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Rules of Acquisition

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Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #45: Expand or die.

Forgive the Star Trek reference, much of the weekend was spent in (almost) completing Season Two of Deep Space Nine. I love how, even that far back, they were dropping hints about the Dominion. I can’t wait to see what Season Three has in store.

For the most part, those of us who are bibliophiles buy books…lots of books…certainly more than we can or will get read until the next time we find ourselves in a bookstore buying more books. Chris talked about it this week. Dark Opheus did, as well. Why do we do it? We live by Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #97: Enough…is never enough.


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For my part, and I think I speak for all of us, we don’t share our binges to boast, but because you, like me, often get great reading suggestions simply by seeing the picture of a book on someone else’s site.

And so, taking advantage of coupons, crazy discounts, and discount cards, I used my unexpected work expense check to have a little fun from last Sunday to this past Sunday.

The above picture is of items I practically stole from a discount bookstore called Foozles.

Ferengi Rule of Acquistion #11: Even if it’s free, you can always buy it cheaper.

I am not a fan of remaindered books, but thankfully I found many non-remaindered items…some for you!!! You’ve no doubt noticed multiple copies of the Mirrormask book as well as the audio of lead actress Stephanie Leonidas reading said book. They were dirt cheap! I’ve listened to the audio and I think it is wonderful. A few of these will be finding their way to homes soon courtesy of the second annual R.I.P. Challenge. Others may wait until next year’s Fantasy Challenge.

I broke my no-remainders book rule to pick up a copy of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish as I previously had the softcover version only and this one includes a copy of the audio CD with Neil Gaiman reading the story.

I also nabbed a deliciously gothic illustrated book called Thirteen O’Clock by James Stimson and this wondeful book:

I discovered illustrator Lizbeth Zwerger because I saw this book in the children’s section of a new library in Kansas City a year or so ago. For a time this book was sold out according to Amazon. Mary has gotten me another amazing book with her illustrations, which I love, but I’ve always coveted this one as well. Needless to say I was giddy to find this in perfect condition, unremaindered, for $3.99!!!

The next set of items were things I purchased at Barnes and Noble this week (not pictured is the new Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde that I purchased for Mary: Thursday Next, First Among Sequels). I picked up Titus Groan for the R.I.P. Challenge as it is described as “gothic”. It is the first in a classic dark fantasy trilogy that I have heard of previously but never knew what it was. I picked up Theodosia and The Serpents of Chaos because of this blogger’s review. I had seen it many times at the bookstore and loved the cover art but was waiting for a review. See kids, it is dangerous to read blogs! Kop caught my eye because of Chris McGrath‘s fantastic cover art (he did the art for both Kat Richardson books, Greywalker and Poltergeist, by the way). I bought it because I was in the mood for something like this to coincide with The Bourne Ultimatum. I sort of had a Bourne theme going on this past week, reading Kop, replaying the PC shooter game Sin Episodes 1: Emergence, and watching The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.


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And then last night, after a wonderful Panera dinner with my dear friend Pat, we went to Border’s to use those dreaded Border’s discount coupons. They are like bait, they are. I picked up Mary Modern because the cover is amazing and the premise sounds terrific. Gothic! was cheap and had to be purchased despite the fact that I already have some of the short stories in other books simply because I have wanted it for months because the cover is so fun. Having re-watched Hot Fuzz courtesy of Netflix (and getting my wife into it as well), I decided it was high time I took myself off the embarrasing list of geeks who haven’t seen Shaun of the Dead. A Border’s coupon for $7.99 made it a must buy.

Being that close to Best Buy necessitated a visit. It was no accident, however, because after spending part of last Sunday eEvening getting Jeff and Keri addicted to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I was itching for a new role playing game. Guild Wars, though an online game, thankfully has a large solo tract (I hate playing games online with others unless it is sports related), so I fired that up last night and am really enjoying it. It feels like a combination between Oblivion and the excellent Dungeon Siege games.

Included in the pictures are 300, which I had to buy on Tuesday the second it came out…I missed the limited boxed set with the helmet in it by about 5 seconds!!!…and Kat Richardson’s second Harper Blaine novel, Poltergeist, which despite a release date of August 7th was actually on Border’s shelves a week ago Sunday!

Yes, I was a little purchase crazy this week. But the deals I got were nothing short of amazing.

Ferengi Rule of Acquistion #3: Never spend more for an acquisition than you have to.

And that’s not all!!!

Gifts came my way this past week as well, in the form of the unabridged audio CD of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, read (and read quite well I must add) by Lenny Henry, from Jeff. Thanks Jeff!!!

and

the rest of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (additional seasons on video and burned on disk) from Scott as he had purchased the latest complete edition of the series. Thank you Scott!!!

I was thrilled by both surprises this week and look forward to many years of enjoyment out of both!

