1) The Strand. It’s a used/new bookstore here in NY where everything’s a minimum of half price, usually less. And it’s 18 miles of books, you know, all stacked on top of each other on shelves. It’s right near where I get my comics and DVDs, so I tend to go once a week. Books are purchased.

2) Barnes & Noble. Being a member of Barnes & Noble has its perks, the most important being the coupons they send you in the mail. And since you don’t want to let that coupon expire, you buy books. Or at least I do. Up to 40% off a book is a good, good thing. I just bought The Onion’s atlas for cheap, one of the few books that’s so detailed it took an entire 20 minute train ride just to read one spread.

3) Bookmooch.com. This is a great idea, and I’m happy to be able to use it. What you do is you gather up all the books you’d either sell, give away, or throw out, and you list them on the site. Every book you list gives you 1/10 of a point. 10 books = 10 points. Then people searching through your site find the books they want, they ask you to ship them, and you get a point for that. With your points you can request books from other users. The only cost to you is shipping, which is between $1.50 - $5.00. It’s great, they have a lot of stuff you might be looking for.

The only downsides to Bookmooch are its recommendations. EVERYTHING I search for brings up “Related searches: Neil Gaiman.”

I don’t know how it works, but he pops up everywhere. Searching for a book on John Belushi? Maybe Neil Gaiman has something to say about that. Jesus? Maybe Neil Gaiman has a book on him. Everything’s coming up Gaiman! To illustrate this point, I’m going to do an experiment, right now as I write this. I’ll do a few random searches and see if Neil comes up. Results posted here:

Merlin: Yes
New Jersey: Yes
Beatles: Yes
Alexander Pope: Yes
hydroponics: No
Mount Rushmore: Yes
brown sugar: Yes
hats: No
Mad Hatter: Yes
agriculture: Yes
Christmas: Yes

Neil’s good, but he’s not that good. And the other catch is that people can put their books up in multiple categories and more often than not they list them in categories that have absolute diddly to do with the book. For example, “101 Facts About Puppies” and “3 Ninjas Kick Back” are listed as biographies, and “Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past” is humor. Somehow “A Bugs Life: Gift Book” is a classic.

But that all being well and good, they are great places for you to get books on the cheap. My shelves are overflowing with the bounty of many shopping trips and I suppose I’ll have to get around to reading them before too long. Hey, I got very few holiday plans…

I’m only sticking around for the day, so I will have to be extra vigilant to catch the weirdness as it happens around me. I expect costumes, exhibitions, and the occasional mind-blowingly insane table of garbage, like at most cons. If you’re going to be at the con on Saturday I’ll be the guy who looks like this:

Maybe I’ll even wear the Mao T-shirt so you can recognize me. Say hello! I’d like to know if anyone reads this blog!

Sadly, even though I will be in Baltimore, I will not be able to visit my favorite roadside attraction, the Great Blacks in Wax wax museum. I will not be able to take pictures of Rosa Parks being thrown off a bus.

This sign was all over the parks. It translates to “please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times,” but I felt that it was more like, “do not have a wild, awesome party inside the car. You and your kid. No party.”

The Muppets got bought up by Disney sometime in the early 90’s, so they have their own little corner of Disney World. Specifically, they have their own 3-D movie at Hollywood Studios (I did not have a fun time there, but that’s a story for another time). It’s kinda sad, the once-great Muppet empire reduced to half of a Disney gift shop, but they did get some of their own stuff for sale. Nothing unique, nothing that I picked up, but once you see what was for sale, you can understand why my wallet didn’t open.

When Kermit is decapitated, he doesn’t die. His head grows tentacles like some kind of Lovecraftian nightmare. He is evil in this form.

Kermit also suffers from an infectious gum disease, not helped by the fact that he has no teeth. It’s nasty and rotted in there. Beaker, on the other hand, is just bleeding from the mouth. It’s sad, the dental problems of Muppets these days.

But, while I have a second, let me throw you a little bone of joy, from the day I checked out. There was a middle-aged man checking out next to me and was (presumably) arguing over his bill. He and the concierge were going over some of the big ticket items on his bill and he was vehemently defending them. Until…

CONCIERGE: And how many times did you go to the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review?
MAN (sheepishly): . . . three . . .

Sir, you have been CAUGHT attending multiple performances of the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review! Hope it was worth it, those tickets are expensive.

Of course, they have an American-themed gift shop. Replicas of the Constitution, books about Ben Franklin, Mickey Mouse shirts where he’s wearing red, white, and blue, and all that fun stuff. And, for some reason, this:

It’s a David Beckham t-shirt. Of course, he plays for the US now, but only for a year or two. He’s still remarkably British, I doubt he changed his citizenship just to play on a team. Not only that, they had a selection of David Beckham biographies. IN THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE GIFT SHOP. Did we not have enough American athletes we could spotlight? Why is a chunk of the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE gift shop devoted to an athlete from a country we proudly fought to free ourselves from?

David Beckham, GET OUT OF OUR GIFT SHOP. Britain has a lovely gift shop who’d be happy to host your biography.

Thankfully, his shirt wasn’t being sold for full price, so he’s not making much off them. USA! USA! USA!

Remember how I found those delightful reviews for the film Camp Rock? It’s a Disney movie, if you recall, so it gets smeared all around Disney World fairly liberally (along with Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and the Jonas Brothers). It’s on pins and stuff as well as…

…a board game. I’m sure that 90-100% of tween girls absolutely think this is absolutely the best game ever absolutely, even though 90-100% of those girls have never played it. Much like the movie itself.

There’s also the face of Zac Efron. It’s everywhere. The boy is rivaling Walt for stage time, and that ain’t right. Of course, he’ll go the way of Haley Mills and Tommy Kirk, but for now, he’s a golden boy. And he gets his own socks!

And just with a few twists and turns and a digital camera, you’ve got a whole bunch of fun!

Take THAT, smarmy face of a teen idol! That’s from ETHAN KAYE, who has his OWN BLOG! One day you’re going to search for your name and on the 45,028th page you will find it on Feed Me A Kitten, blasting your socks that you’ve probably never approved and will definitely never wear. Score one for the little guy!

And there’s more to come, faithful readers! Pictures and stories from the great state of Florida!