Jumping Off Point

"The man who can smile when things go wrong

has thought of someone else he can blame it on."

Robert Bloch

One of the questions that I see popping up a lot is if everyone really hates _______ (insert secret babies, virgins, fake virgins, rakes, *light* romance, uber-sexed books) then whose fault is it that these books are everywhere? What I think these people are saying is that it is our fault because we keep buying them.

I don't know about others, although I have seen on some of the blogs lists of books that people are looking forward to but, I have stopped buying books (one or two here or there). I used to go into a bookstore and see 40 books that interested me in the romance department and it was easy for me to spend that $100 gift certificate. (Okay, let's be real, I had that certificate spent 10 ways to Sunday). Today, I would have a hard time spending that because I would feel like I was buying books only because I had the gift certificate. For example, I received something like $200 in certificates for Christmas this past year (huge family on Bob's side and I am specific about what I want). Can you believe that I still had 40 bucks left by July so I could buy Brockmann's book! That was unheard of a few years back. I couldn't keep money from flying from my pocket.

Okay, so here's an admission and before I continue I should say this is all in Canadian dollars (if you follow this link, I loved the 1969-79 series) so I am not sure how it would work out against such things as the British pound or the US dollar. In one year (4 years ago I believe) I know for a fact that I spent $1100.00 in books. How do I know? We have that club card do-hickey where I would get a 5 dollar coupon for every 100 bucks I spent. Yeah, I got eleven of them. Do you think it is a coincidence that after that year they changed the program and now you only get like 10 bucks a year for your membership? Also, you have to pay for your membership - I think I got it for 25 dollars but every purchase was 10% off and then the 5 for every 100 so it definitely paid me back in spades. Not so much today. I make them give me the card for 15 dollars now but still, I'm not sure it is paying me anymore. Actually, the more I think about it the more I realize that I have spent maybe $300 in total year to date and I would say that is being generous.

Yikes, my thoughts are jumbled again so let's see if I can bring this puppy back around.

So the question, who is buying the books with ______?.

Well, I know my answer is not me!

Now, feel free to blame me for the glut of vampire romance. Absolutely all my fault and I'm not nearly as sorry as I should be ;) You may even be able to blame me for the hotter books on the market, although I have not explored romantica as much as I thought I would have. Oh, the SEAL books are my fault also...okay, Suzanne Brockmann's SEAL books are my fault, I'm not taking the fall for all the bad SEAL books out there! Ohhh, paranormal stuff may be pinned on me but only physics. Witches, ghosts and TT, totally someone else's racket (okay, I admit to reading A Knight In Shining Armor but trust me, it cured me of any need to read TT, although I have stumbled upon a few by accident - that's right, I tripped and the book somehow ended up in my hand.) Bloody hell, I just realized cowboys may be my fault also but I'm telling you I haven't bought a cowboy book in years! (Does Diana Palmer count? No don't answer that!)

Okay, deep breath in...IwasaJulieGarwoodfangirl so I am the reason why *light* historicals are all over the place. There, not so bad. Hey, I can see you making that face!

Wow, is it just me or am I way off from where I started? So in a nutshell, the above is what you can blame me for.

Hmm, so maybe the fact that my To Be Bought list has like ... add one, carry the .... okay yeah, NO books on it! None, nada, zip! is my own fault.

Crap.

I really thought it was someone else.


Edited: Just for fun and because I am a nut, $1100 Canadian converts to 506 Br. pounds or 918 American or 1189 Aus or Wow, 100 502 JPY (I wonder how much a book is in Japan?)