Tell Me What You Really Think [4] - Book Buying: How do you choose?

Sometimes when I go into a bookstore, I'm looking for a particular book. When I decided I had to read John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, I went to the store, bought it, and didn't look twice at anything else. The same goes for going to an author event or book release that I'm really excited for. I save up for the books I want signed and buy them new at the event.

But most of the time, I buy books by browsing. I walk up and down my favorite aisles (young adult, classics, and bargain books) looking for something that stands out to me. Like 90% of people in the world, I do not have the money to support my book-buying habit to the extent that I wish I could, so I find most of my books on the clearance shelves or in used bookstores. But two $4 books would equal one new YA paperback, so when I want so many books, how do I choose?

I started thinking about this on a recent visit to Nashville. Like most times when I'm in Music City, I gave in to my bookish habit by visiting the large used bookstore there (McKay's). Because I can't spend whatever I want, I always go in with the same plan: Put all the books I would like to buy in the cart and then whittle the stack down to a reasonable amount that I can afford.

But this time, on the drive home, I started contemplating my whittling method. Why did I choose to buy certain books and not others? I put them in my cart because I wanted them, so how and why did some books get bought and the others put back?

The following list if from that recent trip and are all the YA novels I originally placed in my cart. Prices are estimated due to my potentially faulty memory. The format initials are PB for paperback and HC for hardcover, and the titles link to Goodreads.

Title/Author/Format/Price

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets/J.K. Rowling/PB/$2.50

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/J.K. Rowling/PB/$4.50

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince/J.K. Rowling/PB/$5.00

Quicksilver/R.J. Anderson/HC/$8.00

Rebel Angels/Libba Bray/PB/$2.50

The Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality/Elizabeth Eulberg/HC/$6.00

This is Not a Test/Courtney Summers/PB/$5.00

Golden/Jessi Kirby/HC/$6.00

The Originals/Cat Patrick/HC/$10

When Lightening Strikes/Meg Cabot/PB/$1.50

Code Name Cassandra/Meg Cabot/PB/$1.50

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle/Avi/HC/$2.00

Big Fat Manifesto/Susan Vaught/HC/$5.00

Counting Backwards/Laura Lascarso/HC/$5.00

Secrets of My Hollywood Life/Jen Calonita/PB/$0.10

On Location/Jen Calonita/PB/$0.10

This list is the result of scouring the YA shelves and deciding what I should consider to buy. There were several other books that I would have liked to put in my cart, but decided, in much the same way I decided what books to buy, that they should be excluded from the beginning.

So how and why did I pick my purchases?

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (HP #2) - PB/$2.50

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (HP #3) - PB/$4.50

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (HP #6) - PB/$5.00

Purchased? No.

I own books 1, 5, and 7 in the Harry Potter series. I have read them all and love them all, but on this particular day my budget was fairly tight, so I decided that these books, due to popularity and supply, would be readily available in the future.

Quicksilver (Ultraviolet #2) - HC/$8.00

Purchased? No.

I adored Ultraviolet, so when I saw the shiny sequel, I wanted it badly. However, I haven't read it, and considering the condition it was in (good but not as good as I like), the price wasn't worth it that day.

Rebel Angels (Gemma Doyle #2) - PB/$2.50

Purchased? Yes.

I love the Gemma Doyle series and this book was in really good condition. I am also going to be seeing Libba Bray in November, so I needed/wanted this book to be able to get it signed. So for that price, I couldn't pass it up.

The Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality - HC/$6.00

Purchased? No.

I own two other books by Eulberg, but I haven't read any of them yet. This book was hyped a lot before it came out, but after reading a little bit at the store, I decided that while I still wanted to read the book, I could wait for a better budget or lower price.

 This is Not a Test - PB/$5.00

Purchased? No.

I finished this book last month and enjoyed it, and the condition of this copy was good.. However, it wasn't a book I fell in love with, meaning I didn't feel the overwhelming need to own it.

Golden - HC/$6.00

Purchased? No.

This was another hyped book I really want to read, but like the Eulberg book, I decided I could wait.

The Originals - HC/$10

Purchased? No.

I knew when I put this book in my cart, despite loving the author, that I probably wouldn't buy it. Had I had more money to spend or were interested in fewer books this trip, I might have still gotten it, but it just didn't work out this time.

