Nice Try, But..

..no cigar!  

After reading about the evils of Amazon, I decided to try to kick the habit. There is a book I want to read and the waiting list at the library is obscenely long, so I thought I will just buy it. But if not at Amazon, where? 

Well, there is a place about 7 km away - a huge bookstore chain that is - wait for it - Canadian!  Bonus!  I checked online and indeed they have the book, but only one copy left. At Amazon, I do not pay shipping, but at this online store I would, but that's OK, I thought;  I will just drive over and pick up the book. Voila! No shipping charges! So, how hard could that be? And just think how virtuous and patriotic I will feel on the way home, having supported the Canadian economy. 

As someone once should have said....All's not well that ends not well, as that happens more often! 

Who would have thought that one lone book, not where it should be, could be so impossible to track down? I had two clerks searching...and they were smart clerks...and they looked everywhere that made sense...but no matter, the book won. It had somehow escaped captivity, and was on the lam somewhere in that massive warehouse of books, cleverly hidden in the Fs or the P's instead of the Ms, or in a different section of the store altogether. The choices are endless...Eventually, hands were thrown up and the search was called off. 

So here I am back home, book-less, and ready to go online to see if I can do better. I can order it online through this same bookstore and hope they have found that lost book in the meantime...or have ordered more copies...or I could wait a few months to get it at the library.... or...I could just give in? 

Geez...Amazon was SO easy....but I am not ready to give in..at least not yet!