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Friday, January 27, 2012

Adventures in Books at the Thrift Store

I’m a big fan of thrift stores, especially when looking for books for kids and household items. Sometimes I get really lucky and find tons of stuff but other times I walk away empty handed. Now you may ask yourself why I would be sharing this with you. 

Well yesterday I went to a thrift store and of course I headed straight to the book stacks first. As I started looking I saw several books that caught my attention. I ended up picking up eight books for the bargain price of $9.50.  I was totally stoked. I mean I can’t usually buy one book for under $10 let alone eight of them.

What did I pick up you say? Well here’s the list:

For me: Eyes of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready; Vampire Kisses: The Beginning by Ellen Schreiber; Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens and Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz

For my 9-year old: Fudgemania, Superfudge and Tales of Fourth Grade Nothing all by Judy Blume

For my teen daughter: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Now that last one is where the adventure comes in, not so much that it happened while at the store itself but what happened later when I gave it to my daughter. My daughter is a fan of Contemporary YA Fiction so when I saw Anna and the French Kiss I knew I had to get it for her. I’ve heard great things about it and the companion book, Lola and the Boy next door.  But anyway, on to what happened; I didn’t flip thru any of the books while at the store. (In hindsight, I really need to do that.) So I pick up my daughter from school and head on over to my son’s elementary school to wait for him to get out 15 minutes later. While waiting I pull out my stash of books and hand her the Anna book.

As she starts flipping through it the first thing she notices is that a whole chapter has been taped up with that magic tape that is used for gift-wrapping. We both think that’s kinda weird but, whatever. I help her get the tape off and discover that it’s chapter fourteen. We both flip thru chapter fourteen to see if there are any pages missing but there aren’t, which is good. However, we notice something else that’s…I don’t even know how to put it…strange?! Weird?! Makes you go, hmmm?! What is it you ask? Well someone has taken the time to white-out several words and in some cases, whole passages. Of course this makes us wonder what could be so bad about these words that are whited out? And it's not just chapter fourteen but now she notices that it happens throughout the whole book. 

My daughter starts trying to scrape off some of the white-out without tearing the paper because of course we want to see what is soooo terrible. Something must be terrible because someone took the time to white-out so much of the book. To our surprise and frankly our giggles and then right out laughter and indignation it is words such as bollocks, ass, god, blimey, the hell, omg, oh my god. It’s not so much that we’re saying people should or shouldn’t use these words but we found it completely odd that someone would buy a book called Anna and the FRENCH KISS and then go censor it. I mean if you can’t handle some of these words WHY, OH WHY are you reading a book with this type of title? It just doesn’t makes sense to me at all.   

Of course now I’m going to have to buy this book at a regular book store because my daughter really wants to read the “uncensored” version. So what the “white-out junkie” really accomplished was us buying Anna and the French Kiss again. Muahahahaha.

Oh and obviously I had to call Jaime right away and let her know what we’d found and she, too found it so funny that she suggested I write a post about it. 


We'd love to know what you all think of this? Let us know in the comments :)  

Here's a cover of Anna and the French Kiss and a synopsis from the inside flap:

Anna is happy in Atlanta. She has a loyal best friend and a crush on her coworker at the movie theater, who is just starting to return her affection. So she's not too pleased when her father decides to send her to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year. But despite not speaking a word of French, Anna meets some cool new friends, including the handsome Étienne St. Clair, who quickly becomes her best friend. Unfortunately he's taken--and Anna might be, too.

Will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss she's been waiting for?

You want to buy your own copy of Anna and the French Kiss you can do so at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository or ask for it at your local bookstore. 


UPDATE: For those of you wondering...here's a sample page of what the inside of this book looks like:

19 comments:

  1. That is silly but I also get that the English speak that way too. I would go get the uncensored edition because I love love this series

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  2. I'm seriously laughing so hard right now, you have no idea the giggling! Stephanie Perkins tweeted this and that's how I found this post. I cannot believe the people who would do that. Why spend the money and waste the time and really, why ruin the perfect bliss of ANNA!?!?! I fully enjoyed the uncensored version so much I reread my favorite parts. I'm going to be laughing about this all day. And, shaking my head for the idiocy of some people. White out...*shakes head* That's like sacrilege. I think they need to be drawn and quartered. Way worse than dog earing, LOL! Okay, I'm done. Awesome AWESOME post!

