Another Lowpoint

Some milestones should not be recorded, but i am feeling macabre this week.

In 1988 I purchased "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco from the Koala Park newsagency. It was the first grown-up book I'd ever handed over money for, and expanded my book buying from Kmart (where I'd picked up a copy of Shakespeare). Shakey hadn't counted as a grown-up purchase because I'd heard of him at school, and he was in the library there, and I knew there would be more of him to come. But Eco, well, that was something else altogther! Plus, $15 was a lot of money to me then. I could fill my car for $20 and buy a record for $12. I still have that book. It was within months of this that I discovered that there were still "bookstores". I had heard of them in my reading, but I had never been anywhere that had a whole store devoted to books - so at that time I thought it was an old-fashioned thing.

So I have never even considered buying a book from a news agent since then. Until yesterday. I was looking for The Monthly (only stocked in one news agent in area!) and in front of me was a rack of remainders - all penguins! There was the last a-format paperback by Orson Scott Card - "Shadow of the Giant" which must be number 3 in the Bean series, which makes it - what?- number 7? in the Ender world? Orson Scott-Card is making a chronology of books more comlpex than the Star Wars universe. Anyway, got the mag, and picked up the book ($7!) and there you have it. Read it in an overnight binge on SF and Ender backstory. My first book purchase from a news agent in 19 years.

Oh Kino! How I miss you so!

Last week I was at the Gallery of Modern Art - which is right next door to the State Library. I did browse their bookstore, but it was kindof the book equivalent of Gourmet Traveller magazine - good looking, glossy, plenty of ads, and really, largely unsatisfying for being spread too thin over too much bread.

There's plenty more to say about that day, but this is not the time.
The upside is, at least I read a book!! And it was good!! And i had fun!!
Yay. Shame it has that nasty black marker-pen slash on the bottom, but a little bit of fine sandpaper will fix that!