Those book clubs are so innocent and gullible, it almost makes me feel bad every time I take their books and run—almost. The latest is QPB, the Quality Paperback Book Club, which once again begged me to come back. They said they would send me 5 books for $1 each (plus shipping) if I agreed to buy one more book at full price within a year. Which is a good deal as it is, but they went a step further and said that if I ordered my one more book right now, the price would be 50% off and I wouldn't have to buy another book at all! So today I received the following books, along with a rather nice zippered duffel bag as a freebie: Tyler Florence's Real Kitchen, Runaway by Alice Munro, Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst, Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs, A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer, and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. The damage? A grand total of $27.44. And now I'm cancelling my membership in the club and will wait until they beg me to come back, yet again, in another few years. Suckers!
And exactly when do I think I'm going to have time to read all these great books? Sigh.
I've never bothered signing up for a bookclub, but these clubs are responsible for more than half of my CD collection.
Posted by: Lora | June 19, 2005 at 12:53 AM
great. i'd love to borrow Blink...
Posted by: Nancy | June 19, 2005 at 08:06 PM
Don't you think that Alice Munro is the absolute goddess of the short story? If you don't, you will after you finish that book.
Posted by: nina | June 19, 2005 at 08:15 PM
Thanks for the reminder. I should definitely do QPB again!
Posted by: Chris | June 21, 2005 at 10:07 AM