Wow! Dome Day Arrives

A report about my complaining that no one cares about. . . but I will still report on.

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I was whining earlier about not being able to find Bev Vincents book. And that all my stuff was in the mail -- instead of in my hands.

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Today is my birthday... and it was an AWESOME day!

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The Hunt For The Illustrated Stephen King Companion

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My wife and I went into Riverside, California for a convention meeting. Before going there, we stopped in again at Barnes and Noble. Who knows, I figured, maybe they can find that book. If not, I had already decided to take Mr. Vincent's advice and just buy it off of B&N.com.

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But when we got to B&N there was a GIANT DISPLAY! That wasn't there Sunday! I snatched the book up, and almost passed out when my wife asked if I wanted to pick up two. One for reading and taking apart (you have to see the book to understand) and one for the shelf. No, I said, not yet. One is enough for now.

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I"ll write a review later, but lunch was a joy as we thumbed through the book. It is much bigger than I expected. This is a plus for several reasons -- the biggest is that it allows the extra things in envelopes to be returned to their spot without have to squeeze them in or unnaturally fold them. Everthing fits back together nicely. And though I haven't read a word of text yet, I had thumbed through about half of it and really enjoyed all the extras. It will be my bedside book for a while.

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One more thing about the Illustrated Companion: It is much more unique than any previous companion released. And it has LOTS of photo's of King I've never seen (and I thought I'd seen lots). So Bev Vincent not only knows a lotabout King, he apparently knows the right sources to get stuff. . . making his book superly cool.

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Strange:

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I was surprised to discover that Branes and Noble also had the $75.00 special edition of Under THe Dome. Nicely shrink wrapped, and 20% off. I'll take that as a lesson learned about buying special editions form the publisher.

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Under The Dome

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We got back to the town late, and before picking the kids up, I had to check the mail box. Nope, as I suspected, not a thing. "HEY!" My wife shouted. "Look at the porch!" It was like christmas. Two beautiful brown boe were waiting for me.

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One was my signed copy of UTD. Very nice. Yes, I did open it out of the shrink wrap. I do not know if that cause sit to lose value, but I wanted to actually see where King had signed my book. So, Itore into it (carefully tore, that is).

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The other wonderful package was the audio edition. I listened to it on the 1 mile drive to pick up my kids. Meaning I read a total of one page. At this pace, I should be done about the same time that congress balances the budget!