S. by JJ Abrams

I was one of the lucky few who found this title under the Christmas Tree this year. It's a very lovely packaged book, in a slip-case with a spine mimicking a library book (complete with dewey decimal / cataloguing sticker). The problem is, there is a seal wrapped across the slip-case opening and in order to read or view the book, you have to break the seal. UGH! 
As a book collector, I just can't bring myself to do it. For hours yesterday I teetered back and forth between vowing to NEVER break the seal and coming within inches of breaking down and just saying f*ck it! 

 I didn't do it, or at least I haven't yet. The seal is still in tact. 

 Instead, I decided to buy a second copy. A "reading" copy. A practical, logical, easy solution to my problem.

 So, with the wonderful BN gift card given to me for my birthday, I navigated to BN.com, entered "S." into the search box, clicked on the product link where lo and behold it's listed for $22.40 (36% off the cover price). I got ready to add it to my cart when I noticed: "Temporarily out of stock online  - This item will be available for shipping on March 11, 2014." 

 March 11th?!? But that's 3 months away! "Okay," I think to myself calmly, "I guess I'll have to get it from Amazon." - again, practical, logical, easy... except...

 To my horror, they also list the item as Temporarily out of stock.

It's already listing for $60 to $500 in the collectibles market.* (although the higher end is limited to those copies that are still shrink-wrapped). *in this instance prices as found at bn.com, amazon.com, and abebooks.com.

In the U.S. it's published by Little, Brown & Company / Mulholland Books:

In the U.K. it was published by Canongate, and it looks like there are still copies available through Amazon.co.uk:



Later today I will travel to the bookstore to see if there are any more copies on their shelves. (finger's crossed).

Update: My B&N was sold out.

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