Needless to say I do not hold with the following:

Ferengi Rule of Acquistion #21: Never place friendship above profit.

Friendship is profit, and not because friends give you gifts, but because friends think about you and give of themselves to you. That is the greatest treasure, and most enjoyable profit, of all.

Happy Monday, and Viva La Book Addiction!!!, everyone!

37 thoughts on “Rules of Acquisition”

  2. Nice haul, Carl, and a great post too!

    I love the cover art on Thirteen O’Clock, Theodosia, and The Wizard of Oz. Lovely finds!

    Buffy is a favourite of mine, I treasure my complete boxset. The Boy has finally agreed to watch it with me!! Hooray! So in a week or so, when we make a trip over to the house in Wales, I’m going to collect that and watch them all over again. Yum.

    Guild Wars is a game I really didn’t get into. I liked the concept of a massively multiplayer game without fees and with additional content via slightly more frequent expansions, but the game just didn’t grab me.

  3. haha, I love that you included The Ferengi Rules of Acquistion to your post. I used to watch the reruns of that show (as I have seen all the episodes) on tv but they took them off, now all I have to watch is Generations (which I have seen every episode of a million times) and Voyager (which I never really got into very much but am enjoying now.) I’d eventually like to get DVD sets…

    Looks like you got some great purchases, I hope you enjoy everything!

  4. I’m excited that you picked up Theodosia – I’ll be looking forward to reading your review at some point (looks like you’ll be busy for a while with all those books!). It was funny to read your post after I’d just posted a poll about where people get their books. I’m so immersed in the library world that I’ve been surprised to see how much avid book-buying goes on in the “real” world!

  6. Quix, DS9 is quickly becoming one of my favorites as well. Of course TOS will always be number one for me and I have a real affection for Voyager.

    Kailana, I was one of the ones who really did enjoy that series, very much.

    I’ve only gotten as far as part of the second season of Buffy, so I’m looking forward to continuing on with that.

    Guild Wars certainly doesn’t have the quality of storytelling that Oblivion does…that game is far and away the best role playing experience I have ever had, but GW does feel like Dungeon Siege and I liked that well enough.

    It is a sickness, James!

    Darla, I’ll probably read this one for the R.I.P. Challenge as well, so be on the lookout for a review in Sept/Oct.

  7. Oh, I almost forgot, you mentioned an interest in my thoughts on “The Book of Air and Shadows” by Michael Gruber. I reviewed it last night if you are still interested.

    I think the reason I didn’t get into Voyager when it was on the air was because I was watching DS9, so it had my attention. I only started really watching Voyager when DS9 went off the air.

    Are you looking forward to the new movie?

  10. Oh my goodness! ( I say so that I sound like a really nice old lady, when in reality I am thinking: Holy Chit!)
    That’s some haul!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much stuff even under my Christmas tree! LOL

    I’m relieved to hear that you bought it all at nearly “freebee” prices! Doesn’t if feel great to make so many great deals!!?!

    You did forget one Ferengi Rule though…Always get more than you have room for! heh… you may have forgotten the rule but you abided by it anyway! lol lol

  11. Now I just want to lay in bed all day and watch my Star Trek TNG DVDs :p

    You got some cool “Chit” as Deslily put it! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Shaun of the Dead. It’s one of me and Megan’s favorite movies and we laugh our asses off every time we watch it.

    I love the cover to Mary Modern. It’s incredible. Definitely would have been enough for me to buy it. The title’s quite cool too.

    I’m digging that edition of The Wizard of Oz as well. Great artist. And you just reminded me that I do indeed own a Neil Gaiman audiobook!! I have the same copy of The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish with the CD in the back! Yay!

    Great buys!

  13. Wow, such wonderful purchases!

    I’m considering reading (or at least starting) the Gormenghast trilogy for RIP as well. I’ve been meaning to read it for years!

    The “Gothic” anthology is something I’ve been interested in for a while also.

    I love love love the cover of “Thirteen O’Clock”. I’d never heard of it before, but the cover alone is enough to make me want it.

  14. Holy Chit! Is right. Awesome haul my friend and I’m glad I was able to contribute in a small way.

    Zachary and I read Thirteen o’clock and The Day I swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish together on Saturday night and he liked them both. My wife laughed quite a bit at Neil’s story. Since I was reading it aloud to Zach she listened in. It’s funny how he enjoyed this story yet both him and my daughter were freaked out by The Wolves in the Walls when I read it to them last year. Wolves in one of my favorite Neil stories.

    The covers on Mary Modern, Theodosia, and KOP all look wonderful.

    I think you’ll love Shaun of the Dead plus that’s awesome you received the Buffy DVD’s I think you have more sets than me now. I don’t have all the seasons YET. Great show. Of course you know my love of DS9. My favorite Trek right after the original series. As for 300 I hope to pick it soon as well.

