silversandbea

Ugh, came down with something, and yesterday was supposed to be the day I got back to the gym (I typically take the first two weeks of January off as a treat to myself - plus most of the resolutions crowd thins out by MLK day)

I've imposed some not-resolution rules on myself to try to make myself pay attention to my 'to read' pile. There are now multiple corollaries to the original set of rules (on library books, flash sales, getting books for free, novellas, and graphic novels), but the basics are: I can only purchase a new book if a) I've read at least two of the books in my TBR pile or b) a month has passed since my last book purchase.

Half a month in and it's already a struggle - for one thing, I keep on finding myself in or near bookstores. Friday was Moon Palace Books, where I decided that graphic novels had their own track, and then on Sunday I had to keep myself out of Uncle Hugo's. Both are great for browsing, but not so good for hunting for a specific book. Moon Palace's graphic novel section isn't huge, but they seem to separate the big two from the other publishers and then is sorted by writer, except when it's sorted by title or the artist is more famous, and sometimes the second tier comics publishers (Image, Dark Horse, Boom, ect) are with the big two, and manga? There's manga in there wherever it feels like being, I think. Plus there's one shelf for books about comics, maybe? Oh, also the recommended books are all in the front of the store. Uncle Hugos is all SFF - well, that and books about SFF, so there's a new section, a used hardcover section, a used paperback section, and sometimes the books are on shelves two or three deep, plus there's cardboard boxes on the floor for specific authors, and more books on top of the bookshelves and. . .

Either way, the best way to find something is to let yourself unfocus, breathe, and then have your eyes roam around until something jumps out on you. It usually works.