Red Riding Hoo-what?

I was first intrigued when I saw Red Riding Hood at the bookstore about a couple of weeks ago. They were stacked below an LCD screen that apparently shows the trailer of the movie the book was turned into. I don't know if the book was adapted to the big screen of if this is just a movie novelization. Nevertheless, I immediately looked up reviews on amazon.com to see if I'll buy it. I first saw the rating of two-and-a-half stars and asked why since very rarely I saw a book rated so low. Imagine my surprise (and to some degree, relief) when I saw what the reviews were. They were all blaring two words: RIP-OFF!. I guess I'll leave the explaining to this person:

2.0 out of 5 stars This edition = total rip off!, January 22, 2011

By

Beth Windham "Book Lover" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Riding Hood (Paperback)

This story is genuinely wonderful and well written, HOWEVER, I highly recommend to everyone out there that you save your money and not purchase this edition of the book. The story is incomplete and its pretty much just a rip off. In this edition the ending is not included, even though there is no waning of that on the front. You have to go on the website and read the end AFTER the movie is released because that`s when the ending will be up. The average price of this book anywhere, is around $10. So you pay ten bucks for an incomplete product? Can you say rip-off? You wouldn't buy a book in the used bookstore with the end ripped out, would you? So why buy a full priced book with no ending? This is just a jacked up ploy to get people to buy movie tickets. Yeah sure, if you're thinking of buying this book you could look around on the internet and find out that there was no ending included in this edition, but the average person just going through the bookstore won't know that. There is no warning that the book is incomplete on the front, thus its set up to take advantage of people and suck them in, to where they'll be dying for the ending so bad that they will be most likely to just go to the movies when it comes out. I personally think this is soooooooooo wrong! Not only is this set up where people pay for incomplete merchandise, it also makes it to where if you really want a complete edition of this book to put on your shelf, and already bought this edition, you'll have to buy it twice. If the author/publishing company wanted to do it that way, they should have at least have been honest and have a blurb on the front of the book warning people about this, instead this is set up to be misleading and take advantage of someone who really wants to know the end. They purposely don't warn you of there being no ending because they know that far less people would buy it that way, but if they don't tell people, people wanting the full version will pay twice. I myself returned my copy when I found the page, at the END of the book, where it informed me that I couldn't read the end until AFTER the movie released. I encourage people to also return their copies of this edition. It would be a shame if this sort of thing turned into a trend with books; sucking as much money as they can from consumers just so people will pay twice what they would have so they can know the ending or have a complete book. You wouldn't pay for a pair of socks with the toes cute out, or a wagon with only three wheels, would you? So why should people have to pay good money for incomplete books? Its really unfair, dishonest, and just plain wrong.

Amen to that. Sheesh! Who wants to buy an incomplete book? It's like buying a preview. Lame publicity stunt. Very lame.

P.S. I heard that the movie is good though and I really like Amanda Seyfried (read: Mamma Mia!)

AV

Bookmark This

Well today is another go-and-find-some-good-reads-at-the-bookstore day! But I guess when I visit the bookstore everyday, I usually end up crestfallen after not being able to buy the books I want--oh money, will you please be infinite?

After our rehearsal for my Literature class, I immediately went to Powerbooks-Trinoma...

GOOD GRIEF! I LITERALLY SLEPT YESTERDAY WHILE WRITING THIS POST. Anyway, I'll still be writing this as if it just happened earlier. That's not cheating, right? :)

After our rehearsal for my Literature class, I immediately went to Powerbooks-Trinoma to have my usual book-hunting. I've been doing this almost everyday and it never tires me to visit bookshops to have books as company. I even travel across malls to visit their bookshops (see: Fully Booked, NBS, Bestsellers, and Powerbooks).

While browsing for books at Powerbooks, a particular book caught my attention: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (it's part of a trilogy). It has this really eye-catching cover of a knife (so fitting) imposed in a white background. I picked up an open-for-browsing copy and read the first few pages. Little did I notice that I already read nearly twenty pages. The plot, which I think is along the lines of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, is really engaging. I decided to try to purchase it and being the O.C. book collector that I am, I asked for a hardcover copy. The staff there were helpful and they even know the other books in the series. After much typing and calling, the unfortunately couldn't find a copy so I opted to have the book by special order. But BEWARE: Special orders from this particular bookstore entails HUGE costs and I mean REALLY HUGE costs. The Knife costs about P850-P900 but when I asked for a special order, their calculated price was P1500!! What the heck?!? That's like, almost twice the price of the book! In the end, I just said I will return some other day and instead, I had Fully Booked order my book together with The Ask and The Answer.

