www.flickr.com
almadbren's items Go to almadbren's photostream

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Free Books

While digging through my purse looking for an insurance card, I discovered two Borders Books gift cards and a Walmart gift card.

Now, I am one of those non-Walmart people, I have not been inside a Walmart for quite some time - months, possibly a year. In an emergency only, is my relationship with Walmart, but my sister-in-laws always give me a gift card to Walmart for either birthdays or Mothers Day, and it sits in my wallet.

But Borders, now that is a different story - I love those huge bookstores. Some people might see Borders, Barnes & Noble and the like as kind of a book-Walmart, I know. We should be shopping at the small, local bookstores (and I do) instead of the box stores. We've all seen "You've Got Mail" - one of my favorites. Call it rationalization, but I don't see it as quite the same, plus I can go to Borders and head in one direction, send my kids in another direction, and get lost for hours surrounded by my favorite thing in the world - books while drinking good coffee and eating fattening yummy stuff. Yep, that's definitely rationalization.

So, here I am digging for the insurance card, which I never found, and come up with free money instead.

In my daily readings, I'm always coming across books that people suggest or book titles that grab my attention and that I don't want to forget, so I have a running list on my computer of books I'd like to read in the off-season. As this is definitely NOT my off-season, the list is getting quite large.

To remedy that, as soon as I found the gift cards, I immediately went to my computer to look up the list and see if there was a chance I had enough in gift cards to cover all my 'wanted' books. After adding it all up, I would only need to contribute $6.12, mostly due to the outrageous shipping costs.

Yesterday, I received 2 different shipments, one from Borders and one from Wallie-world. Today, I have this stack of 8 brand new (or lightly used) books that are all calling my name and pulling me away from my very busy world.

Weeds upon weeds need to be pulled, animals need to be fed, laundry needs to be done, lawn needs to be mowed, Fair projects need to be finished, vegetables need to be harvested and did I mention my mom is coming in tomorrow?

But here I sit, writing a blog post and knowing damn well when this post is done, I'm going to crack open Undiscovered, by Debra Winger and will pay the price of my procrastination tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Such lovely luck for you! Go read! The work will be there later!

I know, I can totally rationalize B&N in a way I refuse to do with Walmart.

*~*Cece*~* said...

I hate to sound ungrateful but I was sort of disappointed not to get any gift cards for my birthday b/c I LOVE to read and I'm running out of books!

I like the box book stores b/c they always have bargin books. And quite honestly, I don't know of ANY small book shops around here that aren't the large box shops!

Anonymous said...

You know? I've never made the connection between Walmart and B&N. So, I've closed my eyes, and pretended the I haven't see your post. And, I'll go to the library later. THAT is rationalization of the denial kind.

Mrs. G. said...

I just came home from the library, and I have nine books nestled beside me on the couch. Heaven!

Tara said...

To get nine books in the mail... it's Christmas in July! Enjoy your reading time.
And I'm with you on the WalMart/B&N thing. I wish we had some good locally owned booksellers. Nothing here but the big boxes. I use Paperback Swap and Half.com a lot, as well as the thrift store.

Madeline Rains said...

I so relate to this! "Sending my kids one way"... It is so true. We are all happy there. Debra Winger has a book?! I love her. I'll have to look that up.

Jodi Anderson said...

Oh, how truly awesome. I have not stepped into a Walmart for 3-4 years, and it's one of my proudest accomplishments. ;)