looking for. If there was such a thing, then I could go to that bookstore exclusively, and a discount might be worth it, once I unsubscribed from their spam list.

I spend a bunch on books, but very rarely enough at one specific chain to make the discount worthwhile. I have the Borders card, but haven't been to Borders for 6 months or so. I'm free to spread my book shopping around, without any guilt that I'm missing out on some miniscule discount. I save much more a year merely by paying of my credit card each month.

I guess I'm just a shopping curmugeon.

Nathan said...

I had a Borders card for a while, which, IIRC, had the benefit of being free. OTOH, their version of a "discount" seemed to consist of giving me a coupon with my receipt, that said if I spent another small fortune within 3 days, they'd give me 10% of that purchase.

Bah!