BOOKS | Borders 35% Off and Nothing to Buy

The people at Borders have done it again ― they've sent out a 35% off print-out discount coupon for a limited period. I went down to the local unfriendly Borders for a quick peek ― coupon(s) in hand. Wow. There is nothing I want to buy. Not even at 35% discount.

Is there something wrong with me? Or have the virtues of saving and recycling finally hit home? Oh please. Of course not. The backlist stocks at the local unfriendly Borders is abysmal.

I had a shopping list with me actually:

1. Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings Abolqasem Ferdowsi, translated by Dick Davis
   I've been waiting for this Persian epic to be available in a more affordable format. Penguin has recently released it in their Classic Deluxe edition, with the french flaps and deckled edges.


2. Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition by Knud Rasmussen
   I'm currently reading This Cold Heaven, where Gretel Ehrlich writes about her seven years (on and off) visiting the Artic. She brought the journals of Danish-Inuit explorer Knud Rasmussen along with her. It became a kind of currency, as the people living in Greenland still speaks of Ramussen as though he was still alive.


3. My Cousin Rachel or Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
   The recent Guardian write-up on Du Maurier got me interested again. You know, I never got around to reading Rebecca either.


4. Europe by Jan Morris
   I have a Jan Morris thing

Borders doesn't have any of these books in stock. But I am now more reluctant to buy the books that I know will be available at the library. Maybe I have become more money-conscious about books. Maybe that's a good thing. But it's such a disappointment, to have a 35% off coupon with nothing you want to buy. *sigh*

Meanwhile I have to head down to the library. I thought I had Raymond Carver's Cathedral for Literate Kitten's Short Story Challenge. Turns out the collection I have at home is What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. While I'm there, I need to pick up Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage: Stories; I'm dying to read the short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain.