I went shopping yesterday to get my dad one more Christmas gift and did; a book of Nascar-related editorial cartoons I picked up at 2nd & Charles (used and new book/music/game/movie store). I had almost $4 in store credit, so I got myself the overstocked Julia Cameron book on clearance for $3.95. So yeah, basically free.
They were also having a Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal on all their used stuff from 8am-noon, and we got there before 10am, so I took advantage by getting myself a free Ray Bradbury book with my dad's Nascar book, which was used but in good condition. While we were in there, I pointed out to my sister a book of literary cartoons... I think she picked it up for me, along with Bradbury Speaks. hehe So now I think I know everything she's giving me... Subtlety has never been her strong point.
After 2nd & Charles, we headed to Best Buy so my sister could get my dad a car stereo adapter for his new MP3 player, and she decided that if she got him THAT, she'd have one too many gifts for him (she settled on 3 each). I told her, "I'm doing 4 each, but I already have 4 for him. I tell you what, though; I'll buy you lunch if you let me give him the Sudoku game you got him, and then I can keep The Good, The Bad & The Ugly BluRay I'd previously picked up for him at 2nd & Charles for $6.50 in store credit." hehe So, it was a deal! Yay!
We got to Best Buy, and my sister had two $5 off coupons from there. I spied the single-DVD edition of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2 for $6.99. Ashleah agreed to get that one for me since it would be free and she wanted me to complete the series!
After Best Buy, we hit up PetSmart to get the dogs some Greenies on sale, then to Barberitos for lunch. By the time we were done, I only had $2 left out of the $28 I'd started with. But considering I got my last Christmas gifts for the cost of lunch and $6 respectively, it wasn't such a bad deal.
Following lunch, we hit up Bath & Body Works so Ashleah could get our grandmother a Christmas gift and something for our mom's birthday (12/20). B&BW had Buy 3 Get 3 Free. Holy crap! And now they have (a very small section of) men's stuff. So, Ashleah got mom and grandmama two things each, and me some deodorant spray and body wash.
In case you weren't keeping up with the free stuff, I got two books from 2nd & Charles, the Harry Potter 8 DVD from Best Buy (and a BluRay if you count the transplanted The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from my dad's gifts when my sister agreed to let me give him the Sudoku game), and a couple of fragrant men's bath items from Bath & Body Works. And other than lunch, I only spent $6 and change. It was a great shopping day! We should go shopping on Black Friday every year. hehe
Like I said, I'm most likely getting Bradbury Speaks and Books, Books, Books (the literary cartoon book) for Christmas, and the other stuff on my wishlist is mostly books as well. In fact, since I already got Harry Potter 8 before Christmas, the only non-book item I can think of that I want is Winnie the Pooh on DVD. Oh, and maybe some new corduroy pants. Those things may not be in style anymore, but they're comfy! hehe
The other stuff on my wishlist are Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars in paperback (I'll wait on 11/22/63); a few Ray Bradbury novels (of the only ten or so he's written over his long career) I saw at 2nd & Charles but didn't get- Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer, and Let's All Kill Constance; and MAYBE the new "Michael Crichton" book, Micro.
I'm torn about that last one. The plot sounds absolutely classic Crichton. Greedy industrialist uses scientific technology to come up with something new (but dangerous) that could make him richer, and invites several poor saps to volunteer as a test run before releasing it to the public. Jurassic Park and Timeline all over the place, right? I still haven't read Next or Prey, but from what I know of their synopses, they have similar plots as well.
The problem, of course, is that MC died before it was finished, so they hired a ghost writer to complete it. The only review I've read thus far wasn't exactly positive, though that may not mean anything. I rarely trust reviews of any kind, but... I'm reluctant to give it a chance. The safest bet would be to borrow it from our library when I have some spare reading time. Right now I have way too many books I need to read/finish.
I really want to finish The New Vampire's Handbook, Lio's Astonishing Tales (an anthology of my favorite comic strip), and a poetry book by Ryan Van Cleave called The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, but I also want to read the book I got for $0.50 at 2nd & Charles a few months ago by Anne McCaffrey. Sad that it took her death to inspire me to finally read it.. As interested as I am in checking out her work, I don't want to start it until I finish AT LEAST one of those other three books.
Then there's the Julia Cameron book, a sequel to The Artist's Way. The Artist's Way was not a favorite, but the first of her books that I read, The Writing Diet, really helped me get started with the weight loss, so I am interested in reading her other stuff. I'd like to read it again eventually... currently it's in Chicago, as I loaned it to a friend via the postal service.
I also want to read another Ray Bradbury novel. I have about 15 of his books, but only four of those are novels... unless you believe the "also by" page of his newest book, which claims the themed short-story collections The Martian Chronicles and From The Dust Returned are novels. The funny thing about that "also by" page is that, under novels, it lists 11, but The Halloween Tree is missing. Also, even though TMC and FTDR are counted as novels, The Illustrated Man is not, and it tells a linear story too. Weird. But anyway, if you take away those two and count The Halloween Tree, that's ten novels he's written out of over 75 years of writing. I've written several in just 16 years of writing, though most of them need SERIOUS work.
Let's see... 10 WIPs and 8 that are more or less finished. When (if) I finish the NaNo, I'll only need one more finished novel and I'll be tied with him. hehe I have a few WIPs that are close to finished... or rather, closer to finished than others. Some of them have over 150 Word pages already. One of them has almost 400. It's going to be a MASSIVE book when I finish it... if I ever finish it. I lost quite a bit of it when my first computer died in 98 or so, and I haven't gotten over it. hehe
Speaking of my writing... NaNoWriMo is coming to an end in 5 days, and I haven't done any serious writing in days. I wrote one or two paragraphs on Thanksgiving, but the headache I had kept me from working much. So, my word count hasn't improved much. I'm currently at 14,555. I'll work on that today.
Now I'm just rambling, so I'll shut up. More later.