*A Collection of
Antiquarian Curios & Relics*
"These
days, the bigger the company, the less you can figure out what it does . .
."
--Michel Faber, The Book
of Strange New Things (9780553418842)
28.00
OLD
PEOPLE WITH NOOKS (Part Five)
Thankfully, Juan Carlos had
appropriated a drone that was already on autopilot so he could watch from the
safety of the cockpit as it sailed languorously upward to the landing strip on
Jeff Bezo's Cloud City. He may have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express
last night, but he was certainly no pilot. As wisps of cottony clouds
floated around his canopy, a sudden buzzing from his cell phone jolted him from
his reverie. A text from 'The Ghoul' read: Computer virus.
Manchurian Candidate.
So, he hypothesized, a virus that
was spread through a competitor's e-reader would make Jeff Bezos a likely
suspect. Of course, there was always the North Koreans, but that seemed
unlikely. And there really was no turning back now.
Juan waited a moment for the
canopy to automatically slide backwards. He clambered down the side of
the drone and alighted on the concrete tarmac. A woman in an Amazon jumpsuit
greeted him and shouted over the roaring wind, "Welcome to Cloud
City! Follow the yellow line to the gate!"
He squinted at her name tag, it
read: AMANDA HOCKING and then in smaller letters, 'I'm reading Anthony
Doerr's All The Light We Cannot See (9781476746586) 27.00, a National
Book Award finalist.
Juan leaned towards her ear,
"Is Anthony Doerr's book any good?!"
She nodded energetically,
"It's brilliant! If Mrs. Bezos hadn't written another one of her
amazing novels, I really think he would have won this year!"
"Great!' He turned and
followed the yellow line towards the gate.
The yellow line continued and led
him to a huge cathedral-like structure with ten-foot high gothic doors.
When he was within a few feet of them, the fully automated doors swung outward,
beckoning him inside. The antechamber was gargantuan. He walked
across a football field length checkerboard floor of polished marble to a young
man sitting behind a curved desk. His name tag read: JOE KONRATH,
then smaller, 'I'm reading Edward O. Wilson's The Meaning of Human Existence
(9780871401007) 23.95, a National Book Award finalist.
Juan said, "I'm here to see
Mr. Bezos."
Joe didn't look up from reading
Tony Robbins' Money Master the Game (9781476757803) 28.00 and gestured,
"Right through that door."
Juan went through another
automated cyclopean door and gasped at the huge domed ceiling inside.
There was a TV screen hundreds of feet long on the far wall, and it immediately
sprang to life when he entered. A massive computer-generated image of Mr.
Bezos' head spoke in a booming voice, "I am Bezos . . . the Great and
Powerful! Who are you?!"
Odds
& Sods
One would think that
the readers of the Grand Rapids Press would be too elderly to hike, but then I
carefully re-read the subtitle, 'Sixty Walks, Day Trips, etc.' and then
suddenly, it all made sense. The Grand Rapids Press ran their feature on
Jim DuFresne's new edition of Explorer's Guide: 50 Hikes in Michigan
(9781581572063) 21.95 a few weeks ago and the phones have been hoppin' ever
since. We will have more stock shortly . . .
Speaking of
local titles, Stephanie Meyer's (No, not that Stephenie Meyer!) Twin Cities
Chef's Table (9780762792191) 24.95 is back in stock. At that price,
it's a steal . . .
Happy New Year!
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