Adventures in Book Buying

Now ya'll know I love my e-book reader. It's the closest thing to my heart and I adore it but my daughter is another story altogether. She and I, like many of you have been waiting for Acheron to come out and, though I understand it's available in e-book format, she wanted a copy "to hold in her hand". We live in Texas and got some rain from Hurricane/Tropical storm Eduardo. Yay on THAT bit of good luck because this is a dry, dusty place. Anyway, we headed out in the rain the other day to get our copy of Acheron.

Let me say this about the town where I live...it's verrrrry conservative. Lots of churches and the three colleges here are all private and church affiliated. It's a cliquey little town that features extremes. We have extreme "cowboys". Yep. The real deal, lots of petroleum industry (oil field) workers and lots of very religious college students and professors. It's a weird mix. One of the largest bookstores in town features row upon row of religion based books and two tiny rows of romance. It's a scary situation, let me assure you. Now, I have nothing against religion but I want my ROMANCE. Let me mention too, that this is also a town that features stories about the witchery and sorcery of Harry Potter and should the books be banned from our schools. You get the drift.

Despite all that, I figured this store would carry Acheron so we went inside and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, I went for help and an elderly fellow at the "search and find" counter offered to help but the minute I said the name of the book, his eyes went BIG. He laughed and said he'd look it up but he didn't have to. Said the entire order sold out in about 30 minutes. What kind of book IS this? He asked. Daughter and I laughed and said it was a paranormal romance. He seemed shocked about that and then he said, we're getting a shipment next week but they've all been sold already.

We left the store completely shocked. Daughter looks at me wide-eyed and said....MOM, there are DARK HUNTER fans here. In ABILENE!!!! I can't believe it. I had to laugh but shake my head at the same time. Figured there would be a few fans of the popular series but nothing like this. Wow, does Sherrilyn Kenyon really compete with Harry Potter here in this little burg? Looks like. The man at the bookstore said there had been a line and this was crazy too. Daughter and I started to talk about how cool it would've been to stand in line with "closet" paranormal readers. You know, chat it up, talk about the characters. That kind of stuff.

In the end, we found our copy at Wal Mart where we were headed anyway. The book section there isn't all that hot so it was a nice surprise. Groceries and a bestseller all in one fell swoop. Did anyone else pick up a copy and find lines? We were wondering about that and if the rush to buy was just here. How many times have you stood in line and what kind of book would compell you to do it? I'll confess, I've stood with my kids in a couple of Harry Potter midnight release deals and it was kind of fun. As a writer and a reader, my heart melts at the knowledge my kids love reading as much as I do.

So what author/book would you stand in line for?