On the Shelf

Hit Waldenbooks on the way home tonight; spotted Marjorie M. Liu's new novel Shadow Touch up front mid-level on the new release wall and snagged it. Marjorie, you get the best damn cover art, I swear.

Lots of reprints and re-releases out; that seems to be standard for spring. Which is dumb, Publishing, because a lot of readers (like me) still have gift cards leftover from Christmas and we want to buy new stuff, not the retitleds/first chapter rewrittens/reprints by I'm Too Busy Giving Workshops at Paradise Cons and Hanging Out with My Fabulous Friends in the Tiki Bar To Write Anything New for You authors.

Found a Harlan Coben paperback I've been wanting to read -- Harlan rocks -- but after my last disastrous experiment with reading popular crime fiction (the offending superstar author shall remain nameless) I was hardly itching to give myself another migraine, so I skipped over to cruise Romance.

Located Minute by Minute, Jo Leigh's latest Blaze, and bought two copies as the girl on the cover art looks exactly like my baby sister. Vampire fiction is starting to flood the shelves the way romantic suspense and chick-lit have in years past. Came across an interesting little excerpt freebie book from St. Martin's for L.A. Banks' vampire novels parked on the new romance release shelf. Some nice bookseller had stocked the endcap with dark pink Waldenbooks printed shopping lists of all the new romances for the month as well as store bookmarks. Helpful stuff.

I like this particular Waldenbooks because they carry a lot of Ellora's Cave print novels. Today I found a bunch of Shiloh Walker's books there (always cool to see someone from the blogosphere in the store) and picked up her novel Mythe: Vampire to read.

Found another book by an author who has often irritated me in the past -- first time I've seen anything by this author in a store. Vague cover art, but nicely vague. Picked it up, skimmed the first ten pages, discovered the author's writing is just as annoying as the author. Possibly more so. Bought a copy and faced out the rest of the author's book anyway. Good for the soul, and I'm pretty sure my mom will like it. She's into (cough) long-winded, obnoxious writers.

Passed by the remainder table and had a look. I resist buying fiction remainders; I know they're more affordable and all but it bugs me to see them there, like abandoned dreams. If it's a hardcover and it tempts me, I'll go look for the paperback and buy that instead so the author gets something out of it. Yes, I'm an idiot. Anyway, found a version of the Apocrypha that I don't own, and picked up that one. Oddly I have no qualms about buying remaindered nonfiction or reference books. Shelf stock in those sections is really dicey; often the only time I find something good is when it hits the remainder table.

Grabbed a new Paperblanks journal as I finished one for January; rounded up the kids and finally checked out. Added the latest Magic Schoolbuses and some manga to the pile. The store clerk grinned at me. "My, you all like to read, don't you?"

That we do.