I like to read. A lot. I'm kind of like a book whore. And at the moment I'm not getting my fix.
I was looking for a new book on Monday when Sparky Ma and I hit Kingston in the Beemer, and I even had two in mind; A new Star Trek novel called Crucible, and Tom Wolfe's I am Charlotte Simmons. Now, I know I'd made a pact to stop buying trashy Star Trek novels, but a former colleague of mine mentioned that he'd read it and that it was actually kind of good. And I trust his judgement. As for the latter, well, I'm sort of intrigued to see how a middle-aged man handles writing from the perspective of a teenage girl.
Anyway, I'd seen Crucible in Waterstones in Kingston a few weeks back, so I intended to buy it on Monday. Plan foiled: it had sold out. They were also out of I am Charlotte Simmons.
Onwards to Borders!
No sign of the Trek book there, but plenty of copies of Charlotte - AT FIVE QUID ABOVE THE RECOMMENDED RETAIL PRICE!
Incensed, I stormed out of Borders without a backward glance.
I tried Books etc… in Shepherds Bush yesterday, and was delighted to find… a Charlotte Simmons-shaped gap on the shelf. Harumph.
I even tried the teeny-tiny Books etc… in Hammersmith today to bugger all effect. I could order it off the intermaweb, but it's been so long since I've actually browsed the shelves of a book shop in the knowledge that I've got nothing else to read and can start reading something there and then.
So now I'm still devoid of reading material. OK, I've got a handful of comics I picked up today on my weekly jaunt to the comic shop, but they're more of a quick fix - an instant but all too brief hit, if you will.
So here's the plan: I'm going to leave work tomorrow at 16:30 (note the precision of my military timing) and I'm going to head straight back to Kingston. I'm going to walk into Borders, grab the nearest member of staff and demand that they sell me a copy of I am Charlotte Simmons at £7.99! And then I'm going to take my book upstairs, order myself a grande misto in Starbucks and settle down in a plush armchair and read until they throw me out at 21:00.
I might even be tempted to kick off my shoes and loosen my trousers too.
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11 comments:
By using the word 'trousers' you mean 'leather chaps'... don't you?
What's this book? I am Charlotte Church? Must be an interesting read...
Hee hee! Um, no...!
(Not if the weather stays as it is, anyway!)
As for Charlotte Church, Amazon's synopsis say:
Dupont University - the Olympian halls of learning housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition- Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from Sparta, North Carolina, who has come here on a full scholarship. But Charlotte soon learns that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, Cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time. As Charlotte encounters Dupont's elite - her roommate, Beverly, a fleshy, privileged Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team; the Young Turk of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Gellin, one of the Millennium Mutants who run the university's 'independent' newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavour on campus - she gains a new, revelatory sense of her own power, that of her difference and of her very innocence. But little does she realize that she will act as a catalyst in all of their lives.
It sounds kinda interesting...
I went into Waterstones the other day and saw a copy of Alphabet of Manliness, but it was slightly more than amazon so didn't bother.
Sperm of the WORLD!!!
Unite!
All it takes for Spermicide to prevail is one good man to say nothing...
The eradication process has begun. Which side are you on??
SKillz - THe Alphabet of Manliness?! What sort of crazy publishing venture is that?!?!
And... um, Sperm league...? WTF?!?!!?
I may be too late, but don't get it! It's meant to be rubbish!
You're too late! And I'm now 40 pages into 640-odd!!
On the plus side, I'm quite enjoying it so far. If things change... well, I might ask why you didn't warn me earlier!
Muwahahahahaha!
I don't want to alarm you, but a girl whose name I don't know in a class I can barely remember didn't like it.
Also, I'm pretty sure you can buy it here for a shiny penny.
Was her name Charlotte Simmons? I bet she was bitter Tom Wolfe had written her life story...
A shiny penny?! Ooo!! Too late - I bought it for 799 shiny pennies! And so far... I'm quite enjoying it...
I'll keep you updated on my approval rating!
Have a flick through Alphabet if you see it on the shelves. It's advice for how to be a man, and how to deal with things like innappropriate boners etc.
Ha ha ha!!! Skillz, that actually sounds quite awesome!
And 'inappropriate boners' was one phrase I never really expected to ever encounter in my lifetime...
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