A celebration: books and chocolate

A new year begins, and I spend it at the bookstore. Today, I got Nick Hornby's The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, which I believe is a UK/International compilation of The Polysyllabic Spree and the newly released Housekeeping vs. the Dirt. Since the 13th book is due out soon, I thought I'd take advantange of the "3 for 2" promotion in the children's book section and pick up the 4th - 9th books by Lemony Snicket. These are probably the only books in Singapore that are cheaper than the same editions sold in the US. And apart from the cheaper price, Borders also has the "3 for 2" promotion going for them. They were too heavy, otherwise I'd have picked up the 10th - 12th ones as well.

I seem to be buying books the way some people buy bagels. But books are my bagels - energy-giving, life-affirming, wholesome goodness. More goodness comes in a tin of choclate pieces from Ethel's in Chicago, courtesy of my brother and S. This I received on Monday - thank you both, if you're reading! I also received a little Smokescreen Titanium Transformer, which will go well with the Jazz figure that my brother sent me last month.

Books in the mail are awesome too, especially the books that arrived yesterday. I'd been waiting a very long time for two boxes to arrive; I'd sent these from Champaign over two months before. Last year, when I sent books by the M-Bag route from Ann Arbor, they took about six weeks to reach Singapore. Since both states are in the Midwest, I rather expected the same of the M-Bag journey from Champaign. The eighth week came and went, there was no sign of the boxes, and I was miserable. Not only did my books cost a small fortune, I also had a few Hopwood items in there that I'd asked Andrea to save for me and that I picked up during my visit to AA. Those I wouldn't have been able to get hold of again easily. I'd been praying to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, and he chose a fine week to have them appear on the doorstep. Some goodies inside - the first Postsecret book, Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us, Paris in 500 photos, Stanley Kunitz's The Collected Poems, The Believer's music issue, the summer issue of Tin House.

Tonight though, I'm bogged down with editing. So no catching up on the Baudelaire children, no opening up Hornby's book on his reading adventures, but well, I might be able to make some steaming hot chocolate for the long night ahead.

Posted by Monoceros at September 20, 2006 11:32 PM