There should be a rule

You can't buy something you don't know the title of.

There have been a few titles recently where the vendor hasn't known the exact title (Oprah book club pick #57) but they try to sell it to you anyway. The theory being that OF COURSE you're going to buy it, regardless of the title, so why can't we take your money for it early? I suppose there is some validity to that, but is there any reason why we all can't wait until we know what the title is? I guess it's more important for bookstores to know ahead of time than it is for libraries. But, what if your library already had 100 copies of Love in the Time of Cholera and you just bought 50 more copies of the blind itemed Oprah book only to find, surprise, it is Love in the Time of Cholera? Yeah, pretty annoying. (didn't happen to me, by the way. This isn't autobiographical!)

This rant is being brought on by Books on Tape and John Grisham. They sent me a mini-catalog advertising Untitled #16 by John Grisham. Well, of course we're going to buy many, many copies. It doesn't come out until the end of January 08. Do I really need to order it before it even has a frigging title?! Or, can you wait a month until the ads start coming out and THEN put it up for sale? In fact, between the time they printed this, and the now, the damn thing got a title! The Appeal (in case you were wondering. Don't lie, you were.)

I still have a cold. Maybe that is why I'm so crabby.