I also bought these from Powerbooks:

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="I really like them!"][/caption]

I usually am not a collector of bookmarks but I have an addiction to them lately. Those two bookmarks I got from Powerbooks for only P15.00 apiece! Aside from being really cheap, they have lots of great designs too, though many of them are for women. This is what I like in Powerbooks. Their supplies and knick-knacks are really cheaper in comparison to Fully Booked who sells bookmarks as if they're made of precious materials. Sheesh. So there is my latest bookshop adventure.

P.S. I should really be studying now for my Final in my Literature class. Oh joy (sarcasm).

P.P.S. I would sincerely like to extend my condolences to the relatives of the Sedilla family who passed away in a fire accident. Even if I haven't personally known and met their daughter Miss Patricia who is a good friend of some of my high school classmates, I wish that she and her family will find eternal joy in the hands of our Creator.

Book Haul Number One: 2011 for 2011

Having a blog about books is somehow an achievement for a self-confessed bookworm and this will be my first post that's completely related to books. Hooray for me! I've been itching to write something about books and reading and finally, I had the opportunity to write one.

For this week, I actually got three books. Oh joy!. But that trigger-happiness that I experienced came with a price. MY WALLET GOT SLIMMER--wish I was the one who got slimmer instead. Bummer. I have formulated a sort of conjecture for this that relates money and the number of books bought: "The number of books is inversely related to the number of paper bills in a wallet".

Now back to the real purpose of this post. The books that I purchased are:

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore, The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, and The Red Pyramid also by Riordan.

 

[caption id="attachment_20" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="Nude books i.e. unjacketed"][/caption]

I got I Am Number Four from Powerbooks-Trinoma (yes, they've recently renovated their store there and it now looks "commercial" to me very much like National Bookstore. No more comfy seats and reading-on-the-floor. I guess I'll be missing their former store design with all the carpeting and wooden shelves and stuff) at P679 , The Lost Hero and The Red Pyramid from Fully Booked-The Block at P684 and P648  respectively. That brings me to a whopping expense of ...wait I'm doing the math...P2011!! 2011 for 2011! So expect some reviews on these books probably later this month after school ends and after I finish reading Good Omens (which I'll probably review next week).

I Am Number Four is sort of an impulsive purchase. I was expecting to get Number Four later this month since I ordered it from Fully Booked (so I guess I would be cancelling that order). Part of the reason I immediately bought Number Four once I saw it is that I aside from me itching to read it, I also want, no, I need to have my books in hardcover and finding this book in hardcover is a real pain--I know, it may seem wasteful to you, but reading and buying books is simply my guilty pleasure and I buy books in hardcover as much as possible to improve my growing personal library. I  prefer hardcover books over paperback because of their durability. Paperbacks do not really have much protection from the elements and they immediately suffer from foxing unlike hardcovers which rarely fox except for some which were printed using acidic book paper. I buy books based on their edition and condition and rarely on their price and I believe books can never be a waste of money and the knowledge and entertainment you get from reading is priceless. Leave me the whole day in a pretty big bookshop (Fully Booked-Bonifacio High Street = HEAVEN) and I would be ever thankful.

Do not judge a book by its cover. Scratch that. The cover of Number Four is just awesome. Best cover of a book I've seen so far. Why hadn't the publishers of Harry Potter...oh never mind.

[caption id="attachment_19" align="aligncenter" width="540" caption="I really dig the debossed symbol on the cover!"][/caption]

I'm so excited to read this and although I have this in its electronic format, I deliberately did not finish reading  because I want to own a copy of the book. LOL at my obsession.

On the other two books, the reason I bought them is because I liked The Lightning Thief. I liked Riordan's style of writing whilst intended for children, can also be appropriate for teens. I really wanted to finish the series but I'm still saving for the boxed set--and I already saved almost three quarters--which is rather expensive at P3799 (Boo!).

As I conclude this post, I would just like to extend my thoughts toward the people of Japan. Stay safe and be strong!

AV.