Shopping

I did some spontaneous book buying today which is always fun and I ended up surprising myself quite a bit.

I started in a Barnes and Noble then remembered I'm broke and left rather quickly going down the road to my favorite used book store.  The Books for Less at Mall of Georgia is still my favorite location but the second store in Alpharetta is growing on me.

I didn't have anything in mind to buy but by the time I was done it was rather clear that I wanted comfort food reading material, which for me means fantasy.  I've sucked at picking fantasy literature that I can actually get through and enjoy for about five years now, but that hasn't stopped me from trying.

Melanie Rawn is a name I've read in passing for a while so I saw her name on a shelf and reached for a book at random.  What I pulled down was The Dragon's Touchstone by Irene Radford.  I feel that choice is destined to be serendipitous.  What's more is I read twenty pages and never once cringed; so I'm hoping for good things.  Reaching a second time for Rawn I pulled down Dragon Prince.  Both of these books have covers that are the most awesomely 80's style fantasy art ever.  The Dragon's Touchstone has a bunch of dudes fighting in armor and two wizards hurling green fire-smoke at each other and a dragon.  It's possible that there has never been more testosterone on a book cover than this.  Dragon Prince is no less awesome but a bit more cliched.  There are two dragons standing up have a Godzilla-esque slap fight in the background and in the front is a white dude with a sword that kinda looks like John Tesh.  For reasons unknown to me he doesn't have a shirt on.  He's also got this hot chick draped all over him who is wearing a nighty.  It's a mash-up cover of a bodice ripper/fantasy.  (Which is the embodiment of what everyone whats to read whether they admit it or not.)  With covers like that they have to be good, right?

More happy happenstance lead me to Litany of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe; even better, it's the Guild American edition that matches my copy of Epiphany of the Long Sun.  Nothing beats finding a matching set in a used book store.  Now that I have the first two books in the series I can actually--you know...--start reading.

I got Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke because I loved Inkheart so much.  Even if the second book in the series stalled a bit for me I have to read this one.

The only real impulse buy was How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas Foster.  Why?  Because it was on the checkout counter when I was ready to go and it was two dollars...  Aside from the fact that I don't really read non fiction, this sounds like the most boring, killjoy book ever.  Don't be surprised if I never read this one.