More Kvetching About Books

Books and authors I can’t get (as eBooks anyway) from the Boston Public Library:

• Merlin of the Magnolias by Gardner Landry
• The Bear in the Muddy Tutu by Cole Alpaugh
• After the Armistice Ball by Catriona McPherson
• Cat Out of Hell by Lynn Truss

Now that I’m solidly in the library versus buying habit, I’m reluctant to spend the buckos on books. Why? Amongst other things, I’ve got meds to buy (a one month supply of one of my eye drops is $700+ per tiny bottle if Jen is unable to wrestle Medicare into covering it).

If I download an unknown (to me) author from the BPL and am not enjoying the story or the writer’s style, I guiltlessly return it and move on. It’s a whole ‘nother thing if I’ve spent buckos on the book. I feel a bit ashamed for having parted with the dough on the strength of the title and cover art alone and resentful that I now have to read it (because, ya know, I BOUGHT it!). The poor book then sits around the house collecting dust and cat hair until I donate it to the local library. (in the meantime, my guilt compels me to believe that I WILL get around to reading it...next week)

Why don’t I look for some of these new (to me) authors and books at used bookstores? Not only are there no used book shops in my town, the closest new and/or used joints are all an hour’s drive away.

I really miss book browsing but an hour’s drive to be in an enclosed shop with potential COVID carriers is not a smart plan for yours Nf2 truly.

I wonder if I’ll finish that murder mystery within a murder mystery within another one that I started last week. I’m not confused or bothered by the loose Russian nesting doll framework anymore—what’s continuing to annoy is all the inconsistencies and inaccuracies such as:

• The Southern U.S. character using British/Aussie versus American expressions. e.g. saying  ‘in hospital’ versus ‘in the hospital.’
  

• There are NO Walmarts within 20 miles of Copley Square but that’s where the players trot off to when they need new phones. Any savings they might have achieved by shopping there are blown by the amount of gas needed and time spent to drive the 20 miles through molasses slow, rush hour traffic.
  

• The Australian author character is called ‘ma’am’ by all and sundry—not just hotel desk clerks. We don’t ma’am and sir up here.
  

and especially

• The incredible ease with which the characters always find parking. Sheesh, this is Boston not Podunk, Iowa—parking is a blood sport here. Also, getting around on the T is a thousand times easier and quicker than struggling through our traffic.

I half feel as though I’m hate-reading it now—just looking for errors.

If I was going to write a book and set it someplace other than my home turf, I’d either go live there for a few months or hire an asshole like me to slog through it for shit like this.

Could be I’m being a little hypersensitive. I wonder what the red planet’s residents had to say about Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles.