Speaking of Books

So I heard about this book during an interview with the author. The interviewer was quite taken by the book and the author George Saunders, seemed a most extraordinary gentleman. I downloaded a sample and read it and couldn't get the story out of my head. I thought about buying the book for my Kindle, but thought I might purchase a hard copy of it so I could lend it to friends. I stopped by Barnes and Noble. The guy at the greeting desk greeted me and asked if he could help me. I said I was looking for a book called Tenth of December, he shrugged and looked confused. I noticed the book displayed right behind him and picked up a copy, noticed the pages looked rough and went back for another copy. The sales girl noticed the hardcover was crunched and went and got another copy. She rang it up and at 30% off the total was 19 some odd dollars. I said to the sales girl, "How much"? I thought I heard her wrong. She repeated what she said and I asked, "How much was the book originally"? She said 26 dollars. It was a small book, not a huge book. So I decided to go home and download it for $12.99. It is a small wonder that the bookstores are closing, right and left. The sales girl agreed, but said, "we help people". Of course my mind flew back to the guy at the greeting desk, who was clueless, but I didn't say anything. It is a shame that the large bookstores came along, putting the small shops out of business and now they are pricing the books so high, that they are bound to go out of business too. One day we will be passing our books down to our children as antique rarities. The Book is GREAT! I love it so far, each story is written brilliantly and different from anything I have read before.