caroline on my mind.

You might have noticed that I changed the page around a bit, you know, within the very limited scope of my ability. (I pretty much just changed the colors.) If you were dazzled by my changes, wait until you see Caroline's website. I've been reading her site ever since she was just a wee little Cooper student, and I've always found it stunning. While technically far more than just a weblog, the journal on her site entitles her to listing as such over there in the left column. Her dream log is also very cool, kind of like the weblog of a whole second person (a very sleepy person). And now she's at big bad NJIT so I suppose we fall in the same category of former Cooper students who woke up one day in NJ and who are now trying to answer the Talking Heads' question, Well, how did I get here?

Letting the days go by...hi Caroline!

barnes and ignoble.

I'll admit it. I shelled out the money for the B+N Readers' Advantage card. I have already made my money back a couple of times over. I love books. And growing up in my family taught me how to shop for books with wild abandon. I can remember wandering through Northshire with my arms literally full of books. I also frequented the library but there was something much less rewarding about reading a book when you knew it wasn't yours to keep. But for the long summer weeks I spent at my grandmother's house it was all I had. We would stop by the library for books and go for a walk on the beach. Well, we called it a beach, but it was sand on the shore of the Hudson. Yes, I have been swimming in the Hudson.

But that's another story. This is a story about gentrification; a story about consumers choosing quantity over quality, bulk over brains, malls over market, common over character. My general feeling is that I'll always support the little guy, if the little guy is worth supporting. I'd never buy a substandard product just for the sake of bannering my allegiance to Mom and Pop. So while I do support independent booksellers, I also buy a whole lot of books in not so great places. Which doesn't stop me from being excited about B+N, until the other day.

Right, so, the point is that they have whatever book you want in stock, right? Maybe not *any* book, you'd have to go on-line for that, but still, if there was, say, a bestseller that you wanted to pick up for a light summer read, and they didn't have it in stock, that would be crazy, right? I'm not talking about a Harry Potter phenomenon type book here, just a fairly popular book. Let's say it was High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby... a book popular not only in its own right, but also as the book version of a movie!

And let's continue down Insanity Lane for a moment, and say that your friend suggested an equally popular book as a substitute for this leisurely summer read, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. Well, they must have that, right? I mean, browse on over to any weblog, it's what the people are reading! Affected hipsters in black are clutching it on the subways of life! But no, they don't have that in stock, either.

This really happened to Erik. I'm just the friend making the (admittedly somewhat overread) suggestions. So what the hell are they carrying these days at our favorite book supercenter? Well, I'll tell you. Coffee. Coffee and kitschy office supplies in the hottest summer colors. Oh, and coffee mugs. And greeting cards. Well, at least you can get them at a 10% discount.

Enjoy your proverbial latte, America... we have brought this upon ourselves.