When Lightening Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You #1) - PB/$1.50

Code Name Cassandra (1-800-Where-R-You #2) - PB/$1.50

Purchased? No.

I picked these books up because they are by Meg Cabot. The price and condition were good, but not knowing much about the books and having so many others to decide on, I passed.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle - HC/$2.00

Purchased? Yes.

I loved, loved this book when I was in middle school. There were cheaper paperback copies available at the store, but this particular hardcover didn't have a dust jacket because the cover was printed right on the cardboard. It was in decent condition and the price was good, especially for this particular format.

Big Fat Manifesto - HC/$5.00

Purchased? Yes.

I've seen several good things about this book, and when I read a little bit of it, the narrative hooked me right away. That plus the good condition and price made it a keeper.

Counting Backwards - HC/$5.00

Purchased? Yes

I read this book through an ARC tour and loved it and I'd been wanting a copy for ages. I found this pristine edition for five bucks and could not pass it up.

Secrets of My Hollywood Life (Secrets of My Hollywood Life #1) - PB/$0.10

 On Location (Secrets of My Hollywood Life #2) - PB/$0.10

Purchased? Yes.

I loved Jen Calonita's Belles series and I'd been looking for this series for a while and never could find the first book. I came across these two for a crazy-low price and in decent condition, so I knew I'd be getting them no matter what.

Based on this rundown, I've come to realize I follow some personal guidelines when buying books. First, condition is important to me. I'm picky and prefer good or better, and the price needs to reflect the condition if the condition is less than ideal. Second, books that have some emotional/intellectual value to me are more likely to be purchased over books I've not read. And last, my budget and the amount of books I'm interested in can play a big role in which books I buy.

How and why do you buy the books you buy?

Do you have a plan when walking into a bookstore or are you more of a browser?

Do you have personal guidelines you follow?

Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!

T10T [4] - Books I Loved Before Becoming a Blogger

From Where I'm Standing [10] - 2012: The Year of Signings and Sadness

I did a Year in Review post for last year that I had a lot of fun with, chronicling the events in my life, but if you have been following WQ this year, you know what the single most important and devastating event was, the loss of my dad.

Despite the hardships of this year, there were good times. One was celebrating my first wedding anniversary with Captain Italian. All the others came in the form of awesome bookish events.

Those special times where I got to meet authors and other book bloggers is what I am going to focus on in this post. I apologize because I have a boat load of stuff from these things that I never shared, so here you get it all a.k.a. this is a long post with a lot of photos.




Way back in April I finally figured out what I wanted to use this feature for, and I did that, but only a couple of times because I got lazy and then things happened and you know the rest of the story. The two posts I did get to were about getting to meet Rachel Hawkins at Parnassus Books in March and getting to go to SOKY Book Fest in April. What follows is all of what I didn't get to (and advanced apologies for my lacking photography skills).

MAY
My trusty friend and traveller, Meg, accompanied me to Parnassus Books to see Myra McEntire and Amy Plum. It was a lovely event that I remember for two main reasons. The first is that there was a guy doing some filming for a piece on independent bookstores for the BBC and at one point Myra looked right at him and basically said she wanted to lick Matt Smith's face. Having not delved into Doctor Who yet, I didn't really get it, but oh how I do now. Second, this was the first time I got to meet some of my bestest blogger friends!

Myra McEntire and Amy Plum

L-R: Hannah (The Book Vortex), Nikki (Books Most Wanted), Marla (Starting the Next Chapter), Lauren (The Housework Can Wait), me, Meg (Myth-illogical)

JUNE
At the last minute I got the opportunity to go to Nashville to see Myra McEntire again at a public library with Marla (STNC). We got there a little late because we were trying to find copies of Timepiece (my review here) and the bookstore we went to was out. But we did get there and it was great fun because we all just sat in a circle and just chatted with Myra about anything and everything. We got to see Lauren (THCW) again and I finally got to meet Shannon of Stalking the Bookshelves. I also ran into reader and bookseller Elizabeth and her mother Debbie, both of whom I had met at the Southern Festival of Books in 2011. After the event, Shannon, Marla, Lauren, and I went to Applebee's and got to meet Paul, the worst server we've ever had the displeasure of knowing (you can read Lauren's hilarious account here).

