VISIT THE CAFE FOR 1 FREE TALL STARBUCKS BREWED HOT OR ICED COFFEE!!!
Is this Barnes and Noble coupon the most exciting thing that has happened in months? You would think so. I went to Barnes and Noble to buy a book, and though I suppose I should have quarantined it when I got home, I did not. And the coupon fell out! (The whimsical laws of “quarantined”objects in my home differ from those of the super-hygenic humans.)
For years B&N has given me coupons for a free cookie–perhaps you have to buy a cookie first; I don’t know.
But coffee! If only I’d known the cafe was open. I saw chairs piled on top of tables from afar…
But is drinking coffee at B&N going too far?
I would have taken the coffee outside, of course.
WHY DO I WISH THE LIBRARIES WOULD OPEN? I have amused myself in the last few months by making a list of scholarly books I might like to read. The samples at Amazon have that slightly overstuffed-chair style, as if the writers are afraid they will be mistaken for Georgette Heyer. But you can’t judge a book by its sample.
I am also intrigued by Jana Norton’s The Tragic Life Story of Medea as Mother, Monster, and Muse ( $99). I love the title! The description says, “This volume offers a critical yet empathic exploration of the ancient myth of Medea as immortalized by early Greek and Roman dramatists to showcase the tragic forces afoot when relational suffering remains unresolved in the lives of individuals, families and communities…)
And soon I will offer you “a critical yet empathic exploration” of a book I just read.
Happy reading! And have you ventured out to a bookstore yet?
They can’t open here until next Monday and even then I’m not sure how many of them are actually planning to open. Some of my favourites are so small I can’t see them being able to apply the 2 m rule we still have here.
It’s a lot of work to get these stores ready. B&N is huge, so they’ve opened a big space in the front of the store and have markings on the floor for social distancing. But, yes, the smaller stores will have more problems.
Some of my favourites are so small I can’t see them being able to apply the 2 m rule we still have here.
This is exactly why I’m not jonesing to go to the store! There just isn’t much space to maneuver and I tend to meander in the aisles…
My favorite used bookstore seems to have no room in the aisles, so I doubt it will open for a while! If someone wanders down the aisle, you practically have to back up to let them pass. We do observe the six-foot rule, and most wear masks, but I’m not ready to go shopping-shopping, if you know what I mean. It’s best to stay home when possible… But I do want to go to a library (when they finally open!!
Our town’s library is offering curbside pickup! We’re set for a while, though, since we’ve been ordering books through a couple local bookstores as part of our local business support plan: one has free local delivery (same-day if the book’s in stock), the other has free shipping. I can’t see myself going back to a bookstore until I can spend real time there and not worry about coughs, sneezes, and the like. What I miss most is the library book sale, which would probably be coming up this weekend! Better World Books has been great for out of print books and weird surprises, though.
Thank God for curbside pickup! And I do know what you mean about browsing. I ducked in and bought the book I wanted, then I scrammed. The big chains are better able to do this than our small local store, which is about as big as a handkerchief. There are always pleasures to be found at online bookstors!
Yes about online bookstores! Speaking of which… the book popping up on your sidebar is Brideshead Revisited, which I ordered (delivery from local store!) because the other Waugh titles I was interested in were out of stock. I’m happy to reread Brideshead but also wanted to give A Handful of Dust a try, though it’s hard to find. So, a question since it sounds like you may have read lots of Waugh: Do you have any Waugh favorites other than Brideshead Revisited? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
I love Brideshead Visited! Apparently it just had its 75th anniversary. My favorite of his satirc novels is Put Out More Flags, set during World War II, with many hilarious scenes about evacuees. One wealthy ne-er-do-well figures out how to make money off the latter.
No bookstore shopping for me, and I’m even reluctant to pick up my library holds (which have been en route since mid-March and have finally resumed motion in this direction, with a pickup date of mid-July). But I did have one curbside pick-up from an indie book shop during this time, and we recently went to the hardware store to pickup the things that we’d been doing without (also curbside, but it was a much larger store so it meant being in/near a much longer line, for a much longer period of time). The foot and vehicle traffic in this city has increased dramatically, every week since the first stage of reopening, but I find myself being more cautious, not less.
I am also very cautious: hence my excitement over a coupon! The people I know are still masked and working at home.
I do consider bookstores an essential business. 🙂 It IS too soon for bars, casinos, tattoo parlors, and the other crap which weirdly now have reopened at “full capcity,” as they like to say.
I’m dying to go to our bookstore. They’re not open for browsing yet. But I’m very satisfied with how NY has handled the pandemic. I’ll wait.
Someday it will be normal again!