Thursday, January 12, 2006

chapters -- what a nifty store. . .

I love Chapters. I get in there and no fooling, I'm like a kid in a candy store! I have a membership card which gives me sweet deals every time i shop. I look for the discounts, 20%, 30%, sometimes even up to 80%!!!! I go with a list, which i compile as i read or talk to people. I love to read the 'picks and pans' in People magazine. I get lots of my reading recommendations there. I do admit to sometimes buying Oprah, i don't really like doing something that everyone else does. . it makes me feel like a sheep in a pen just baaaing along with the crowd, following wherever they all go. .blah. She does have some good book recommendations, again I don't like that 'sheepish feeling i get if i do that!

Last night Robbie and I went to Old Navy to use our gift cards from KK!!! we each bought a nice, cheap shirt. . and then my ever-tolerant man (who's not a big reader) took me to Chapters to use the gift card he gave me. . It was great. . I looked at EVERYTHING. I had my list: Kenyon, Didion, Cunningham, Robertson and more. . but the only one i got from the list was "Franny and Zooey" by Salinger. I got it for $7!!! Couldn't find anything else.

I also got 2 others. . great discounts. .
1. The Kite Runner - Hosseini
2. Shake Hands with the Devil -- The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda -- Dallaire

I'm sure everyone has their fave types of books. . . for different reasons. Classics, cult classics, romance, mystery. . I like lots, but here are some i don't. . .

Bodice rippers. They all have cover pictures of either "Blond Fabio" or "Dark-haired Fabio", wearing a white, open shirt - displaying his 6 pack and permatan and he's always savagely embracing a breathless-looking, Pantene shampoo commercial chick. Ptooey!!! what crap!!!

Autobiographies, biographies . . I don't know why, but I don't like them?!!! And what did i just buy? An autobiography!!!! I'm such a hypocrite. . As a rule i avoid them. . but this one has such a compelling subject. Rob said "Oh, you're gonna get mad when you read this. . " Yeah, I will and I'll probably cry and feel an impotent rage. . but this story. . its won a Governor General's Award and the Writers' Trust Shaugnessy Cohen Prize!! So, I had to get it. Two awards, 20% off, Canadian soldier, heartbreaking story. .

Alphabetical Mysteries -- A is for Axe Murderer. . B is for Blood. . C is for crap!!!

People and their clever animal sidekick mysteries -- Rita Mae Brown and "Sneaky Pie Brown". . i've read a couple of hers. . oh, what a clever feline. . cat solves the crimes and the owner takes the credit. AS IF!!!

Horror shlock books -- Koontz for example. . positively barbaric stuff coming from that man's pen. *shudder* Absolutely hate that style. . don't touch those now. Now I do think that King is a really adept story teller. . chillingly adept. When I was a teenager I read one of his earliest novels. . I can't even remember the title. I was reading it in bed one night. . HELLO? What was i thinking?! I read c chapter entitled. . The Bogeyman. . . I finished it in a cold sweat. . . I shouldn't have. I took the book and hid it in the top shelf of my wardrobe!!! and turned off the light. . I tried to sleep. . I was shuddering with fear. Sleep would not come to me. . I felt stupid. . it was only a story. . but what a story. I finally had to retrieve the book from my wardrobe. . I took it through the living room, into the front room closet and hid it on the top shelf. I don't know what i was thinking this would accomplish? But I wanted to get it as far away from me as I could!!! I STILL couldn't sleep!!! I think i gave that book away. . though it stayed in the front hall closet for eons. . I couldn't handle it!!!! BAH, WHAT A WUSS!

Books I like? well written ones!!!

Anyway, my keyboard batteries are low and i don't want to lose this!!! So, I'll let you know about these books. . I've already started "Shake Hands with the Devil". . . must get some more reading done before bed. I wonder if i'll have to take this book and put it a closet?! Scary.

19 comments:

kathryn said...

yes, that's it! I can still see the cover. . creepy. . the bandaged hand, covered with eyes!!! i'm having a fear flashback!

I guess you're right about Oprah's Book Club. . i was going to go out to buy the book "A Million Little Pieces". .after seeing her interview the author on her show. I think that's the title? but it seemed too depressing - so i didn't! *yeah, like the slaughter of 800,00 Rwandese isn't difficult to read?!* I contradict myself all the time!!!

Back Roads, eh? Well, i must read it now! Do you have it for me to borrow? or did you check it out of the library? I think Emmsy's reading that now?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you can borrow Backroads if you want! Is blogger making you enter your password and username now? That's what happening to me, and I can't remember my password so I got blogger to e-mail my password to me and then, I realized that I can't access my e-mail anymore because our MSN access is totally defunct these days, so I had to post the comment as 'other'! What is going on with this stupid computer! AAARRGGHH!

kathryn said...

msn is linked with sympatico. . I would call sympatico tech support to find out about your MSN probs! If not them, maybe they could tell you who to contact? You've been having a terrible time with all this!!! No blogger isn't making me do that . . Call them . . maybe they can talk you through something on the phone.

