Love-Hate Relationship

All of a sudden I'm very mixed up about Barnes and Noble and the New York Times. Up until half an hour ago I was indifferent to the Times, iconic newspaper status aside, and very fond indeed of B&N - any bookshop that encourages you to come in off the street and read whatever you like for however long you like will garner fondness in cheapskate bibliophiles everywhere, but the store and the paper have come together to deny me something I've been looking forward to for a year.

About this time last year Krissa and I struggled out of Bryant Park with two hefty canvas tote bags stuffed to bursting with books. They were so heavy that we had to take a cab home. It was heavenly, and as a bonus, Krissa really likes the tote bags, briefly distracting her from her quest to purchase every bag known to mankind.
That weekend was the New York Times 'Great Read In The Park'...2005. The 'Gently Used, Greatly Loved' book sale invited you to purchase a big tote bag for $25 (which later in the day went down to $15), step into a long marquee, and stuff that bag full of books as hard and as overflowingly as you could. Proceeds went to the New York regional libraries, and the two bags we came away with provided a huge amount of excellent reading material in the past year, as well as boosting our library with old favourites.

In anticipation of this year Krissa and I were planning an IKEA trip to buy a new bookcase.
In anticipation of this year Krissa and I were planning on reorganizing our apartment.
In anticipation of this year Krissa and I were getting very very excited INDEED.

No book sale this year.
No glorious, epic, scrabbling, hunting, bag-stuffing book sale.

And the suspicious inclusion of a Barnes and Noble bookstall.

They were still advertising it a couple of weeks ago, and then when I checked the site today...POUF! gone.
The Book Sale page has disappeared from the website and a little addition tacked onto the end of the FAQ says it's not happening.

You know what that sounds like? Sounds like Barnes and Noble kicked up a FUSS. Got to have Barnes and Noble so that people can buy new books to get signed by the all the authors at the event, and with so many authors, you've got to keep THEM happy...and B&N didn't want what amounts to a secondhand book orgy going on so close to their shiny shiny new books.

Buggers!