Bargain Book Day

I love books. I always have. But, what I love more are cheap books. Hastings, my local video store and all-round media store has a section of books that they call "kudzu". For those that do not know, is a Japanese weed that was imported in the late-19th Century. It was promoted as good forage vegetation for wildlife and an excellent weapon against soil erosion in the 1920s. The problem with Kudzu is that under ideal conditions the weed can grow vines up to sixty feet long each year. It is difficult to control and can quickly take up niches of habitat that were previously occupied by weaker plant species. Basically, it is a pest.

So after going off on that tangent, Hastings discounts books that they have a few of that do not sell very well and occupy space that could be used for more popular and newer books. One of the biggest forms of kudzu that I have found are history books. For one reason or another, Hastings does not sell history books very well. This could be due to the fact that the demographic of Hastings customers ranges from teens to mid-twentysomethings. Usually, if a person goes to Hastings it is to buy the newest Jessica Simpson album or to rent movies, most of which suck. So in this instance I am lucky. I like to go to hasting because they have a huge dvd selection to buy and they have super cheap history books. Most of the books are hard cover and under five bucks, my version of literary heaven.

Tonight, I picked up two books. The first is a history of the VW Bug. It was kind of cool because I was thumbing through the paperback version of it that was around twelve dollars and thinking to myself that I wouldn't mind reading that book sometime. Ten minutes later, I had its hardbound brother in hand for a whopping $3.99. I rule. The second find of the night was a book called "Lab 257", about our military's top-secret chemical and biological weapons lab in upstate New York. I love the mythos surrounding Area 51 and stuff like that so I figured this would be a moderately interesting read, we will see.

Earlier today, I started studying for the A+ Exams. Jim and I made it through the second disc and by the looks of it, the exam should be a breeze. We took the little test at the end of the section and scored well aboving the passing score. With any luck I will be A+ certified by March. I just wished the tests were not so frigging expensive.

Well, I think I am going to watch I, Robot now and see if it was worth the hype. Having heard mixed reviews, I am not expecting much. I did not read the book so maybe it will not be such a let down to watch. I will let you know what I think about it later.