¿Qué pasa?

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit an indulgence, but what the heck, I enjoy it. Due to the media hype promoting the upcoming movie and the fact that I love to read a good vampire novel at any given moment, I've been reading the Twilight series, written by Stephenie Meyer. In a matter of two weeks, I've read Twilight and New Moon, while reminding myself to pace the devouring until I could read the other two books - Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I have a personal preference for paperbacks, mainly because of the cost and comfort. Another admittance is that I despise Walmart; however, I am unable to hold a grudge when it comes to being frugal, always looking for a good deal of any sort. Naturally, my initial trek for the books led to the Walmart book aisle, being extremely appreciative of the fact that my husband understands my plight with the love of reading - he always has his nose in a book, too. I have a ton of books in a variety of genres which have followed me everywhere. They're my babies and I can't seem to part with any of them. As with music, they mark different life events. They define me, revealing my personality, hurdles, and triumphs.

Despite the fact that it's a three day weekend and there'd be wall-to-wall people in the stores, we decided to make a run to the Walmart store across the state line this morning. I know, it's suicidal to get out in that mix (I avoid the stores like the plague right before Thanksgiving and Christmas). It felt as if we were in the old game show Supermarket Sweep. I shot off across the store with one mission in mind, books then food. In retrospect, I'm sitting here grinning at the thought of my husband with a set of reins in hand as I pushed the cart onward, smacking me across the derriere. I didn't get the moniker "Speedy" for nothing. LoL! Anyway, I surely thought Eclipse was in paperback - wrong! After tearing myself away from the book section and noting that my dh didn't find his book either, we dashed through the store to finish shopping and ran into dh's aunt in the process. We made good time, for we visited with her for about five minutes while attempting to stand out of the major flow of traffic and still managed to get out of the store before noon. David Ruprecht would have been proud.

After we got to the car, we decided to check Barnes & Noble for the books. Naturally, Eclipse wasn't available in paperback, so we went to check at the information desk. With a deft sweep of his fingers over the keyboard, the clerk told me the book wouldn't be available in paperback until May of 2009. You ever see the cartoon strip characters in which one may have a squiggly line above the head to note frustration? LoL! I felt I had one above my head at that point. I pressed further and asked about the availability of the seventh Harry Potter book in paperback. He said he didn't have that date yet. I wasn't too worried for that since I've got the hardbound copy. I thanked him for his assistance then dh and I pressed onward - mindful there were groceries in the trunk of the car to be put away. I think dh felt bad for me. I couldn't see paying full price for the two available hardbound books but he was ready to shove the money in my hand, urging me to go back in B&N. I assured him that it was truly fine and could check online when we went home.

When things were put away, I checked Amazon to be sure of what I had seen before. Sure enough, there it was - paperback available in Spanish. LoL! I felt like such a doofus for that, for it had never occurred to me it would be in another language. A bite of lunch and an episode of American Chopper provided enough fuel to go to the local Walmart store. After a quick jaunt to the food section in search of noodle bowls - which we discovered they no longer carried - we were able to find our books with ease. It was a good thing we didn't settle on Barnes and Noble. The books were jacket price, over $20 per book. Walmart, on the other hand, had them for $13.68 and $13.88. I think Amazon had the best deal, for they were listed as $23.08 (with free super saver shipping) for both books. My weakness has been apparent. I couldn't wait that long. *sheepish grin*

I was SO ready to get home after that. After a slightly eventful and breezy day, it felt good to be home. While curling up with my books, an unusual discovery was made about my copy of Eclipse. Since I always remove the dust cover before reading a hardbound book, I noticed the title, author and publishing information on the spine of the book were printed upside down. Being unsure if it's a fluke, methinks it would be good to check whenever going to the store again. It would be rather cool if it's the only book as such.

At dh's suggestion, we ordered Sahara Pizza (THE best pizza) and settled in for the night. So much for watching Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians afterwards. Both of us nodded off in no time. LoL!

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The Official Stephenie Meyer site

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilightseries.html

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Sahara Pizza site

http://www.saharapizza.com/index.html