Tuesday, December 28, 2004
erm, while it is apparent that my purpose in life for 3 weeks here, is to meet up with friends, catch up, and eat/ravage all the hawker centers here, implicit in my presence here, was also to find good books and classical CDs at prices considerably lower than what i might get in amazon and/or the bookshops in madison.
while the former purpose has already been, or rather, in the proces of being fulfilled, the second aim has, disappointly fallen flat on its freakin face.
for the past two days is've been browsing at all the chain stores for books and CDs. history of sovs might be a pain in the arse, but i was all ready to continue my love affair by trying to read stuff by Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Pasternak et al, but wtbmf, there was freaking jackshit at all the stores i tried. ditto for the classical CDs i was looking for. Tower's collection was truncated to say the least, while HMV collection could merely be considered classical-lite only. and what the hell happened even to the duke ellington compilations?
........
chillingly, is it me, or is this place overrun by chain stores? what happened to the mom and pop usedbookshops? even in a small place like madtown, there are at least 6 at last count, each catering to a genre. i could easily find the stuff i want there, albeit at slightly higher prices (blame it on the exchange rate). but here....
what the bloody hell is happening here?
while the former purpose has already been, or rather, in the proces of being fulfilled, the second aim has, disappointly fallen flat on its freakin face.
for the past two days is've been browsing at all the chain stores for books and CDs. history of sovs might be a pain in the arse, but i was all ready to continue my love affair by trying to read stuff by Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Pasternak et al, but wtbmf, there was freaking jackshit at all the stores i tried. ditto for the classical CDs i was looking for. Tower's collection was truncated to say the least, while HMV collection could merely be considered classical-lite only. and what the hell happened even to the duke ellington compilations?
........
chillingly, is it me, or is this place overrun by chain stores? what happened to the mom and pop usedbookshops? even in a small place like madtown, there are at least 6 at last count, each catering to a genre. i could easily find the stuff i want there, albeit at slightly higher prices (blame it on the exchange rate). but here....
what the bloody hell is happening here?
