We were sitting at the dining room table chatting after supper when I heard a truck pull up and stop out front. UPS is like clockwork in our neighborhood, so I suspected it was them. I peered out between the slats and there was the distinctive brown truck. Sometimes the driver will knock or ring the doorbell before leaving a package outside, but in this case there was no knock, no ring. We went back to our conversation.
A few minutes later, I decided to check, and there were two HUGE boxes on our bench. I knew in a flash what it was–my contributor copies of The Stephen King Illustrated Companion. Right I was. I lugged them inside (about 35-40 lbs each) and opened one. We spent the next hour fondling and marveling over the book, which is a beauty to behold. It was like Christmas morning, opening all the little envelopes to discover the reproduced documents within. The attention to detail on these reproductions is amazing, and I think collectors and fans will appreciate it. It was also good to see the crisp photos for the first time, since I’d only had contact sheets before. All in all, I am very, very impressed and pleased with the final product.
So, now I get to obsess over numbers again. The Barnes & Noble sales rank is a more tangible number than Amazon’s, which is a combination of number of sales, sales position, sales trajectory, the delta in the stock exchange, the phase of the moon and other esoteric bits of data. If you have a B&N sales rank of 310, that means it’s the 310th bestselling book from them. I started the day at 100,000 and something, dropped down to 750, hit a number in the 400s by the end of the day, and was down as low as 314 this morning. Julia Child has a 40-year-old cookbook in the #100 position. That slot’s mine!
If you’re inclined to order the book from B&N online, here’s the link again. I’m looking forward to hearing what readers think of it.
Interesting turns of events on Survivor last night. Russell basically bulldozed his way into finding an immunity idol with absolutely nothing to go on, which is unprecedented. Then another player got kicked out of an immunity challenge for poor sportsmanship, and another got evacuated after his blood pressure dropped to a perilously low level. I thought maybe that team would be given a pass from tribal council, but no, they’re now down three players and well on their way to imploding completely. I wonder if Russell has thought about the long game. If he manages to get everyone else on his team evicted, how long is he going to last after a merge?
Fringe was a by-the-numbers X Files episode this week, with mutants living underground sucking people through the earth. Olivia’s hearing problems are interesting–wonder how that’s going to play out. Walter just keeps on keeping on. I liked the scene where he mused about the significance of the empty child’s grave, and his nonchalance over the way his hand went numb, complaining only that he’d need help going to the bathroom “in 23 minutes.”
Law & Order: SVU was pretty terrible this week. Both the new cop and the new D.A. grated on my nerves. Since the show runs opposite the vastly superior Criminal Minds, there’s a strong chance I might delete it from my recording queue this season.
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