As someone who works as an event host at an indie bookstore, can I just say how much I adore John Green and how many of his babies I would willingly gestate? I don’t even care if that last part went a bit too far, because honestly, I’ve had some wine recently. Very recently. And really and truly, that’s how much I love this post:
The one in Boston requires that you pre-order TFIOS from them?! But I ALREADY preordered TFIOS. I realize what they’re trying to do, but I still call unfairness.
All of them require you preorder TFiOS (or almost all, anyway). This is because it is expensive for bookstores to put on these events, and bookstores are fighting hard to survive, and we don’t want to hurt places we love by making them lose money hosting nerdfighter tour events. So from your perspective, it’s unfair that they make you buy a book, but from their perspective, it’s unfair for you to come to an event at a place they rented out with a book you bought somewhere else.
There are a few ways you can proceed:
1. You can imagine that tickets cost $18, which is not unreasonable for a concert, and that with your ticket comes a free signed & Hanklerfished book, a poster, a fancy program with nerdfighter crossword puzzles, and a really nice evening.
2. You can cancel your preorder and re-preorder it from the store, thereby costing yourself nothing (or very little, anyway).
3. You can use your second copy of TFiOS to give to a friend who does not know that I signed the entire first printing, and your friend will feel very special that you got him/her a signed book, thereby deepening your friendship and who knows maybe love will blossom and you will get married and it will all be because you came to a nerdfighter gathering and you can invite us to your wedding and I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I?
