Of course, now we are packing and realize that we will have to pay the $90 overage fee if we don't do something. So we buy a $35 extra bag to carry on, thinking we can put our smaller bag inside it. However the hardback books the library sold us for almost nothing weight about 2 pounds each so now we decide we need to mail some of them. So we have to buy boxes and pay freight and figure the $90 would have about covered all of it. And this doesn't include the six or seven we read and passed on to a friend here.
Why do we buy books on vacations when we know we can get the same books at home? We are sick people. This is what a kindle is for.
17 comments:
Ah, but the key phrase is "when we know we can get the same books at home." When we visited the U.K. the books I picked up (huzzah for Hey-on-Wye and the Waterstone's Piccadilly) were not available in the US. I did take my Kindle with me to leave room for anticipated purchases which got me raised eyebrows when clearing customs.
oooh, so you are on vacation.
I always worry I "can't" get them at home. Or something insane like that.
Patti - Welcome to the Dark Side ;-).
We're pretty much all sick people here, Patti.
If I see a used bookstore, I am in like Flynn and nothing can stop me from buying a book. And a library sale is like coke to an addict.
"Hi, I'm Patti and I'm a bookaholic."
So far we've managed not to buy any books down here (not counting the three paperbacks I picked up on the way down), mainly by staying out of used bookstores and bringing two bags of books to read while we're here. (So far Jackie has read 4 and I've read 8.)
SInce we have our car it isn't that bad anyway, but how we're going to fit in all the clothes and shoes Jackie has bought is a real question.
Jeff M.
PS - In the past we've done the same in England - bought a smallish bag to fit in all the books we had bought and needed to carry home.
I never buy clothes on vacation but also am prone to pick up hats and shoes. And collect seashells.
Phil's on his fifth book. I am on two but I discarded on after 250 pages.
I am wondering if Hay on Wye is still going strong and Waterstones too. How is the book business in UK.?
We're all the same, Patti. For years I was incapable of walking past a bookstore without stopping in. It didn't matter if I had any money on me. I HAD to stop.
Chris is right. We're all sick here and people who aren't this kind of addict just don't get it.
I've said it before, but I've had more than one person tell me they haven't read a book since they got out of school like it was something to be proud of. They look at my library like there's something wrong with me. "You've read all these?"
Well, no. But I intend to. You know how it is. It's just hard to pass up a good find.
It's because you WANT that book right now even if you aren't going to read it. In the past I have shipped as many as three boxes full of books from Florida back to Canada, but last spring I got by with one. Plus the books I had in my one large suitcase and my backpack. I'm already planning which library sales and used bookstores to visit next month. When I go to England I always visit Yorkshire first where the best place to find books is the thrift shops. Unless I find a book I really want, I buy ones to read and leave them with friends. I usually have a day in London to book shop and I limit my purchases to books I can squeeze into my luggage before flying home. That's much easier now that my two favorite stores on Charing Cross Road, Murder One and Sports Pages, have fallen victim to the Internet and rent increases. Waterstones still was busy last summer when I was there. As for Hay-on-Wye, I made my only trip there a few years ago. Travelled by train and bus from Yorkshire and stayed overnight. My luggage was my backpack and I kept my promise to myself was to only buy books I could carry in it. Did see plenty more that I would wanted. The hunt in real time is much better than buying online.
I try to stick with buying one book that is related to where I'm vacationing, like an Alice Hoffman novel in Martha's Vineyard, or a Will James book in Lewiston, Montana.
I've been to Hay many times. It's worth seeing because there are literally bookstores everywhere you look, and no matter how bad one or two might be you're bound to find something somewhere.
Like Kent I've found a lot of cheap books (especially paperbacks) in Yorkshire. There are other places in the Northeast (like North SHields, for one) and Edinburgh, to name two, but things are definitely not like they were 20 years ago.
Jeff M.
I feel a lot better after seeing my weakness is shared. I almost wish I had bought more.
But you're on vacation, so you have time to shop and browse and mull over them. If you didn't buy them on vacation when would you buy them?
I remember you doing pretty well in the St. Catherine's BOOK DEPOT, Patti.
Yes, this is what a Kindle is for.
Yet, whenever I am near a British second-hand bookshop, seeing all those books from my wishlist for one pound ...
And I *can´t* get them at home - unless I want to pay a couple of pounds for the shipping.
Post a Comment