Here's the deal.  I'm reading a trilogy by Robin Hobb.  It's a fantasy series, yes, and the books are actually a bit of a trudge, but surely worth it in the end.  I have the first two in paperback.  The third—and final—book is now out in hardcover.  I don't buy hardcover.

So, I would very much like to visit on online book retailer, find the hardcover edition of this book, and check a box that says, "Notify me when this is available in paperback."  Submit!  When I get the email, I click on a link, I check out, I have the book, they have my money.

But nobody does that.  Not Amazon, not Borders, not Barnes & Noble.  Now, I understand that they can't actually place a pre-order for a book that does not yet exist.  It hasn't been announced by the publisher, it doesn't have an ISBN number, and who knows, maybe they'll never get around to printing a paperback version of it.

But chances are (and I'd put them at 99.99%) that this book will eventually show up in paperback form.  They could offer me the option, with the caveat that I may never get notified.  If any of those three retailers had this option, they would have just made a sale.  As it is, I'll likely forget about it, and maybe see the book on a shelf during one of my infrequent visits to a physical bookstore.  And maybe I'll buy it then, and maybe I won't.

On a related note: Borders and B&N both offer lists of books coming soon.  But none of these lists are searchable.  Hello?  Of course, Amazon doesn't seem to offer a browsable Coming Soon list, so maybe the other guys aren't worried.

Mark tagged me for a meme. Pick up the nearest book, turn to page 123, and post sentences 5, 6, and 7.

The nearest book to my computer is... (getting tape measure, as bookshelf 1 is about as close as bookshelf 2)... well, they are both within the margin of error, so... I give you two books.

On my left, from Home Comforts, The Art & Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson:

"Shop first for inedibles, such as paper towels and soap. Next, pick out nonperishables: canned and bottled things and anything else that you will store outside the refrigerator or freezer, such as sugar, salt, dry cereal, flour, canned and room-temperature bottled foods. Next, buy refrigerated things, such as milk, cheese, fresh meat and poultry, and fruits and vegetables."

On my right, from Monkey, a folk novel of China by Wu Ch'eng-en, translated by Arthur Waley:

"It was now getting late, and the farm-hands set out tables and brought in several dishes of cooked tiger-flesh which they laid all sizzling in front of their master and his guest. 'I must tell you,' said Tripitaka, 'that I was admitted to the Order almost as soon as I left my mother's womb, and have never in my life indulged in meats of this kind.' The hunter thought for a while."

I never could stick to the directions. It was a problem in college. I'm also not going to tag anyone, because, while I recognize that it can be fun, Mark tagged all the people I know with a blog (sad, isn't it?) and plus, I don't do that sort of thing. What a pisser I am.

Feel free to do this on your own blog, comment on my books, or post your own Page 123 entries below.

As I was (in the previous post) tossing many of my sci-fi and fantasy books, I came across several that I wasn't throwing out, and probably won't ever throw out. In the interest of a little ying in my yang, here's some of what's not in the heap:

• Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, which gave me weird psychedelic nightmares when I was a kid, and which I have always intended to read again as an adult.
• Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion. It is, far and away, the best story of how a Paladin becomes one. The end is a little bittersweet, the prequel is just disappointing, but this is fine fantasy.
• Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. Still one of the best out there. Writes circles around Robert Jordan.
• Brian Daley's Star Wars: The Han Solo Adventures is still good, rollicking, swashbuckling, Star Wars fun.
• Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet books. Small, tight, well-written and fun. There are just two of them, and they are often overlooked in favor of her dragon books. But not to be missed.
• Lawrence Watt-Evans' Esthshar books, of which there are many, each standalone. These are humorous fantasy novels, I consider them to be Xanth books for grown-ups.
• The E.T. novelization, which is an awesome, funny, enlightening read.
• Everything I own by Connie Willis, especially To Say Nothing of the Dog.
• Most everything by Guy Gavriel Kay. The first books I read by him were the Fionavar Tapestry books, which in the end are a little self-involved, but his stand-alone books are very good, especially The Lions of Al-Rassan, and A Song for Arbonne.
• Ursula LeGuin's _Earthsea_ books, so recently maligned by the SciFi Channel.
• John Christopher's _Tripods Trilogy_ which I read when I was twelve, and a Boy Scout, and loved, and now think might be subtly religious in tone, but I don't know because I haven't read them in twenty-two years and I should, so I'm keeping them.

I know, I know. Gasp! Danny throwing away fantasy books? Well, it is happening, even as I type. I'm finally opening my boxes of books shipped from Iowa, and I am tossing some books I have carted with me for a long time, some since college!

Why? Well, I don't have any time to read anymore, and I suspect I won't have much until Aidan turns into a teenager (that's when he'll start actively avoiding me, right?). Which means I'll have even less time to _re-read_ anything I already own. So I am tossing those books which I might once have thought I'd re-read at some point.

Mostly I'm keeping the good stuff, and the sentimental stuff.

On the heap:

• Everything by Robert Jordan. What a hack.
• All of Raymond Feist's books after the first three.
• Everything I own of Katherine Kurtz, and Katherine Kerr, whose books I couldn't tell apart in my memory, anyway.
• All books by Janny Wurts. Though I enjoyed them, I can't remember anything about them.
• I've also decided to take a principled stand and junk anything I own by Orson Scott Card. He's a fascist, a homophobe, and a good writer, but one out of three is not enough for me.
• All 3,180 pages of Tad Williams' Otherland series.
• Gregory Keyes' Age of Unreason series, though I'm keeping his first two-book series, The Waterborn and The Blackgod.
• Other standouts on the heap include some of Brin's more self-serving works, Star Wars fluff books, Zelazny's books, and The Mists of Avalon which Tiffany saved. Boy, that was another bad TV adaptation.