(no subject)

[perevision]

"Part of the fun of orgasms is looking for 'em." Alanna, Technomancy

I was intending to write about the brilliant work of hilarity that is A Cock and Bull Story, but I got derailed.


One of the joys of bookstores is falling in love with books. Shopping online is more convenient and usually cheaper, but I don't think Amazon will ever capture that feeling of spontaneous delight in a book you take a chance on. It catches your eye; you trail your fingers over the pleasing matte texture of the cover and linger over the design, the font, the little dancing people on the spine. Then you open it, and after two sentences it is yours.

It's been a while since this happened, and it usually happens to me in Daunt Books, my utterly favourite bookshop ever. This one comes from Books Etc. which makes it even more of a pleasant surprise. It's by someone named Catherine Webb, who is only nineteen (damn her), and is called The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle.

"This is excellent news, lad! Well done."
"Thank you, sir."
"You ever think of being a detective?"
And Thomas thought of another world, foggy and vague round the edges, that he knew existed, but had never seen; and after all those hunts and all those dances and all those evenings sipping tea to the gentle patter of rain and polite conversation, he remembered sitting up in bed when everything else was asleep, and swearing that he would make a difference. "All the time, sir," he whispered.

Also, Umberto Eco has a new book On Literature which I am dying to read, but they didn't have it. Daunt Books does, but I seem to have already bought my book of the week. Ah well.


In conclusion, you don't need me to tell you to watch the Tristram Shandy movie. But if you've read any of Catherine Webb's other books, please let me know how they were.

Comments

[kyouketsusha.livejournal.com]

Ah! I know what you mean. The last time that happened with me was with Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates.

I do so love bookstores, especially used ones.

[pere-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh, YES. Digging through grimy heaps of Grishams and Steeles to find a complete Arthur C Clarke or a Last Unicorn...so worth it.

[xibixibi.livejournal.com]

I understand that "love at first sight" with books, I have a favorite bookstore were I spend hours skim through pages and checking new ones...

But here books are expensive, the ones with hard covers and/or good quality paper are almost not possible to be bought... so often I have to buy one with a not so good quality or do a "horrible" thing: buy the pirate copy.
And here people wonders why in Chile people doesn´t like to read, well, very simple: because its expensive.

[pere-chan.livejournal.com]

In the Philippines too, a lot of books are rare and expensive, and public libraries aren't too well stocked. So my friends and I used to read cheap photocopies of whole books. I remember a friend passing round a copy of Patricia McKillip's "The Changeling Sea", and there were lots of others besides.