new 'stuff'
Monday, Jan. 03, 2005, 6:47 AM
Up early, to make the most of my last day off.
Good coffee, and lounging around the bedroom in my Pooh/Eeyore robe, reading blogs and watching my new DVD of "Greg the Bunny".
Said DVD, along with the cast album of "Avenue Q", and five 'new' books, being my Christmas gift to myself for 2005. The books?
- "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens
- "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens
- "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by Thomas Hardy
- "Lost in a Good Book" by Jasper Fforde
- "The Last Time They Met" by Anita Shreve
Seems like a lot of titles for one quick trip to the bookstore, but between in-store specials, remainders, and my member's discount...I paid $18.44 for the lot.
I was pretty excited to find the Hardy. I was looking for it a year ago (when Alan Bates died), and couldn't even find a copy in the library. I remember reading it back in the seventies after seeing Bates in the mini-series shown on public TV (probably "Masterpiece Theatre"). Even though I never read it again, it remained in the back of my mind as my favorite by Hardy. I'm re-reading it now, and I still feel that way.
The deal at B&N was this: A rack of classics, in paperback, priced from $4.95 to $7.95. (Priced by the pound, I'm afraid, but with books, it is ever thus.)Buy two, get a third of equal or lesser value free.
My dilemma was finding three that I actually wanted to read, but didn't already own. The Hardy, of course, but then two more. Hmmm. Well, you can't go wrong with Dickens, I guess. While I've read "A Tale...", it's been years, and I don't own a copy. And I've somehow missed "Hard Times" over the years.
So there we go. 2@ $4.95 each, with a third $4.95 value for free. The Fforde and the Shreve were snagged from the remainders stack, @$4.98 each. Then my member's card swipe took even more off. The full-price total would be $53.75, and I paid less than $20.00. I love books, I love bargains, and put the two together, baby...I'm in heaven.
As for "Greg" and "Avenue Q", I had to pay full BB brice. But come on...I was beginning to think I'd resort to Amazon for the cast album, so finding it in a store made me giddy. And I didn't even know G the B was OUT on DVD. Spouse found it and told me, and I snatched it from his hand like it was gonna get away.
We were both devoted fans of the show, and have watched our scratchy tape dubs numerous times since it was cancelled. And we've watched all thirteen episodes since Friday, some more than once. I still think it was hilarious, and should have been given more time to find it's audience. Fox sucks that way...they go way out on a limb to bring this kind of TV to people, then chicken out and cancel the shows.
Anyway, that's my lst of new media. I was considering the second SCTV box set, but at $80.00, it seemed extreme. I'll wait awhile, and try to get it cheaper like I did the first one.
This turned out to be one of those "all about my stuff" entries, but I'll probably post an actual life-related one later. I have some errands to run later, but I'm kinda planning on kicking back and taking it easy today. The weather is supposed to suck, and I just want to enjoy my solitude while Spouse is at work.
I love him, but we've spent a leeetle too much time together recently. And I've spent virtualy no ME-time since before Christmas. He was out of town right before, but I was so busy getting shit done that week, I didn't get to enjoy myself much.