A Funny Story About Book-Shopping (And an Important Update)

You might be wondering at the title of this post. Well, you need wonder no longer!

Let me explain.

Important Update:

The way I do my weekly newsletter is going to change a little. After last week’s newsletter, which was basically a novel, I learnt that apparently the normal way to do subscriber updates every week is to send a post notification.

Ahahaha. I probably should have learnt that from the beginning.😅

However, while you will now be getting a post notification from me every week as opposed to a newsletter, I will still occasionally send out a newsletter, whenever I have something important to share with you — like cool updates on the site, any time I have a major victory you might be interested in, etc.

Don’t worry though! The promise I made in my welcome email will still be fulfilled. Its just that now, instead of receiving recommendations and stories in a newsletter, you will get them in my blog posts instead, which will arrive directly in your inbox with the post notification system.

In a blog post that’s about books, I will recommend at least one book. In a post about art, I’ll recommend a book about art. In a post about writing — you guessed it — I’ll recommend a book about writing. That way, you’ll still be getting the value — but I won’t be super stressed from trying to write a new long newsletter each week as well as a blog post.

Thank you all for bearing with me as I continue to work things out on my site! You Storykeepers are amazing! To be honest, I think it’s actually better this way — keeping my main content on the site means everyone will be able to enjoy it, no matter when they sign up. Otherwise somebody might have missed something awesome in one of my newsletters, cause they hadn’t signed up before that week.

Thanks again! To kick this new system off and give an example, I’m going to share the story I shared in last week’s newsletter. However, my recommendation at the end will be different, so stick around even if you did read my newsletter last week. Without further ado, here it is:

The Tale of the Burgeoning Book-Buyer

Once upon a time, I was on a mission in a store in my town. There was a book series I recently got out of the library, only they didn’t have the final book yet.

It was on hold.

I couldn’t wait for somebody to drop it back to the library! It was the 9th book (technically 8.5, points to anyone who knows what it is now) in a series I was very invested in at this point, and the last book had ended on a cliffhanger!

I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN!

*Deep breaths.* I bet you’ve felt like that before, too. Anyway, I went to this store with my sisters to buy the whole series. Cause I wanted to reread the earlier books too.

And they look awesome on the shelf. The colours … the covers …

*Ahem.*

So I entered the store, and went straight to the books section. And lo and behold, there they were, books 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.5.

Um …

So clearly I wasn’t getting all of them at this store. Even though they were the cheapest there. (I had been to all the other bookstores in town before coming to this one, and checked the online ones too. This was the best price.) So, what did I do?

Bought books 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.5, obviously. Walked with them awkwardly to the checkout, holding them in a large stack. (I was smart. I didn’t have a bag. Or a basket. Or a trolley. Genius really.) By the way, these particular books were really thick. About as thick as The Name of the Wind or a single part of the The Stormlight Archive. And those books are thick, people.

Real thick.

Paid for the books. Walked with them awkwardly to the car, stabilising them with my chin when they seemed too wobbly. Put them on the seat next to my younger sister in the back in two piles, and asked her to keep them from flying all over the car.

She looked after them. She’s good like that. 🙂

But now what to do? I was still missing books 1, 2, and 8. I asked my older sister (the valiant chauffeur) to take me to the other bookstore — the one I’d been in earlier that afternoon to check the prices. Even though they were a couple of dollars more expensive at this particular bookstore, I decided I’d rather have the full set now than wait.

So I ventured forth into this other bookstore by myself while my sisters waited in the car (probably sick of me dragging them round the book-sections of stores by now), and went straight to the shelf where this series sat. I was a little worried, as I approached, that somehow both of the two copies this bookstore had of book 1 would have sold out in the half-hour I’d been gone. I reached the shelf …

Thank goodness! They were still there!

I hummed and haahed for a minute over which version of book 2 to get. (Always check behind the front one to see if the one behind is in better condition). Went with the front one in the end anyway.

Bought all three, books 1, 2, and 8, and added them to the pile my younger sister was starting to eye rather ruefully. Her arm was getting sick of being a seatbelt for my books.

But she still looked after them on the way home. Isn’t she a great little sister?

Now came the real problem.

How to get all those books inside? Nine giant books … hmmmm … I could make two trips, but that’s such a bother …

I asked my little sister to pile them into my arms, from book 1 at the bottom to book 8.5 at the top. My older sister looked at me like I was wearing a jellyfish on my head as the pile started to look like a skyscraper in my arms, and asked why I didn’t carry them in two stacks. “Why do that?” I said the best I could with my chin being clamped onto the thick book just below it to stabilise the pile. “That’s what chins were invented for.”

Carried them all in — my arms and back were aching as I walked through the house to the bookshelf — and arranged them nicely on the shelf. Amazingly, there was just enough room. My Mum watched from the room nearby, with raised eyebrows. “That’s a lot of books,” she said.

“You should’ve seen me carrying them in,” I replied.

~ After which I read happily ever after. Until I got to the end of 8.5 and it ended on a cliffhanger, and I realised that book 9 doesn’t come out until later this year. ~

*The agony …*

But the main motto of the story? Take a bag when you go book shopping.

Particularly if the books are thick.😅

Closing Note and Recommendations

I hope you can enjoy having this story on my blog forever, now! As promised, along with that shoutout to Shannon Messenger’s The Keeper of the Lost Cities series, here’s my book recommendation for this week:

The False Prince, by Jennifer A. Neilson.

This book is great. I wouldn’t recommend it for under 12s, as it does have some violence, and some people are killed for somewhat cruel reasons, however, on the whole, this series is an awesome medieval fantasy! It’s about a boy called Sage who is trained alongside two others to try to impersonate the lost prince, Jaron. It’s a great story, and Sage’s sarcastic humour and way of improvising is amazing. Huge recommendation! Loved this series!

That’s it for now, Storykeepers! Let me know in the comments what you think of my new system. Hopefully it’s not too jarring as my website has only been up a couple of months. Also let me know what cool books you’ve been reading lately — I’d love to hear about them! Until next time!