Thursday, January 12, 2012

Alas no Hanklerfish (but why they are good for bookstores)

So today my copy of The Fault In Our Stars came today.  WOOT.  EXCITEMENT.

Goat soap, made by John Green's mother in North Carolina also came in the mail today.  I feel like I have done my part to support the Green family this month.



Earlier this week (Wednesday, so not early enough) I went to Barnes and Noble THEN Books-A-Million to search for Hanklerfishes and Yetis.  No luck people!  The lady in the Lexington Barnes and Noble said they'd been picked over already.  That's why I had hope for my small town bookstore, but no such luck.  The Barnes and Noble in Lexington had black sharpie J scribbles, which in the grand scope of sharpies it's like the ugly middle child.  Books-A-Million had blue scribbles which I almost bought in fear that I had gotten a black scribble (I know I am a crazy person).

But you know what I realized as I was checking out in Barnes and Noble?  This, which wasn't meant to be a gimmick but just something cool that started because of the Nerdfighter Community, made me go out of my way to shop in book stores.  Why? It was like a scavenger hunt and who doesn't like looking for hidden treasure?  I did not buy The Fault and Our Stars because I had one that I pre-ordered one from Amazon.  But I bought another book, one I'd been intending to buy for months but hadn't gotten around to (and that I was debating between paper and e-book format)

So I concluded that Hanklerfishes and Yetis are good for bookstores.  I like e-books.  I'm don't think they are the end of the world, Mayan 2012 calendar doomsday type problem that most people think they are.  But I can't have a real signed e-book and I most certainly can't go scavenging around for Hanklerfishes in the Kindle store.  The search was fun, but fruitless and I hope bookstores saw a boom in business from Nerdfighters like me.


By the way, I got a GREEN J-scribble which was what I wanted (well if I couldn't have a hanklerfish or yeti I most definitely wanted a green signature).  So glad I waited and didn't settle for the blue sharpie book!

DFTBA friends!

2 comments:

Bookluvr Mindy said...

Wow! You got a signed copy? That's awesome!


Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
bookluvrmindy

veela-valoom said...

John signed the entire first printing (150,000 books I believe) so everyone who pre-ordered got a signed copy (you should see some of his vlogbrother videos about signing madness). Some stores still have signed copies. It's kind of a cool connected things, us all having these books that he spent the last so many months signing and signing and signing.