Everything I Bought While Working at Barnes & Noble
Please don't do the math.
Over the holiday season, I was a temp at Barnes & Noble. (Which means I bought all of this in three months.) The beautiful thing about working there was the employee discount: 50% off books and cafe items. Naturally, I took full advantage, practically cycling my paycheck back through the business every week.
Here lies everything that I was unable to exercise self-restraint on.
Freebies
First and foremost, these are the freebies. The employees get access to new releases, uncorrected proofs, advanced reader copies, et cetera. I didn’t want to be too greedy, and there were a lot of books that weren’t my cup of tea, so I only took five.
Nonfiction
Ironically, I originally bought The Feminine Mystique as a gag gift for a friend who requested feminist literature for a white elephant gift exchange, but started reading it and decided to keep it.
I’ve read excerpts from Against Interpretation and wanted a copy for myself, thought I ought to try Didion, and am very interested in the debate that Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma delves into: can you separate the art from the artist?
Nonfiction, cont.
If there’s one thing I love to learn about, it’s other writers. My nosy ass also loves reading other people’s journals, hence the Plath. Didion & Babitz explores an infamous dynamic between two female writers that I’ve heard so much about. Also — I only connected the dots after I bought it — but the author Lili Anolik hosts a great podcast called Once Upon A Time… At Bennington College. Borges’ nonfiction intrigued me for the variety of content (and the sheer size of it).
Short Story Collections
I fell in love with Gaitskill after Bad Behavior, and was intrigued by the premise of The Devil’s Treasure. Joyce Carol Oates earned a special place in my heart after I read Beasts and a few of her other short stories. Rejection reminded me a lot of Bad Behavior, which is what piqued my interest.
Miscellaneous Fiction
Archipelago intrigued me for the linguistic element, and Katabasis was something I began reading on the clock during slow closing shifts. I don’t usually go for fantasy, but thought I ought to branch out. I was also interested in the elements of classic literature involved in the world-building.
Horror
What Moves the Dead is a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. I’ve been meaning to try more retellings of classics. Blood on Her Tongue was a random purchase; I was drawn to the cover and the gothic elements, plus a coworker recommended the author to me. I thought: what the hell, why not.
The Campus Novel
This sub-genre holds a special place in my heart. I somehow ended up with two copies of The Idiot, so I’m unsure of what to do with the second one. Also, this cover of Stoner is gorgeous.
Classics
Top two are Russian, bottom left is American, bottom right is English. These are just a few of the classics I’ve been intending to read, drowning in the ocean of a TBR list I’ve compiled.
I go fucking crazy for a book around 100-200 pages. I’d heard so much about The Stranger I had to give it a shot, and The Myth of Sisyphus is what my existential ass has been turning to when my mental health gets particularly bad. Surprisingly, it helps.
That’s it! I hope you enjoyed seeing a glimpse into my book-buying habits, and please let me know which one you recommend I read next.
you can send the extra copy of the idiot to me thank you.
this is making me want to go to the library today and pull out more books despite me needing to return about 20 of them (thank god for renewals)