I think it's because it's getting close to Christmastime, but in the past 3 days I have had about a dozen people at work comment on my iPod and ask questions about it. Some are thinking of buying one for themselves, some for their kids...it's just weird. I've had Minnie on my desk every day for 6 months with nary a peep from anyone, and then there's this explosion of curiosity. Not that I mind, though...I love talking about my favorite toy.
Speaking of Christmas...I bought James Lileks's new book last week. Since I had loved the Interior Desecrations part of his website, I was thinking about getting the book for my dad's girlfriend. She's an interior designer, so I thought she would like it.
As much as it pains me to say it, the book disappointed me. The writing was good (as ever), but the scans aren't as clear in print as they were online, and the text was hard to read because of the busy/heavy design around it. I guess that was kind of the point--a book about the horrors of 70s decorating using the same unpleasant scheme as the designs themselves--but it didn't work for me. I read the whole thing, but I don't have any desire to read it again, or to give it as a gift. The Gallery of Regrettable Food was much better.
Speaking of books and disappointment, I signed up for booksfree.com a couple weeks ago. Even though they sent me emails saying that my books had shipped on November 12th, they still haven't arrived. I understand that you can't really control the speed of mail, but Amazon doesn't have any trouble getting me packages through USPS in less than a week. Neither does Netflix (though, they have a warehouse in town, so...). If I'm paying $13/month to have 4 books at a time, I'd really like to get a chance to read at least one of them before I get next month's bill. Maybe they'll be at the house when I get home today.
I know, I know...renting books online? I could get the same service from a public library for free. Here's the thing, though--I'm really, amazingly, embarrassingly bad at returning books to libraries. Several times, I've paid more in late fees on a library book than it would have cost to buy the damn thing in the first place. I'm pretty sure that if there were such a thing as library police, I would be one of their 10 most wanted. Reward posters in the lobby and everything. I'd have to go on the lam.
However, I'm also bad about giving/selling/throwing books away. I have piles of books that I'm never going to read again, but I feel weird just tossing them. So they sit and molder in boxes, or I end up buying shelves to house cheap 15-year-old paperback mystery novels. So I thought booksfree would be a good idea for me...I can read the books, and send them back whenever I feel like it.
Of course, right now, I feel like actually READING them, so I wish they would just GET here already.
Posted by Joy at November 23, 2004 03:04 PMI'm right there with you on the library's most wanted list! The last time I checked out books I returned them so late that I ended up owing $21 in late fees. It took me at least 5 years to finally go in and clear my record, but by the time I did that they couldn't locate my record at all, and so I never had to pay the $21. I still avoid checking out books though, even though I got a new library card.
Posted by: Kristi on November 23, 2004 06:41 PM