What choo readin' for?

Excuse me while I descend into a bit of here's-what-I-did blah blah and some bitching (also known as angry whining). Skip this entry if you find that unpalatable, which I totally understand.

I went to Half Price Books on Sunday to look for a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, having just seen the movie. It's been a decade or more since I read the series and wanted to delve back into it. The movie was okay, not bad, not great. My enjoyment of it was compromised somewhat by the man beside me about whom I almost wrote a blog entry entitled: Open letter to the man next to me at the movie theater who paid $6 to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and then slept through most of it occasionally snoring.

I didn't find a copy of the book at Half Price, but I did get a several other items, an inevitable occurence whenever I go there. The real find was a first printing of Steel Beach that is signed and not personalized. Steel Beach is one of my favorite novels, science fiction or otherwise, so I was/am very happy about scoring it for a decent price.

I also picked up a paperback copy of Carrion Comfort, an epic horror novel that I've been wanting to re-read (I've been on a re-reading kick of late). Yesterday I brought it to work to read during my lunch break and accidentally left it under the desk when I rushed off to see a midnight screening of Batman Begins, which was ultimately disappointing. The acting and production design are nifty, but it has problems with pacing and a third act that devolves into lazy action movie cliches. The last half hour bored the hell out of me. I'm sure there will be many complaints about the "slow start", but I found these scenes explaining the origin of Batman to be the best part of the movie.

Got a little off-track there. Anyway, I left my book at work last night and when I went back today, couldn't find it. I looked under the desk, in the waiting room, and checked the lending library in the break room. Nothing. Polled my co-workers, nobody had seen it. Then I asked someone on the shift after mine. The conversation went something like this,

Me: Hey ___, did you see a paperback book last night? I left it under the desk.

Inconsiderate Cretin: Oh, I think I threw that away.

Me: (stunned silence)

Inconsiderate Cretin: (blank expression)

Those who know me would unanimously agree that I am rarely at a loss for words, but there I was, speechless. The IC walked away and I stood there for a moment trying to wrap my head around this turn of events.

The book was in decent condition. It had a receipt from two days before as a bookmark. We have lots of donated books in the waiting room and employee lending library. To quote a considerate, non-cretinous co-worker, "Who throws a book away?"

Apparently inconsiderate cretins do.

Often, the IC asks me if I'm going to stay after my shift and work overtime. When I do, it makes the IC's job easier. The IC did not ask me tonight, probably clued in to how truly peeved I was by other employees. If the IC ever asks me again to help the IC out, I will say, "Yeah, let's get to work tossing all those books and magazines piling up in the waiting room. Tsk. Reading. What's up with that?"

Oh Inconsiderate Cretin, you are officially on my shit list.

P.S. Thankfully, I found a dirt-cheap copy of the book on half.com and will be seeking renumeration from the IC.

Technorati tags: cretin, books, Batman Begins