The Borders on Chicago's Magnificent Mile is closing, and everything is 40% off. The bargain books they have left are even a better deal. Many of them are 59 cents, and they have a buy 5 get the 6th free.

Well, I couldn't find 6 bargain books I wanted in their selection. Yes, it was THAT picked over. I did find a couple of things that sounded interesting enough to blow the 59 pennies on. Don't ask me the titles right now. One was a guidebook to Washington DC. One was a young reader book by Peter Lerangis. The others were end of the world sounding things. One more and I could have gotten a sixth for free - except that I wouldn't have been able to find a free one I really wanted, either.

Their selection of non-bargain books were pretty picked over, too. I get 40% coupons now and then from Borders, and so I wasn't going to buy a hardcover just to be buying it.

But I did find a couple of paperbacks that were worth checking out. The first was by PJ Parrish. I don't remember the title, but I have read one book by this sister team (I think they're sisters) and enjoyed it, so was more than willing to take a chance on another.

I would not have tried the next author but for a link that was posted in Eric Mayer's blog comments. Eric had posted a humorous story titled A Very Muddled Christmas and someone posted a link to an interview with the innkeeper who put Joseph and pregnant Mary up in the stables. The author of that interview was John Scalzi, a writer I've heard of but never read.

When I saw one of his paperbacks in the selection of books at the dying Borders, called The Last Colony, I picked it up. I started reading it right away, and I got sucked right in.

The book itself is about a "seed" colony being sent out from worlds already colonized by humans. Seems they get "lost" on the way and end up at a completely different world. And for good reason: Humans and other colonizing races have been put on notice by the Conclave, an organized group of sentient races who want no further colonization to occur, and who will destroy this colony if they find it.

So far so good. This book has strong characters and the descriptive elements are wonderfully written. I'm lovin' it, and I'm happy to say I've found a new author to plow through.