sharing a book can be a struggle

I've been critically re-reading some of my favorite genre authors to try and keep my head in the right place for writing my own novel.  So I was only part way through my re-read of Frances Fyfield's "Undercurrents" when I picked up Cory Doctorow's new novel Makers from Wordsworth Books.

Since I was otherwise occupied (living in the boonies, one must grab the books one wants when the opportunity arises, particularly since I would much rather patronize an excellent book shop than, say, Amazon. Don't get me wrong,  Amazon does a lot right... it is great to get for getting hold of obscure books you can't find anywhere else,  or filling those longstanding gaps in your library.  And I certainly don't want to get mixed up with a Kindle even if they are finally available in Canada. 

Still, I think it is important to buy local first.  I was sad when the neighboring specialty book shop went under.  If you're a book lover, there is nothing better than shopping for books live and in person.  Also, as a consumer I've learned that retail centralization is not done for my benefit. 

So even though I wasn't ready to crack it, I wanted to buy it because I was in the neighborhood.  (Actually I was in the neighborhood to meet some other NaNoWriMo writers who, like me, are still working on finishing our novels. Jessica has been organizing Non-Nano write-ins, and it was being held a couple of doors down from Wordsworth.)\.

So I asked my husband to nip over to Wordsworth to grab me a copy.  And he did, along with the book the kid had requested and a science tome for himself.  But of course once he had "Makers" in his hot little hands, that was the one he started reading.  Foolish me.  He took custody of it.

Now that I'm ready to read it myself, he of course isn't finished. 

Worse, he's been tucking it away -- out of sight -- so it's a question of my first having to find it if I want to read it.

Of course I'm a faster reader... probably because he's always reading 12 things... like that science tome, and his latest Uncle Johns' Bathroom Reader which is his annual Christmas gift from my sister, and of course it doesn't get to stay in the bathroom until after he's sucked out all the great trivia,  Analog, and always several "improving" books that always seem to be a difficult read.

Naturally the first thing I did was to loose his page.  (He was using the dust jacket flap as a bookmark.) Not on purpose, accidentally. 

Really.