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  3. hahahah wow. people can be crazy some times.

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  4. This is seriously the highlight of my day! I can't believe someone would take the time to censor this book, that's some serious dedication! I really didn't find this book to be bad at all, but you know everyone has different opinions...
    Great post!
    I'm a new follower!

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  5. Hilarious. Thanks for sharing.

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  6. Oh shoot our copy is checked out. Have to be reminded what happened in chapter 14.....

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    1. I had to read the chapter myself but I didn't find anything terrible. They talk about Halloween, certain costumes and a statue popular for giving people fertility luck. Nothing I wouldn't let my teen read.
      -Patricia

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  7. Oh. Em. Gee. That's so ridiculous. But also, why wrap up a chapter? What's so special about that chapter? Is it that sinful? Maybe they shouldn't have let their child read it at all if it was too advanced a book for them.

    And if I was the "child" reading it, of course I'd go try to scratch out the whited out words because, um, that calls attention to them!

    Also, um, if you've taken the time to redact it, why not keep it? Did the reader want to share their edited view of the book with the world?

    People have seriously way too much time on their hands if they're whiting out chapters. And if there were that many words whited-out, did the person get a little contact high? Weird. Definitely weird.

    To each his own I suppose.

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    1. What's more funny is that the whited-out parts were not at all disturbed. Apparently it's some "child" who is well trained they didn't even attempt to scratch anything off.
      -P

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  8. Oh, wow, that's too funny! Also, okay, some of the "censored" words are sort of low-level curse words, but "blimey"? Really?! Too weird.

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  9. Oh man. I'd be so mad if I got a book and someone had marked it all up! How RUDE, right? No one gets to tell me what I can read!

    Pretty funny though. That person might want to rethink what books s/he buys in the future.

    At any rate, ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is a fantastic book and you won't be sorry you picked up the uncensored version. :)

    anywhere-is.net

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  10. That is just too funny! But also, I was cringing the entire post because I'm a strict 'no writing' 'no folding pages' 'no bookmarks thicker than the pages' sort of book person.

    My dad use to pre listen to my tapes when I wanted to buy them. The poor man sat through Ace of Base, hated it, and deemed it acceptable. He would have never said "All tracks but the third one on side A are okay".

    I'm glad you're buying her another copy! I hope she enjoys it.

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  11. Too freaking weird! I'm glad you bought your daughter another copy.

    You may think I'm nutty, but I never buy used books and while I occasionally get books from the library, they are kept sequestered like little prisoners because I've seen what people do in public (i.e. subway=yuck) and what George Costanza did in a bookstore, I don't want to know what people do with or to books in the privacy of their own home!

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  12. I guess I didn't comment on this yesterday...this post had me LMAO! What ever floats their boat...right? You didn't say what is contained in that one chapter that's all taped up??? I wanna know?

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  13. hahahahaa I found this post on the interview you did with Rachel. So funny and ridiculous of course.
    Maybe s/he found the "rubbing statues parts" outrageous? LOL so funny.

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  14. People are truly UNbelievable at times. If those words are offensive then stop reading the book. By the way, it's a book I bought as an ebook then ran out to get a hardcopy just because I wanted my daughters (1st and 3rd graders) to read it one day.

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  15. I have to say that you never know what to expect when you buy something from a Thrift Store. I actually worked in the book department at a Goodwill and would come across some pretty cool books, some where really old and would sell for a little more, but I cant imagine the history behind where they came from and previous owners. I think books are mysterious in their own way. Also I agree with the previous post from Bookuvr Mindy in regards to the taped up pages..just curious! Love your Blog by the way and thanks for sharing such funny story.

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