L-R: Marla, Elizabeth, me, Myra McEntire, Shannon (Stalking the Bookshelves), Lauren

AUGUST

I got to go to my very first book launch for the release of C.J. Redwine's debut novel, Defiance (my review here). Meg and Captain Italian was with me as well as my friend Catilyn (whom I have converted to the YA cult muahaha). Lauren was there again (which is awesome because she is awesome and I love seeing her) and I also got to see Myra McEntire again and she remembered who I was and gave me a hug, which is also awesome. And then I ended up standing in line with Melinda Doolittle of American Idol fame, which was very cool because she is extremely sweet and gorgeous. There was also delicious cake made by C.J.'s husband, and all in all it was an amazing event.

Defiance cake!

AUGUST - SEPTEMBER
There were two events that I went to that sat on the weekend before Labor Day, and those were Dragon*Con and the Decatur Book Festival. Both were amazing but DBF was much more my speed, though I got to meet a lot of great authors at both places. There is too much to even talk about, so suffice it to say if you ever have the chance to go to either, you should go.

Dragon*Con

me and Captain Italian

Boggart Snape and Dumbledore

Debbie Viguie and Nancy Holder

Diana Peterfreund

Decatur Book Festival

David Levithan                                                 Meg Cabot    

   

Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia                                 Erin Morgenstern     

      Barry Lyga                                                   Maureen Johnson

SEPTEMBER

I went to two great events in September. The first happened right in my hometown when Anne Lamott, bestselling writer and author of one of most influential books for writers (Bird by Bird) came to our local university. Meg and I went and listened to her speak and it was amazing and inspirational.

Anne Lamott and me

The second event happened at the end of the month when I want to see C.J. Redwine and Kat Zhang at Parnassus Books. It was another lovely event where I got to see two great authors and meet another awesome blogger, Ang. After the event I went to McKay's and spent three hours filling a cart with books.

Kat Zhang and C.J. Redwine

OCTOBER

The month of falling leaves and spooks also had two events. The first was an Author/Blogger dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Nashville along with the Southern Festival of Books. The dinner was organized by Hannah (TBV) and I had so much fun at the dinner meeting a lot of bloggers I have only known online. I also got to meet and hang out with several amazing YA authors and I must shout out to Amanda Havard who sat next to me and had to deal with my randomness all night. It was great fun and the food was awesome too. Sadly, none of my pictures turned out because we were sitting at a very long table in a dim room.

The next day Meg and I made our way to the Southern Festival of Books. We got to listen to and meet so many great authors and came away with tons of books. We also got to eat lunch with Shannon and it was good to see her again, as well as hang out with Lauren after our last panel.

Siobhan Vivian and Jenny Han                                       Gillian Flynn            

          Bethany Griffin and Amanda Havard                             Sharon Cameron                                      

The second event was YA Trick or Treat at Parnassus Books. There were six authors on the panel and they shared their personal haunted happenings and talked about their books. The featured authors were Myra McEntrire (and if you think I've become a major Myra stalker...you would be correct), Victoria Schwab, Sonia Gensler, Beth Revis, Tessa Gratton, and Stephanie Perkins. Ruta Sepetys (whom I got to meet at SoFest but never got a picture with) and Kat Zhang were also there and we got a great picture with all of the authors together.

Back L-R: Ruta Sepetys, Stephanie Perkins, Sonia Gensler, Victoria Schwab, Myra McEntire, Beth Revis ~ Front L-R: Tessa Gratton, Kat Zhang

I also got the best signature from Myra in my copy of Timepiece which was totally worth not owning a copy until then. The reason I didn't own a copy yet (despite loving the book) is that when we went to the library to see her back in June, I only had one book and I had her sign it for Meg (who couldn't make it). Myra, because she is sweet and amazing and thought it was nice of me to use the only book I had for my friend (Meg is totally worth it ^_^), told me that she would send me a copy, but she forgot, which was no big deal because I thought it was nice of her to offer in the first place.

So when I got up to the table to have my copy signed at the event in October, she looked at me and stared for a second and then said, "I was supposed to have sent you this!" and it was so funny. So now she is supposed to send me the next book to make up for it and I got a great memory from it. Anyone not understanding why Myra is the best ever?

best signature ever

So quirks, that was my year of bookish events! I hope you enjoyed it and I applaud you if you made it to the end. If you can get to any signings or festivals in the coming year, I highly recommend it. And just like last year, my Favority-Fave Reads of 2012 list is coming up, so check back in a few day!