The Only Major Problem With Going to a Bookseller’s Convention
Posted on October 1, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 16 Comments
My right shoulder is, like, incredibly sore from hauling around huge bags of free books.
Pity me, won’t you? Thank you.
Fortunately I brought my minivan with me so I was able to get them all home. But I suspect the minivan got five miles to a gallon on the way back. These are the sacrifices we make for books.
Aw, you have it so bad. If you like, I can haul away some of thos free books so they don’t distract you so much!
er.. That was those, not thos. (Note to self: Must proofread).
Can we edit our comments with your new system?
Managed to delete my previous comment by trying to comment again. WP said that it was a duplicate, and removed both I think.
But since you’re having such a hard time… I will selflessly volunteer to haul away some of those heavy free books. Wouldn’t want them to distract you from Zoey’s Tale.
You didn’t delete your previous comments; they’re there for all to see. Or at least, I see them.
As far as I know you can’t edit your comments. However, I can edit mine. Go me!
thus do the empowered trod on the underprivileged . . .
If you want to be able to edit your comments, the Whateveresque provides that most excellent functionality. :)
But, does WordPress offer a function to allow us to preview our comments?
I saw your comments on driving in in Chicago (on By The Way); I could have told you that. You should have come to Columbus instead. We would have loved to have had you at Context.
I see it!! I see the database error!! Oh, wait, that’s a bad thing. Weren’t we all kind of expecting the technology to be way past this sort of thing already?
And not just WP having these sorts of problems, but the vast stupidity of revealing information like table names and other hacker-helpful stuff when you do throw an error — I thought we “got” not to do that already. I suppose not, though.
Hey, I thought we were calling it
RAWKTOBERATION!!!
on account of how the Red Sox are kicking ass.
Can I get a hell yeah from the Nation?!
> Can I get a hell yeah from the Nation?!
I’ll be the first one to let out a big hoot, but we have to wait until the Yankees go down first (otherwise we might jinx ourselves).
Ha ha. Well, every year I spend around $150 to ship home all my free books from BookExpo.
I’m just happy that it’s in my neighborhood next year.
So, what were the best books in the list?
I never turn down free books, but I think the shelves are beginning to bend from the strain. I’m sure I can get a few more in there.
Just checking something. You can feel free to ignore this comment; I’m likely to delete it quickly in any event.
I bet your shoulder hurting took your mind off of about how much your diamond shoes pinch. :)
Well, I had ALMOST as much fun – I went to the big San Francisco Public Library sale. On dollar day. Seeing as how they charged me $101, I’m guessing I got approximately 101 books. (I know how I am at these things. I brought a dolly and empty boxes. No sore shoulders for me.)
Favorite serendipitous finds: three plays by Vaclav Havel (including Largo Desolato, translation by Tom Stoppard), and The Areas of My Expertise.
I love the library book sale.
Well, what you need is one of those little mini shopping cart dollys— approximately the size of a dolly, but with a wire basket instead of a flat piece of metal. Very useful and draggable like a rolling suitcase.
When I worked at a bookstore, our general manager would pick a book (generally by Christopher Moore) that was coming out, and put up a sheet, and then he’d pick up as many spare copies of that book as he could manage for the staff. Because some foolish people would leave their free copies behind on their seats, and well, free book…
Handtrucks are your friend… that or a good wheelbarrow