Catchy title, no? Here's the thing. A few weeks ago I bought The Hunger Games at Target because I was number 300+ on the library waiting list. While I was picking up Hunger Games in paperback (because us would-be writers can't afford hard cover), I noted that the second volume, Catching Fire, was also available in paperback. Good, I thought. If I like this first book I can come back and purchase the second. Fast forward to this weekend. Once I got to Hunger Games, I devoured it and was ready to move on to Catching Fire. I run to Target down the street and search around the stacked piles of hard cover volumes of the trilogy. Where are the paperbacks I saw? The clerk says they don't carry it. Hrmph. I go to Barnes and Noble (because my beloved Borders is no more) and see entire tables piled with Catching Fire in hard cover.
"Excuse me, do you have Catching Fire in paperback?" I ask the clerk.
He doesn't make eye contact with me. "No, we don't have it in paperback. Never did. It doesn't exist."
It doesn't exist.
Suddenly I am forced to question my sanity. Did I really see what I thought I saw? Or have I become Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight who hears footsteps in the attic and trembles as the gaslights dim, but can't get anyone to confirm that they see it too. It's a conspiracy. It must be. Otherwise, I'm a crazy-haired woman with her face pressed against the bookstore glass seeking the unseekable, questing the unquestable, insisting on paperback when all the Good Lord has chosen to show me is hardbacks. As a last resort--because I'm still not much into this computer technology thingy--I search on Amazon for Catching Fire in paperback.
IT EXISTS!
I'm not crazy after all! I can only assume that the bookstores have yanked their paperback copies of Catching Fire from the shelves knowing that readers are eager for the next installment and are willing to pay any price for it.
I'm going to order the paperback copy even though the shipping costs bring it up to the hardback price in the store. Just to spite the stores. And because I like all the books in a series to match. My Harry Potter collection is an absolute mess.
In the meantime, I'm number 171 on the library waiting list at the library.
