...you can buy all kinds of things to write in or write on. You can buy journals, notebooks, memo pads, blank books, travel logs, diaries, pocket planners, and whatevers. You can buy them in all sizes with all sorts of covers. Paper covers, leather covers, embossed covers, denim covers, covers that are replicas of covers of actual books---Reform School Girls!---covers that snap shut, covers that lock, covers that you close with a ribbon and others that close with an elastic band. You can buy note paper, stationery, greeting cards, calligraphy paper, and post cards. All of it's handsome, all of it's useful, although all of it's overpriced, and if you didn't want to spring for any of it and you still wanted to write, you could makes notes on napkins in the cafe.
Except...
You know what you can't buy at Barnes and Noble, my Barnes and Noble anyway, the one where I was tonight in the mood to write?
A pen.
What, and spoil all those nice notebooks by writing in them? Some of those notebooks are _collectables_, and if you let hoi polloi write in them that would destroy their resale value.
Posted by: David Parsons | Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 10:15 PM
Oh, I am hoi polloi to the core! I want that "Reform School Girls" book so I can scrawl my poop lists all in 'em.
Actually, I was on to the trend in my youth. I stumbled across a publicity photo from a movie called "Switchblade Sisters" and taped it to the front of my journal. My parents were perplexed and a little confused ...
Posted by: Pepper | Monday, September 26, 2005 at 12:29 AM
Gee, I was just in a B&N Saturday, Lance, and I think you're right (or write). How odd.
But man, they've got cats covered. Cat books, calenders, notebooks, cards as far as the eye could see. So, I guess they're good for sumtin'.
Posted by: Kevin Wolf | Monday, September 26, 2005 at 09:41 AM
I suspect they're trying to keep the coffee-drinkers from doodling on their "free" reading material! I'm sure the numbers have been run to ensure that B&N makes more from those who buy a book when the first chapter's hooked them than B&N loses on those who slurp & crumb up a dozen magazines for the cost of a mochalattechinispresso. But you'd be AMAZED at how many unconscious doodlers there are -- that's why some special collection libraries frisk you BEFORE you can look at the Good Stuff.
Posted by: Anne Laurie | Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at 12:24 AM
Lance,
Didn't you see the sign that says "For Display Only"?
Posted by: Agi T. Prop | Tuesday, September 27, 2005 at 11:15 AM
David,
Ah! I see that explains everything! Now I won't mind spending 8.99 for a pocket notebook!
Kevin,
Apparently no one has explained to you this blog's official position on cats. I'll have my secretary send you the memo.
Anne,
I'm a doodler, but I don't doodle in books. I do live in terror of crumbing up something I'm reading while at the B and N loitering library. Are you telling me I can relax and crumb away with a clear conscience?
Pepper,
Now I've got to see Switchblade Sisters.
Posted by: Lance | Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 07:15 AM
>You know what you can't buy at Barnes and Noble...?
>A pen.
Buy some journals, pay by Visa or MC, then steal the pen.
Heh.
Posted by: bartkid | Friday, September 30, 2005 at 03:14 PM
bartkid,
I like this idea. I like it a lot.
And it's a good excuse to buy a book.
Posted by: Lance | Saturday, October 01, 2005 at 06:03 PM
We have them, we just like to hide them and forget that we carry them, and of course they are all fancy and expensive like the journals (no plain office supply stuff).
If your B&N is anything like the one I work at, there should be a pen display at one or two of the cash registers and a set or two of pen bookmarks on the huge "Gift's for Readers" fixture - the one that has frames and cd boxes and stuff. Or you could go old school and buy a caligraphy set. We carry tons of those.
Posted by: Jenny K | Monday, October 03, 2005 at 09:38 PM
sorry, missed this first time through:
I do live in terror of crumbing up something I'm reading while at the B and N loitering library. Are you telling me I can relax and crumb away with a clear conscience?
Please do, at least then we won't be so alarmed at the types of books we have to put back that night. I do worry when the go-backs are dominated by Dr. Wayne Dyer and "He's Just Not That Into You". Besides I'm sure that even with a coffee cup and scone in hand, you will do a much better job of not destroying the books than many of our other customers.
Buy some journals, pay by Visa or MC, then steal the pen.
Which is why it's chained to the countertop. ;)
Posted by: Jenny K | Monday, October 03, 2005 at 09:51 PM
Jenny,
Sounds like I'd be happier making your Barnes and Noble my Barnes and Noble. But only if you're open until 11 on Sunday nights. I don't like the B and N's that close early on Sundays. The one here may not sell pens, but at 10:30 p.m. on a Sunday night, if I'm desperate for a cup of coffee, a cupcake, and a new book, which I often am, I can just hop in the car and I'm saved.
Posted by: Lance | Wednesday, October 05, 2005 at 06:01 AM