Saturday, July 26, 2008

Geek Bookstore

So, it's finally happened, I've surrendered and given in to my inner geek. To those who may protest that my inner geek wasn't that deeply immerged, I protest! For the most part, I've been a mere dabbler in geekdom - watched some Star Trek, played Zelda for eight hours straight, read Harry Potter fan fiction to feed my addiction until the next book came out, but I've never made the jump to hardcore stuff.

Until I discovered the gateway drug know as Pandemonium Books, where I met this guy :
It started innocuously enough. I was reading David Eddings on the train, when I struck up a conversation with a nice man who told me I could find the book I was missing from the series by visiting this bookstore in Central Square.

I walked through the door, and a little threw shot through my spine - here was a whole bookstore dedicated to what is usually regulated to a tiny corner in the back of Barnes and Noble.

It shames me to say that the only genre I like to read is SciFi/Fantasy, and I could really skip the whole SciFi part. I feel like I'm not a truly literate person, because I ought to be curling up to War and Peace or something else written by a foreigner.

In any case, I pick out my selections, and as I'm checking out, I get asked by the man pictured above if I'd like become a member.

"It's free," he said in that monotonous yet expressive tone that only hardcore nerds are able to affect.

"Free!" I squealed. I'm still working on my tone.

Membership meant that after I spent a $250, I'd get a free $25 coupon for the store. Considering that the books I was purchasing cost less than $4 each, I know it it would take awhile to reach my goal, but what was the harm?

Then I was offered the newsletter.

The newsletter contained all the hip happenings taking place in the store, like gaming, parties, author book signings, gaming, forums, gaming, singles parties, gaming and gaming.

I know I should say no, but I couldn't. Something in my soul cried out to be unleashed!

"Sure, send me the newsletter," I said.

I walked out the door with my books in hand, but I knew that I lost more than $8.95. I surrendered to the dark side, baby, and I could never go back.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Comic book stores are where I geek out. Though I usually get the comics I want through subscriptions, I like the atmosphere. It's the only place where I can look at toys and not be judged by people around me. And they have all the good graphic novels. I need to replace some of the books I gave to Jordan over the last few months, so maybe a visit to one is due soon...

Anonymous said...

Haha I guess I'm as purely illiterate as you. Probably more so since Pete also got me addicted to comics. I can only hope Searcy has some sort of bookstore, even if its not nearly as amazing as the one you discovered.