  16. I love the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. 🙂

    But I agree most of all, with the last bit about friendship. It’s about sharing, or that someone thought of you.

    Which, I guess is why I often end up collecting the DVDs of my favourite movies and TV series. That I could then share it with my friends.

    This reminds me, anyone knows if the actor who play Principal Snyder on Buffy play a Ferengi at any point of his career? Everytime I see Snyder I think Ferengi.

  17. deslily – The orignal series still is the best after all these years. I hopefully will be able to pick up those on DVD one of these days.

    Dark Orpheus – Yes the actor ( Armin Shimmeran – I think I mispelled his name though ) played a Ferengi named Quark on DS9. I loved all the Ferengi ( Nog, Rom, Quark, the Grand Nagus, etc. ). Garak the Tailor though was my favorite character on the show.

  18. Wow. What a great week of purchases. The Wizard of Oz book is beautiful and Thirtenn O’Clock looks great too.

    I played Guild Wars for a few weeks, but I kept getting harassed by high level players camping the newbie zones and one-shot killing me, so I stopped. Hopefully your server will be more civilized 🙂

  19. We love our Quark and Principal Synder. We love both Buffy and DS9 equally. Although its’ a toss up for me between Next Gen (Picard rules just as much as Kirk) and DS9 (Garak and Odo and Quark made the show for me). As usual Carl, nice haul.

  20. Were you playing the PVP part of Guild Wars? In the role playing track, at least what I’ve done so far, you cannot engage others in combat, only the computer generated areas. Once you leave the towns you are completely on your own, there are no other online players in out in the world, only the ones you join with and take with you. I’m not doing that, I’m just playing solo and will use PC generated henchmen when the time comes that I am forced to have help on some missions.

    Cameron, I can see why you and Jeff like Garak so much now that I am almost finished with Season Two…he has much more to do in this season and he is great. I like Quark and Odo as well, and love Cisco and Jake. It is a great show and I look forward to eventually getting through the rest of the seasons. I may have to go buy F.Y.I. tomorrow to see if they have a like new used copy of Season Three!

  21. Of course it’s a sickness and isn’t it wonderful to have so many people to share it with! And I thank you for sharing such a fantastic haul. Now I need a copy of The Wizard of Oz. Love that artist. I’ll be heading for Borders again to get Potergeist. Where is Foozles; it sounds like a necessary trip to me. To add to your Rule #21 – friends are people who share more book titles.

  22. Foozles is the store at the Great Mall that I was telling you about, Pat. I think you and Loraine need to put it on your list! 🙂

  23. Wow, I don’t think that I’ve seen such impressive book loot on a blog in a long time. I hope they all turn out to be better than expected!

  24. The only thing better than purchasing new books is purchasing new books for an unusually low price.

    Also, “Shaun of the Dead” is fantastic. All good geeks should see it.

  25. I’m going to be like Scott and get the Buffy complete edition boxset. I have exactly the same number of Season boxsets he has so I’ll look for someone to gift it to – good idea.

    I see you bought Titus Groan? Mervyn Peake did a wonderful job with Gormenghast and Titus Groan. I loved it and also the BBC adaptation of the book, though it deviates on several levels. Very lush production. I’d recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

  26. That’s a vrey cool stash of books. If book buying is a sickness, it’s one I never want to recover from!

  27. Thanks, Carl. That definitely sounds like one I need to add to my list of bookstores to check out. I had a great time Sunday.
    I always get more book titles whenever I see you, now I have more. Fantastic.

  28. I’ll have to check out the BBC production after I read the books, Aichaku. I am looking even more forward to reading this after hearing some positive buzz here.

    I had a great time as well, Pat. Always fun to talk books and movies.

    I hope so too, Imani!

  29. ooooh!!!! look at all those goodies!

    and i loved all those ferengi references! 🙂

    you are gonna love “shaun of the dead”. its not just a spoof, as romero said, he felt that they made the film with real affection for the genre.

    that theodosia cover is gooorgeousss!!!

    by the way, what is a “non-remaindered item”?

  30. Remaindered books are the ones that they take a black sharpie and make a line across the bottom, or across the ISBN code, or something to designate that the book has been remaindered. My assumption is that the book can then not be sold for cover price nor can it be returned to a store for cover price. I think it is a stupid idea myself…I don’t want people marking on my books!

  33. Wow, I’m still reeling from the fact that I was TOTALLY unaware that Jasper Fforde has a new one. Ha! How out of the loop am I?

  34. Normal, but cheaper than normal…so does that make them “hyper normal”? “Better than normal”? Not sure? All I was trying to differentiate between was discounted books that aren’t discounted because someone made a remaindered mark on them and those that are discounted because they are remaindered. I like the one and am annoyed by the other.

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