July 2011: Book (Nook) Buying

So much to confess this month!  This isn't chronological order, but I'll get the big purchase out of the way first:  I went into Barnes & Noble a couple of weeks ago and bought a Nook.  I'm totally charmed with it (I mean charmed with her, for she is a girl and her name is Dorothy as in Parker, Gale, Hughes and Thompson).  There's something so close to magic about sitting in Starbucks, McDonald's or Taco Bell (places with wi-fi in this particular town) and suddenly getting a desire to read something and being able to make it appear within a couple of minutes. 

Dorothy came into my life bearing three books: Little Women, Pride and Prejudice and Dracula and the capacity for so many more.  Of course, I had to test that out immediately.  Over a marvelous tea lemonade in Sedalia's Starbucks store, I made my first e-book purchase:  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  It arrived so quickly that I nearly squeeeeeed in public.

After a few days, I wanted to do the magic again.  I'd just been to Hannibal, Mark Twain's hometown, and had a hankering to read Life on the Mississippi.  Off I went to McDonald's to nurse a $1.00 sweet tea and shop.  By the time I got down to the ice at the bottom of the cup, I not only had LOTM (for 99 cents!), but I had also bought The Autobiography of Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  I was supposed to read that last one over 25 years ago in Mr. Shanahan's American Novel class, but didn't get around to it, and still felt a little guilty about blowing off the assignment.  Never too late.  (In a related note, I nearly named Dorothy Larry after McMurtry and Shanahan.)

I am slightly touched with new techie fervor, but  I could not let the sweet paper bundles be.  Here's what I toted out of Real Live Bookstores during July:

1. Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand.  Still mourning my lost-on-the-subway copy, I purchased another as soon as my plane landed in Dallas.

2. The Wilder Life - Wendy McClure.  Purchased at my local indie bookstore because I am a big fat Bonnethead and proud of it.

3. Here If You Need Me - Kate Braestrup.  I found this treasure at the local used bookstore.

4. Please Don't Shoot My Dog - Jackie Cooper. I love books about Old Hollywood.  This one also came from the used bookstore.  Smells so good. The store, I mean.

5. A Stolen Life - Jaycee Dugard.  My mom wanted to read this book after she saw the interview with Dugard on 20/20, so I found it for her at Wal-Mart.

6. Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann.  This one is my friend Doreen's fault.  It's her favorite campy movie, so she urged Katie and me to watch it right before my trip to the States.  That damn theme song by Dionne Warwick is turning out to be a forever earworm.  I don't take Doreen's cruelty to heart though; every bookworm summer should feature at least one Classic Trashy Read.

7. Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder.  After Mom found out that Laura and her family lived for a short time in the same county she was born and brought up in, she decided that perhaps there was merit in my being a Bonnethead.   I used the opportunity to run back to the used bookstore and introduce her to the series.  I wanted to start with Little House in the Big Woods, but it wasn't there.  I toyed with the idea of getting my favorite, The Long Winter, but settled on the one with the same name as the TV show.