My Precious Brick and Mortar becoming obsolete.

Melissa over at Taking What is Left is having a Virtual Book Club. The conversation will be live, and I think it will be fun. Hop over there and check it out. The book is called Boomsday by Christopher Buckley, and I went to Tallahassee last night to get it. I walked confidently into Barnes and Noble, and walked over to the section where his books should be. There were many of his books. However Boomsday was not there. I thought that maybe since it just came out last year it would be on display somewhere, so I went to talk to the customer service representative. She smiled at me and stated that the paperback edition is coming out in may, so they haven't ordered any more hard bound copies. Would I like to order one? No? OK, have a good day.

If I wanted to order a book and wait a week for it to get here, Amazon is ready when I am, and the shipping is cheaper than the gas to and from Tallahassee. I thought, well, if Barnes and Noble doesn't have it, then maybe Books-A-Million will have it. Books-A-Million was on the way back anyway, so we stopped by on our way home. They gave me the same story. They can order the book for me, and I can come back to pick it up in a week. I could order the book used from Amazon for $3.65 plus shipping, and the shipping charges are cheaper than the three gallons of gas it takes to get to and from Tallahassee in our minivan.

I order online all the time, but sometimes, I want to walk into the store and see and touch an object before I buy it. The pictures just aren't the same. It's like in the fast food restaurants where they have pictures of their food on the wall menu, and you think, "Yummy, that looks good," so you order that food, and it comes out in real life form of a shriveled looking hamburger with some greasy fries. Pictures just aren't always the same. Comp USA and Best Buy are good stores to peruse, but even they will sometimes tell you, "Oh, we have that on display only, you have to order that online." So, I have to spend $9 in gas and the hour and a half it takes to get to Tallahassee and back just to look at what I might want to buy. Then, I have to order it online and pay shipping charges as well. Whatever happened to walking into the store, buying something for a good deal, and walking out being able to use it.

Normally, I probably wouldn't even know that the brick and mortar stores didn't carry my books because I would have ordered from Amazon anyway. When I don't care how long the book takes to get here, that's how I do it. In the end, I ordered an ebook and I'm going to attempt to read it on my computer. Wish me luck, and I'll write a review to tell you all how it was.