I'd love to borrow that one. . once i get these done!!!

Kevin said...

keyboard batteries?? I'm guessing you must have a wireless keyboard.. that's kind of cool. It could be more portable.

I used to work at Indigo (which owns Chapters). The worst part of the job was probably shelving those romance novels, the women's magazines (often with titles like "how to wow your man in 10 different ways"), and noticing the middle-aged men who browsed the photography and sexuality sections because we sometimes had books with nudity in them.

I was there for the big Harry Potter launch (not the latest book but the one before it). THat was so fun. There were tons of kids dressed up, and we opened the doors at 12 am. :)


I agree regarding biographies... for some reason I can't get into them either.

~Kev

Tee/Tracy said...

Amazing! I never thought I'd meet someone who hates all the same books as me! LOL. Great list... I actually like biographies/autobiographies - but I'm very picky about which ones. I usually like ones about people from a different culture. I just love cultures so much. I like to see what it's like to live other people's lives.
I thought I was weird for not liking all the popular mystery/horror/romance books. I don't know how people eat that all up. I can't do it.

Maybe you would like some of my favorite books. We should exchange book lists. We must have the same taste - what other books are left?! LOL.

BTW - don't feel bad about the Oprah magazine purchase. I also have a love/hate relationship with Oprah. Some of it is so good - and yet there is something I don't like about her.

emmsy said...

Back Roads? No, never heard off... I'm currently reading 'Captivating', 'Black Gold: A Dark History of Coffee' and 'Imagining Numbers: Particlarly the Square Root of Minus Fifteen'... so me books.
I havent read very many biographies, but im not sure if thats because I dont like them or I just havent bothered! Kathryn, the one your reading now about Rwanda sounds interesting, I may go get it out.

kathryn said...

Kev. . your insights as a former Indigo worker are hilarious! men!!! When I'm there i see all the men in the porn magazine aisle!!! its kind of alarming. . then again some of the guys are looking at sports mags and popular science, etc. I think that i would love to work in a book store. . but then again, i think that i would love to scoop ice cream for a living too!!! just cuz then i'd get to talk to people!

Tee. . you are such a cool chick! I think we should exchange book lists!! I'll write one up. . you too! Reading about other cultures is so interesting, you're right. As for why people read what they read? I'm just glad that people still read! but some of the stuff out there. . blech. . lot of 'writers' just making a buck i guess. . pulp fiction, eh? I want to get my hands on "The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion. . its sold out currently. . i'm waiting.

Emma. . i did mistake one of your titles. . probably the "Black Gold" coffee one!!! ha ha! Well, i'm getting in to the Rwanda book. . covering Lieut General Dallaire's life story up until the posting to Rwanda. . its really good so far

Bonita said...

Just peeking in here, Kathrine, on my way from Gangdahar, and I got caught up in your delightful banter. Book reviews are always good - and I wish you good reading.

Bonita said...

Actually, from Sadiq's blog - both are great! Too much blog surfing there.

kathryn said...

hey, Bonita! Welcome!!! I'm glad you dropped in and left a couple of comments. I'm really enjoying that first book. I'll make a visit to your blog! Yeah, I really like Sadiq's blogs. .

Denise said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Denise said...

I'm nuts! I just deleted my own comment!!!
Here I go again...
I wouldn't mind reading the one by Dellaire. It would be interesting to know what his perspective on things in Rwanda was. He has a tough role to fill.

I love Bookstores!!! I can't afford to go into them, but I love them!

kathryn said...

i'm getting into it now. . been reading Dallaire's history, I'm revisiting a lot of our nation's history - things that were a bit unclear to me as a child. . he highlights it and enriches my understanding of and the reasons behind the francophone/anglophone animosity in this country. . that makes me sad. I also had no idea that Old Quebec City is the oldest settlement in North America!!! I'd know it was old, but not that it was the original continental settlement. As for books being too much $$$, Dee. . used book stores are great! You can get many of the old classics and even some newer books that people just get rid of. I've even picked up books at Value Village! You could even do a book exchange with friends who have books they never read and wouldn't mind swapping.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Quebec is very old! There were other short-lived attempts at colonization by European explorers throughout the Maritimes, but the harsh winters proved too much for them and they never stuck.

kathryn said...

so interesting. . i think the date in the book is 1608. .

Unknown said...

The Kite Runner is my next read. I just got off an Amish kick. I read a bunch of fiction and non-fiction books about Amish culture. It was very interesting.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Unknown said...

Hey! Miss talking to you! I haven't been on lately, but I promise to lurk/comment more, I swear!!

As for the books, you sound like me with the exception of the horror books. I actually like most of them myself. I'm a Stephen King fan myself. Right now, I'm reading "Everything's Eventual". I've only read one short story out of it, but it gave me the chills!

kathryn said...

Hey Carri!

Thanx for the King title. . i haven't read that one. . I wonder if my oldest daughter has? She's a fan of his. .

kathryn said...

thanx also, deputyswife!!! thanx for visiting. . I am looking forward to starting Kite Runner. . i'm halfway through the Rwanda book