When was the last time you bought a book on its first day of publication?

I’ve preordered books from Amazon and received them on their day of release. That happened for several of the Harry Potter books, delivered by owl post, of course (and not a moment too soon). The most recent such was Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Harry potter something or other.
I just read the Ocean at the End of the Lane, I loved it.

Oh, @Jeruba! Now you’ve done it. Now I have another book to add to my list. That looks delicious.

@Hawaii_Jake, Amazon confirms that the publication date of Bleeding Edge is September 17, 2013. So how do you suppose it could already be offering used copies?

I think you’ll like Ocean, even if it is (like Neverwhere) practically a Joseph Campbell seminar.

I have a friend (sort of, only know him on Facebook and we have some other common friends) that just published And God Said Billy and I bought it the day it came out.
It’s about an evangelical that justifies everything he does because God told him or God revealed it to him. It’s pretty funny.
The author grew up in the evangelical world and was part of the whole take over of the Republican Party by the religous right before he figured out how ridiculous and anti Jesus it had become. He knows what he’s talking about when he exposes the ridiculousness of the fundamentalist movement.

@Jeruba I also noticed that little plot twist worthy of Pynchon. Used copies on the date of the premier indeed? We’ll have to get a good detective on the case.

@Hawaii_Jake, curiously, those used copies are priced higher than the new ones. Maybe this is a new angle: buy a new copy upon release (using Prime), read it really fast, and then fill orders for it within the prescribed delivery window.

@Jeruba read it? just turn it around for a profit
next, on book flipping…

Michael Connelly, The Black Box. He was signing in New York last December. I contacted the book shop he was signing at and asked them to ask him to sign one for me and post it, I am in the UK. They were so helpful and he signed it ‘Dear L, all the best from Harry and I’ Harry is the main characters name. I was chuffed.

Double Dexter, the sixth book in Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series.

Shift by Hugh Howey on 8/17/13. It’s the third installment in the Wool series. The nect most recent would be Justin Cronin’s The Twelve. And I’m sure I got A Dance With Dragons the day it was released.

I bought some Stephen King novels for my old girlfriend on the first day. I buy new releases of anything by Andreas Camilleri in the Inspector Montalbano series on the first day they are available in English.

Never have.

@zenvelo Is Montalbano that good? I keep meaning to check out a DVD of that show, and keep roping myself back in to Midsomer Murders and Frost instead…

Harry Potter 5, 6 and 7. And I am likely to do the same with the eighth book in the Dexter series. (Unless it’s already out and then I’ll feel a little foolish!)

Waitaminit…

Darkly Dreaming
Dearly Devoted
In the Dark
By Design
Is Delicious
Double.

What am I missing? Dexter’s Final Cut is book seven, isn’t it?

And, it was released yesterday.

@Seek_Kolinahr I love reading the Montalbano books, they are a quick read but for me it’s like a weekend in Sicily.

I’ve never done something like that before, and I’m sure I can’t do that. I’m one heck of a snail :D

Actually, I pre-ordered a book from Amazon that was published August 27 of this year.

Never.

@Seek_Kolinahr – Oops! Sorry, you’re right, it is seven. And thanks for the heads up!

Never

Never, but my friends do and as soon as they’re done, I’m next…lol I’m such a tightwad.

@drhat77, why else would they be selling as “like new” and “very good”—both “used” categories—when there’s a “new” category that fetches more?

I did do something similar once, although without advance calculation and planning: I bought a newly released book of Michael Chabon at the beginning of December and finished it in a few days. I read books very gently, and when I’m done with one it still looks virginal. So I posted it on Amazon Marketplace as “like new” and sold it within a day for about 75% of what I’d paid for it. Bargain for me, bargain for the (probable) gift-buying purchaser.

I bought Bleeding Edge yesterday on my Kindle, and I’m really enjoying it. Fun. Fun. Fun.

@Hawaii_Jake, in your opinion, would it work for reading aloud?—a live audiobook, as it were?

@Jeruba Yes, the readers would have to be good linguistic acrobats with some of the names and words Pynchon invents, and they would have to be OK with alternative punctuation. For whatever reason, he uses a lot of comma splices in this book. If spoken/heard, I doubt the punctuation matters so much. It gives a reference to pause and breathe, but it does make some of his thoughts interesting to follow when reading.

I read rapidly, and it did take me a number of pages to get into the rhythm of the prose and punctuation so that I could read at my accustomed pace. I’m rocking along at present and really enjoying it.

If anyone is curious. I finished Bleeding Edge and recommend it. If you’ve never read any Pynchon, it’s a great introduction to his style.