Ode to Barnes & Noble...

I have often been told that I write well. And I've often been told that you can only do what you know how to do well...(nod to TMBG...moving on)

Not having any particular reason or direction, I stumbled into Barnes & Noble and lunch accompanied by my co-workers today. I am usually much smarter than just trying to walk into this store without a direct purpose or benefactor, but today it would appear that my intelligence has taken a vacation and someone else seems to be at the "wheel".

I has headed in two different sections when we entered. The first was to the "classical" section and the second was to the "crafts/arts" section. I wanted to hit the classical section, because let's face it, after a weekend of Jane Austen...I daresay I was entranced by the mirth of a generation long past and would gladly have continued walking in their carefree adventures much longer than I should admit, if only I were allowed to.

I wanted to hit the crafts section, because I am in great need of another pattern for crochet. (Not even close, but yeah...it could happen)

Before I made any progress in any direction, however, I was presented with a book that one of my co-worker/friend had found over the weekend and I was completely drawn in. It was quick, it was witty,... it was semi-original!

The book, nightlight, is about a girl that moves to a small town with a vampire problem. Hmmm...this sounds vaguely familiar. I flipped over to the back cover and read the quick synopsis. In short: The book is a fabulous parody of Twilight. I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time. I look forward to reading all the way through it.

Looking for other possible gems in reading, we headed to the "teen" section, where, if you can believe it or not, there are other vampire books. In fact, now that I think of it...it might have been the "teen-vampire" section since books of other variety were scarce. I picked up book after book and was surprised to find out exactly just how many teenage girls are out there that are being stalked/dated by vampires. I feel slighted.

Standing there, in front of the "I'm looking to be a vampire sacrifice" section, the thought occurred to me, as it often does, the original thought is in fact, dead. No one out there has a story of their own creation and if they do, they don't get to keep it long, because someone will come out of the woodworking with some attempt at a knock off shortly after the original hits the shelf.

It reminds me a lot of what my friend, Jeff, recently posted on his blog. While his blog was more about the technical aspects of TV ratios and correlations with Bluray movies...or something like that...(Yes...I just butchered his blog. My apologies, Jeff. I did TRY to understand. Lol) he touched on a fact that people these days no longer care. They don't stop to consider if they SHOULD just because they COULD. "Should I write a novel that is 99% similar to this other novel? Why yes! I think I shall!" So they crank out some crap-tastic version of the original story and some small publishing house says "hey...why not" and thus you get a shelf wallpapered with "Suck-tabulous" spellbinding tales of love and death, which I am sure all all wonderful reads.

Right...

I shouldn't be surprised though, you see this "originality" everywhere you go! In fact, the pattern that I was looking for in the crafts/arts section was an ear muff cover that I had seen sold in Buckle...or some other store like that...and I thought, I can make that! Ta da! My own knock off!

But I digress....or at least I should, considering the different directions this post has taken.

One of the points in writing this was to say, sure, someone, or even someones, have told me that I should write, because I am good at it. Well, standing in the entrance of Barnes and Noble, staring and shelf after shelf of both original and unoriginal ideas, I realized that the authors who wrote those books, also had people at home telling them they should write. 99% of those people are crap-tastic. Until I get a very original idea...I don't think I will get around to writing.

So what did I end up purchasing, you ask? Well, Nightlight by The Harvard Lampoon, a Tokidoki calendar (my fave and hopefully a future post), a magnetic poetry calendar and a Japanese style sketch book. Oh you didn't know I sketched?? ...yeah, I don't...or not yet anyway...

You have to love Barnes & Noble....the Walmart of the literary world.