On the one hand, I absolutely love reading, listening to music, and watching movies, so it would seem Barnes & Noble would be an ideal store for me.
On the other hand, I get my books for free at the library, I get my movies for cheap by renting them - because as I get older I find myself less and less able to rewatch movies, no matter how much I love them - and I get my music from the internet, so I don’t really need anything from Barnes & Noble.
This shouldn’t be a problem. Ideally I should just splurge buy and some crap I won’t even use, but for some reason I just can’t. I walked around the store and decided it was just way too overpriced for me to justify buying any of the stuff I looked at, even though it was technically “free” (I’m using giftcards I got for xmas, if you haven’t figured it out already.) I mean, I just can’t bring myself to spend $39.95 on Futurama season one when it’s $14.99 brand new at Amazon.
So here’s what I need. I need a book that I have to own for some reason. IE a boxed-set or a super nice cover, or a story that just begs to be read over and over throughout the ages, or a big fat volume with 3 or 4 amazing novels in it…etc.
Or I need a DVD (or set of DVDs) that I can’t find anywhere for rent. I doubt this is going to happen so we can probably skip this section. I will note that the 3 DVDs I saw that I actually wanted - Futurama, Forbidden Planet, and Star Trek: TOS - were all overpriced, and one was way out of my pricerange.
Lastly, I need a compelling reason to buy some music or audiobooks or spoken-word albums from B&N. This is almost certainly not going to happen.
Well if I could go in a direction you’ve not mentioned, do you like puzzle books? Crosswords and other books you really need to be writing in the book to use. Although you’d be hard pressed to spend $55 on those.
Perhaps a nice reference book. I look in my atlas about once a week. It’s just nice to have around.
And if, while looking in your atlas, a certain place should peak your interest you could visit it and keep a diary of your visit in one of those blank books.
And maybe a book light to finish off those last few dollars.
Expanding Fern Forest’s suggestion of reference books, I’d recomend *Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable * (click for the info at Amazon), if you don’t already own it.
I don’t know your literary preferences but I’d suggest Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style, 99 retellings of an insignificant event in different styles, because it is not a book to read in one sitting (or maybe it is for the first time) but a book to have somewhere handy and re-read an exercise or two from time to time.
If you’re into comic strips then maybe get a collection of your favourite.
Pick up some children’s books and take them to a local pediatric hospital.
Pick up some children’s books and take them to a local school for classroom use. **
Pick up some books and take them to a shelter (homeless or battered women)
Pick up some large print books and take them to a local nursing home.
** I know it’s very early, but find out the summer reading list. There are always a few kids whose families for whom books can be a real stretch on the budget (was a teacher, saw that, bought books for them).
There’s a very nice collection of Ultimate Spider-Man 1-50 in hardcover only available at B&N. Also, a collection of reprinted Marvel Masterworks… X-Men 1-5, FF 1-20 or so, Spidey 1-30 or so. Softcover, bout fifteen bucks a pop.
If it’s your thing, go for it.
Any book you have re-read, or would like to re-read, would be a good candidate for purchase. To my mind, anything you’ve read more than twice and would like to read again should definitely go on the “to purchase” list.
If you like classic novels, B & N has a very reasonably priced number of these. They’re Barnes & Noble editions, in hardcover, and run only about $4. If you want to read the classics and aren’t fussy about the edition, these would be an excellent value.
If you’re an inveterate reader, B & N also has some “reading accessories” that might make your life easier. A few things I really like are the BookWedge, which enables you to read in bed/on a train/wherever without disturbing others. It looks a bit like a page-sized piece of plexi-glass with a black handle/frame on one side. It works better than any other booklight I’ve ever tried. Another idea might be a reader’s journal. I have one of these and write in it faithfully (just titles and authors for me). Other friends write a few lines on their impressions of a book. It’s interesting to go back over a year and see what you’ve read. If you have a room set aside as a library at home, you might be able to find a lazy-susan style book spinner for dictionaries, etc. Hands-free book stands or lap desks are another idea – something you might not buy for yourself outright but seems awfully handy once you’ve got it.
$55 will buy you a lovely coffee table book. Keep in mind that, once the book is yours, you can do what you like with it. Buy an art book and keep it on the table. When you get tired of it, you can take pictures out of the book and hang them in frames if you like. It’s up to you. I always love the first-class visuals of a nice coffee-table book, and libraries don’t always get them. For instance, I used a windfall to buy Kent Weeks’ edition of the Valley of the Kings coffee-table book. It’s gorgeous, I never tire of looking at it, and the library doesn’t have it.
If you really can’t think of anything to spend it on, I concur with other folks that you can always: a) Use the gift card to purchase gifts for others in the future, or b) Spend the money on books for charities.
What about nice annotated versions of your favorite books, or nice compilations that just look nice on a shelf? I know that there’s a fairly new collection of the Sherlock Holmes stories that looks beautiful that’s around that price (I’m not sure if it’s annotated or not).
B&N has a line of books called Collector’s Library. Small hardbacked editions of classics for $4.95 a piece. They are small enough to be as comfortable to read as a paperback, but with a nice feel like a good library book. They are great buys and have many of my favorites, like Alice in Wonderland, and *Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe *
