Book Search Irritation
There are always a few books I hope to find in a local used bookstore, but never do. The last month or two, for example, have been home to fruitless searches for Thomas Carlyle's Sator Resartus, Gottfried Keller's Green Henry, a somewhat complete volume of Georg Trakl, Walter Pater's book on the Renaissance and Cliff Pickover's book on time. I am aware that I can easily buy these on Amazon, but I find it more fun to see if they turn up. I cannot forgive myself for paying 14$ on Broch's Death of Virgil through Amazon after never seeing it in bookstores. Of course, I recently spotted it in a used bin for 5$ in perfect condition at a store in Uptown. That 9$ could have easily bought all those cheap Penguin editions of Cao Xuequin's five-volume Story of the Stone, as well as a Sprite and a Nascar shirt from the Dollar Store.
I am a hit at parties.
There are always a few books I hope to find in a local used bookstore, but never do. The last month or two, for example, have been home to fruitless searches for Thomas Carlyle's Sator Resartus, Gottfried Keller's Green Henry, a somewhat complete volume of Georg Trakl, Walter Pater's book on the Renaissance and Cliff Pickover's book on time. I am aware that I can easily buy these on Amazon, but I find it more fun to see if they turn up. I cannot forgive myself for paying 14$ on Broch's Death of Virgil through Amazon after never seeing it in bookstores. Of course, I recently spotted it in a used bin for 5$ in perfect condition at a store in Uptown. That 9$ could have easily bought all those cheap Penguin editions of Cao Xuequin's five-volume Story of the Stone, as well as a Sprite and a Nascar shirt from the Dollar Store.
I am a hit at parties.
posted by PWS at 2:27 AM
4 Comments:
How difficult is Death of Virgil to read?
Oh, man. I've just leafed (leave'd?) through it so far and it looks pretty darn difficult. It seems to be an epic philosophical stream of consciousness. Beautiful language, though. I am going to read "Sleepwalkers" first, however.
Hm, I think I'll hold off on it for awhile. I haven't even finished Within a Budding Grove!
There's always abebooks.com, but I've never dared use it because (a) it will take all the fun out of bookhunting and (b) it will bankrupt me.
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