Headed downtown (again) to check out the library’s book sale.
Notes for next time: steal a box or bring a bigger bag.
The first book I seized upon was Elementary Cantonese. Okay, so when I took it home I realized it was a bit too elementary. But they have the Chinese characters (some of which are specific to Cantonese), I’m quite glad I bought it.
Continuing to prowl through the stacks, I then snatched a copy of Teach Yourself German as well as The Penguin Russian Course. I’ll probably never read them, but that’s beyond the point. There was a Russian-English dictionary and a Greek-English dictionary as well, but the former was really ratty and the latter… well, as I can’t even read Greek I thought it’d be best to leave it alone.
I hopped over to the multilingual pile in hopes of finding a good French novel or some Asian comics. I picked up random French books, but sadly, none of them appealed to me (mais il y avait un roman intitulA~(c) Le petit prince cannibale… malheureusement, la personnage principale n’A~(c)tait pas le petit prince de Saint-Exupery mais un garA~on autiste. Je ne l’ai achetA~(c) pas car je pensais que ce roman serait un peu difficile A~ lire…) I did happen upon an ancient issue of Nakayoshi, which I bought because it had the Sailormoon all-character poster in it (I cannot tell you how long I have been trying to find one of those at the library’s book sale.)
Finally, I decided to have a go at the paperback novels. I found a copy of Fugitive Pieces: it was the same edition that we’d used for our IB English class and well….. for 25 cents it was a very, very good deal. I bet someone from our class decided to donate it to the book sale, since it wasn’t even part of the library’s collection. I also happened across a copy of July’s People (which had been part of the library’s collection). To cap off the round of random books from IB English I saw, I caught a glimpse of Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits (I borrowed it for my presentation on magic realism) and a National Geographic magazine with a picture of a bog person.
I saw a copy of Translated Accounts by James Kelman sitting around and after reading the synopsis (military state in the future, seemingly hastily translated first-hand accounts), I had to buy it. Playing with language and a dystopic future? Geez, that sounds kind of familiar. You’d think I’d be sick of it, wouldn’t you?
Had to put down a few things that I decided I could do without, though: a Pinter play and Hayakawa’s Language in Thought and Action. If I see those again, I’m definitely going to get them. You see, the girl at the checkout decided that the French textbook I wanted counted as a multilingual book, so I saved a dollar or so. :cheerful:
Wah, and keep reading for signs of lemming behaviour.
You’re the Turkish Angora. Sophisticated and termpermental, you love doing things in style. You have an interest in world affairs and can be quite opinionated, though your sometimes sarcasm-laced arguments can supress and offend other people. Which Cat Breed Are You? Quiz by x.isolaria.net