Online book shopping in 2011...

It all began with a gift card. Mya was given a gift card as an afterthought by her aunt, who hadn't had a chance to use it. "You can use this, right?" her aunt said to her, and Mya being Mya, she shook her head no with her classic deer in the headlights look as if she were being handed a gift card for Victoria's Secret instead of Borders. I probably should have worried more that my kid has no use for a Borders gift card, but I was more than happy when she decided to hand it over to me, and I would rather use it myself than force her to use it on a book she'll never read just so I can feel like I'm a good parent.

So in a quiet moment, being unable to sleep thanks to Ms. Boots' new erratic sleep schedule, I decided to do a little online book shopping, since I am out of books and am rereading the Twilight saga for the twelfth time. I read them every Christmas now, they have become my Wuthering Heights. While I love re-reading them, I would much rather be spending what precious little reading time I do have digesting new information, so I decided to poke around the Borders website.

Yeah. Here is what was available in New Releases (since it has been almost two years since I have darkened the door of a bookstore, I have no idea what is good to read these days): cookbooks, a vast array of Stephenie Meyer knockoffs trying to ride the coattails of the Twilight phenomenon, cheesy romance novels, and self-help books (for losing weight, gaining love, and seducing vampires...okay I made that last one up, but I'm not far off...if you don't believe me, have a look yourself!)

This is what people are writing now. This is what people are writing now because this is what people are reading now. This is what is important in 2011. Money, sex, food, and the latest craze. It makes kind of sad and nauseous all at the same time that if I want to read some good fiction, I have to turn to what someone wrote a hundred years ago. Now I'm all for romance novels, the novel I am currently writing would probably fall into that category, but I would like to think that I am giving it some substance. I want a book that I can curl up with and fall into, and I found none of that. After 9 pages of browsing, I finally gave up and decided that if I want to find a book worth reading, I need to dig deeper. I need to actually go to the bookstore and commune with the books to find one (or a few) that speak to me. Maybe I can get away with it if I take Sarah early enough...I am now on a mission, I shall let you know what I find!