The Casual Price of Vacancy

Earlier this week when thinking about the release of this book, I had no intentions of buying it due to that I have maybe $5 in my account at the moment — being out of a job does that to you. While thinking it over, I remembered I still have money on the gift card attached to my nook. I’ve made a habit to only purchase books on my e-reader through gift cards so I didn’t inadvertently spend money ear-marked for bills on books. I have enough left on the gift card to cover about three more books and thought this could be one of those books. However, upon finding the book in the e-book store, I couldn’t go through with the purchase simply because:

$17.99 for a fiction e-book is ridiculous.

After doing a quick Google search of the reasoning behind this, I have to admit that from a business perspective, I understand why that’s happening. I don’t agree with it, but making money is making money and money pays the bills. I’ve then considered trying to find the actual gift card that’s set up to the account and buying the book in store, which at $21 is not bad for a newly printed, hardcover book. ($35 on the other hand…)

I had a few ideas at first, but after thinking it over, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m simply going to wait out the price. In a month or two, I’m sure there could be a deal running on the book (Black Friday, perhaps?) or the e-book will drop to a much more manageable price. In the meantime, I can concentrate on other novels I’ve let fall to the side in anticipation, or scratch a few itches and reread some favorites. While I’m not 100% behind the idea of waiting to read JK Rowling’s new book, not one part of me can justify spending that much on text on virtual pages.

I am curious of what other readers have done. If you purchased the book, what are your thoughts on the price? Was the novel worth the money spent? If you have not purchased it, do you plan to? Are you interested at all? Throughout all the talk of this book, I’ve kept myself away from the conversations. I don’t want to know anything about the story line when I turn to that first page. In doing so, I’ve found that while I don’t know the plot line, I also don’t know the reactions of other people. I would appreciate remaining spoiler-free, but I would love to hear about your thoughts of what I’ve already encountered.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest

A couple of weeks ago, a friend handed me The Prestige and told me that the book was a mindfuck. I own the movie, but never knew it was an adaptation. So, I took the offer and started reading it. It was weird to be reading a book that was published so long ago that I had never heard of, but I was looking forward to diving in.

I finished the book today. The writing style was something I don’t normally read. It’s written through two diaries between two Victorian magicians, Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier. (Borden was played by Christian Bale; Angier, Hugh Jackman.) They embark on a multi-year feud started by an unfortunate incident. Angier started his career by arranging fake seances and one of his first clients was Borden’s aunt. Borden followed Angier with plans to unveil the ruse. When Borden made his move, he inadvertently knocked Angier’s wife and assistant to the floor, which sparked a miscarriage. The Angiers were wrought with depression, and Rupert was sparked for vengeance. The feud started and continued even after both men were tired of feuding. However, because of pride, neither set out to communicate their views and it spiraled out of control.

The book starts in the current time period where the descendents of Angier and Borden are meeting. I found myself more interested in what was going on “present day” than what was occurring in the diaries. Even so, I enjoyed the mystery. There were substantial differences between the movie and book, but I found that those differences did not ruin the experience of either. It was interesting to see the book’s narrative play out against my memory of the film, and while the differences were stark, I was not disappointed. It was a good read, no matter how long it took me to get through.