New Books!

I came to Asia with 9 books. I had them tucked into various pockets of my backpack and suitcase and while they are disproportionately heavy for their size, it was worth it. I had some excellent choices and I lovingly made my through each of them. However, some time last week, I finished the last one. (OK thats a lie, I still have 'Nine Stories' by J.D. Salinger, but reading him always makes me feel rather apathetic and question the point of life, and I think in my current unemployed/too much free time state, that is probably not the attitude I need, so I'm saving it.) So I was faced with a decision that had been in the back of my mind since I got here. For those of you who know me well, you are familiar with my love of books. Not just reading, but the books themselves. You have seen my four filled bookcases in my room at home, and you know how much I abhor the thought of getting rid of any of them. (Just ask my mom about my attitude when she brings up selling some of them at one of our garage sales.) I cannot remember the last time I got rid of a book. I don't even like lending them because I usually don't get them back. (Hence why I have bought 'Ender's Game' four times - no joke.) I don't even like going to the library because I will invariably finish the book, like it, and go buy it so I can own it. I am a pretty simple guy and don't care too much for material things, but if there is one thing I want to own, and one thing I spend money on, its books.

So, now that you know where I am going from, you can understand my dilemma. Finding books in Chiang Mai is not the problem, there are literally dozens of used bookstores in this town selling English books catering to farangs. The problem is that A) I shouldn't be spending money I don't have on books, and B) Living out of my suitcase and prob moving multiple times while I'm here means that more books = more weight = more hassle. I don't have a book shelf or any place to store them, and adding more and more books to my already too heavy suitcase is just not a good idea. So I decided to take the best option available: sell the books I brought to a used bookstore, use that money to buy more books to read, sell those back, etc. So this week, I loaded all of my books into my backpack, walked into my favorite used bookstore (I hadn't bought anything yet, but I had spent plenty of time wandering amongst them), threw the books down at the register and told them I was selling them. I just tried not to think about what I was doing, I didn't even bargain with them! I grabbed the money, stuffed it in my pocket and started looking around. I still haven't figured out how much I spent on them vs how much I got back, I don't think I could take it.

But its not all bad. Once the deed was done, I had 800 bhat in my pocket, and hey, was book shopping! (If there is one thing that always cheers me up...) And while I may have gotten a pretty crappy deal selling my books originally, the book store I went to has a policy where they will buy their books back for half price, so as long as I keep going back there, its like I'm buying all my books half price. So I spent a good hour, looking for deals and trying to stretch my funds as far as they would go. Made a decision that I wasn't going to reread anything in Asia, that all of my books for the next year would be ones I haven't read, so that left me free to experiment and ignore the comfort of Terry Pratchett, et all. I ended up with 5 books, figured I would try some new authors. John Updike, Tom Wolfe, Chuck Palahniuk, Wilbur Smith, and Bram Stoker. Already finished 'Rant' by Palahniuk, and am halfway through 'A Month of Sunday's' by Updike. Looks like I will be heading back sometime next week. :)

TPWWLT - T-Pain - 'Buy U A Drank'

PS Want to know how big of a dork I am? I made a spreadsheet on GoogleDocs so I could keep track of all the books I read in Asia so I can buy them when I get home. Title, Author, Page Number, Rating, and Comments. Aiyiyi...

PPS How do we feel about the changes I made? The wider post column and the grass background? Well good, I'm glad you like them because so do I, and I am in charge here.