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[side_show]

...buy an e-reader, at a Black Friday sale.  Ahhhhh..... shit.  I gave in to two things I promised myself I'd never do, at the same. fuck*ng. Time.

[jay-ell]

I went shopping last night too. I didn't buy much myself, but Mom wanted to get handheld game consoles for my kids for Christmas and they were on sale at a variety of places last night, and she wanted me to come with her to pick out some games.

I hate that I went on Thanksgiving; I've done midnight openings before but it's never impinged on the holiday itself. But two of the other five adults at our Thanksgiving feast were cutting the festivities short to go shopping, and my Mom really wanted me to go, so I went. It was less crazy than the 4AM openings I've been to, and there didn't seem to be nearly as many good deals on the kinds of things I usually buy. (Mainly toys.)

Next year I'll be with my in-laws, and they don't do Black Friday craziness, so I'll be safe from peer pressure. I do hope that the stores that are doing 8 PM openings on Thanksgiving Day decide to hove some dignity in the future.

[wombat]

I just realized that I bought something at a Black Friday sale without realizing it, and you will all laugh at what it was: I ordered the Tech Staff some Christmas presents from The Oatmeal.

[side_show]

To be clear, until this year, Canada did not have Black Friday sales.  With our dollar at parity and retailers wanting to keep folks from cross-boarder shopping, this was the first year we've ever had any Black Friday sales here.  I had planned to avoid them entirely, and self righteously sniggered at my in laws for heading to North Dakota this weekend,  but on my way home from an errand, I remembered I had a gift card for a bookstore that I was given nearly a year ago and hadn't used (thanks to doing most of my book spending at Amazon), so I waltzed in and realized it was Black Friday madness.  I eyed up the kobo mini because I like how small it is and that it has a touch screen, and it was down from $80 to $50 today only, and with my gift card, it made it only $25 out of my pocket, so I figured, if I ever am going to get an e-book, now would be the time.  Then I came home and spent all afternoon reading, and just figured out how to convert books that aren't in the Kobo library or in proper format from bit torrent sites.  I just did that because I had been re-reading To Kill A Mockingbird in a paperback with tiny print and figured I might as well put it on the e reader and read it in a eye-friendlier font.  I'm not sure if I have the heart to steal books on the regular, it seems... even sadder than giving in to an e-book to use it for stealing books. 

[KeithHernandez]

I am at my parents and got to there place at like 2 am yesterday after visiting friends in the town I went to college in.  I really wanted to go to old navy and buy one pair of non skinny jeans for work, but I was able to stop myself on principle (they were on sale for $12 from 12-4 am).

[Pedro Picasso]

I did my part and went to a store to return something today. But the man won. No returns.

I hate that man.

[wombat]

even sadder than giving in to an e-book

I don't understand what is "sad" or "giving in" about this. I love people who own e-readers because e-reader owners buy books. As an author I am equally happy if you buy my books in either format. No, that's wrong - in fact, anyone who wants my mystery would be doing me a favor buying the ebook because I actually get money for it and I don't for the hardcover. In that case I am much happier if you buy the ebook. There is nothing the least bit sad about it.

[side_show]

It's sad for me because working at a used book store put me through university, and my friend and former boss went from 10 employees and two stores (for over 15 years) to no employees and one store he nearly lost in less than 5 years.  Plus I love actual, physical books and hate contributing to the end of physical publications.

[wombat]

I think we can all agree that would really be sad would be if books were going away. But they're not. No more than music went away because we don't buy LPs anymore. Any way people buy books is a good way.

I feel nostalgic about used book stores too. But then I remember that I live in a world where I can find almost any out of print book online in a minute, instead of looking in stores for it for years and probably never running across a copy. And people are obviously making money selling them to me that way, too, so it's not like it's put that industry out of business.

[side_show]

Finding any book you want may be true for you Linda, but as a Canadian, most of my favorite authors are not available in a digital format, and it does scare me that a wealth of my national literature may not make it.

[wombat]

No, I mean I can find almost any book that isn't available digitally, because people sell used books online. That's a bigger miracle to me than ebooks.  I used to have a list of books I was looking for in my wallet that I carried around for years. Now I can just search for them on sites where used book sellers all over the country list their inventory.

[lprkn]

When the boy complained about holiday workings one of his friends told him it must be a real bitch having sore pockets from all that money. It was funny.

Something like this should always be an option:

[Pedro Picasso]

...sit in an all-day meeting that begins at 8:45am the Monday after Thanksgiving.

[CortJstr]

The Monday after Thanksgiving is our single busiest day of the year at work. So I'm gonna come in an hour early and work my ass off all day. Yay?

[Doc]

Beach. That is all.