Samples

It’s been a while since my last entry. Crazy how time flies, and life changes in what on paper is only three little flips of a calendar. I’ve managed to read twenty-two books so far this year which is something like a book every three days. I’ve not taken out any loans or stolen any money to keep this habit functioning but as of late I have hit a bit of a road block. My hours at work have been cut, slashed, to a mere thirty-two per week. So, I have resorted to downloading free samples of books from B&N. If you’re not familiar with a free sample for the Nook, all it is, is usually the first thirty to forty pages of a book. When you subtract for the ‘acknowledgements’, ‘dedication’, etc,,, you’re left with usually twenty-five pages of the book; just enough to thoroughly suck you in and make you want to buy the whole thing. There’s even a little button at the top of the page that says ‘Buy Now’, just one little tap from your finger and the whole book could be yours! It’s just that easy, and just that much more difficult. My rational brain says ‘according to your budget, and projected income in the coming weeks you have three dollars to your name!’ But the addict in me says, ‘there’s twelve dollars in the coin jar at home, and there’s a Coinstar just around the corner at the CVS, maybe I could put it all on a CVS gift card then use that card to purchase a B&N gift card from the gift card tree in the store?’ Sigh – Why do I have to be a rational person? If I were truly an addict I would do whatever it takes to get my next fix, maybe even turn to prostitution! Alas, not an option. But a second (legitimate) job might be; I wonder if B&N is hiring? The point of this entry was to express my frustrations with book samples though. I can only equate it to being on the edge of an orgasm only to have someone knock on your door wholly interrupting what would have been the best ever orgasm of your life (alone or by yourself). And the book sellers know what they’re doing. They suck you in get you all comfortable with the main character, introduce a possible love interest, or antagonist, cut to the scene where a defining moment is about to take place, ““Very funny.” Adrian thought so. “So?” Sierra stared ahead, [End of Sample]”. COME ON, Chasing Love by Ronica Black! Forty-eight pages into it, but after the title page, synopsis, credits, ‘by the author’ and dedication, you’re really only thirty-three pages into the story. Thirty-three pages of “She was on the hunt” and “it pooled and pulsed behind her clit, causing that sweet, sharp ache in her loins.” Really!? You’re going to cut me off when the main character had hooked up with and was on her way to her house with a sure thing! You’re going to rob me of that scene! So not humanely right, but I’m sure it sells a lot of books. Just not to me, yet. And I’ve put myself through this torture with five other samples so far with two more in the wings. On the one hand I do appreciate the sample theory that at least I’m not buying a whole book that after the first ten pages is a total dud. But, I’m sampling books from a genre I love and adore! In the one hundred twenty-three books I’ve read so far there have only been six I’ve regretted (they didn’t offer any samples). The six that caused me to realize I was an addict, because otherwise why would I keep torturing myself with the series when I knew from the first book how horribly written it was. But I just had to know what next hurtle lay in the way for Catherine and Jace and the cast of characters surrounding them. I let myself look beyond the cut-off love scenes; I think the favorite words of the author’s were “and in the morning…” or “waking up in each others’ arms…” seriously? And, although it was filed under lesbian romance I kept reading when it became apparent that it was complete fantasy! Oh, and reading a sample did save me from buying a book written by an obviously limited author whose vocabulary could most closely be compared to the artful diction of Snookie. But, otherwise, sampling books from the lesbian romance genre for me is kind of like tying to only eat one Pringle, then shelving the can. Oh, I can do it, but you better believe I’m reaching for another Pringle from another can; did you know there are over a hundred and one flavors of Pringles worldwide? http://www.nowthatsnifty.com/2011/03/101-pringle-flavors-from-around-world.html Pringles be dammed, I will keep sampling, and I will keep groaning at the end of the sample in frustration but at least it’s giving me an idea of just how much money I’m going to need, maybe I can actually budget it in!? Way to go, Rational.

Confessions of an e-book junkie

I’ve never been a ‘reader’. Reading for pleasure never before occurred to me as something to do. Before this year, specifically January 24^th, you could have asked me what the last book I read had been and I would have answered “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows” but with this disclaimer ‘I didn’t personally read it, my wife read it out-loud to me and occasionally when her voice got tired I’d read to her’. There was a brief moment in time as a teenager when I tried to get into Stephen King: I was laid up with a dislocated knee so my aunt gave me a couple of his books, “Cujo” and “Misery”, I made it through Misery although the story and descriptions I could swear made my leg hurt worse! Then, half way through Cujo I was sitting by the window in my room reading it when, at a very intense part of the story when Cujo was attacking the car, our big black Lab decided he needed to jump up on my window and bark at me. After throwing the book across the room and screaming, I laughed hysterically at myself, but I never managed to finish the book; I was fifteen. I’m now thirty-five and I’ve just discovered an affinity for reading. Since 1/24/11 I have read sixty books (some twice but only counted once), yes mathematicians that works out to about eight and half books a month. It helped that I discovered a genre of writing that I thoroughly enjoy, Lesbian romance, erotica, and or suspense. Who knew there were even such things? I first stumbled across the genre while deciding what to spend my Barnes & Noble gift card on. I couldn’t tell you why my parent’s always got me a B&N gift card at Christmas, I’m sure my mother was hoping that I would use it to buy something to read, anything really, a magazine or maybe a cookbook; my parents love my cooking. But, in previous years I always spent the card on stuff like calendars or music, or I held on to it to buy gifts for other people. This year I couldn’t tell you what motivated me to actually want to buy a book, but I approached the purchase as I do anything else, I researched it. I Googled Lesbian romance authors and somehow I landed on the Bella Books website. Bella publishes nothing but lesbian authors and or lesbian stories. In perusing the Bella website I discovered the author Gerri Hill. When I went to the B&N website and saw that they had a couple of Gerri’s books I figured they must have them in store too. But, when I went to my local B&N store looking for these gay fiction novels, I searched for twenty minutes with no luck; finally I had to ask someone where to locate this particular genre. Why in the hell would B&N park gay and lesbian fiction under ‘Cultural Studies’? Anyway, I scooped up three of Gerri Hill’s novels, and I’ve never looked back. I proceeded to purchase the entire Gerri Hill library in paperback form from Bella Books. I started joking with my parents that it sure would be nice if the Easter bunny brought me a Nook for Easter. Low and behold the Easter bunny did bring me a Nook! And so began my e-book addiction. August marked for me a wake-up call after tracking one hundred and twenty dollars worth of e-book purchases I decided that I needed to impose a purchasing freeze on myself. Now I’m not to exceed one hundred dollars which is ten books from B&N.com. One hundred dollars is a lot, but come on, I’m not going to go cold-turkey; I figure I’ll cut back gradually, and maybe force myself to read slower. All I know is I need to do something because maxing out my credit card; which by the way, I had to take off my B&N account and give my debit card info (thinking this would temper my spending) but it only made the dire situation more evident when I realized that I needed to borrow money from my wife so I could make sure all the bills got covered! They say acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to recovery, “hello world, I have a reading problem!”