Literaddict

2004-01-17 - 11:40 p.m.

So, I think I've established that books are like crack cocaine to me.

Last month I bought some books that I couldn't really afford, and the bookstore gave me a coupon for use in January, $10 off of any purchase greater than $30. So, when I discovered that I won't need to pay anything up front to get my phones hooked up (which is why I waited so long to get it done), I figured I might as well use the coupon. "I'll just spend the $30 to get the discount," I said to myself.

Sometimes I am so very, very naive.

Here are the billions of dollars of books that I bought today:

No Logo, by Naomi Klein. This book comes highly recommended. It's about brand marketting and how it's destroying our soul or something. I'm one chapter in, and I'm enjoying it. Also, because it's Canadian, it's about $20 cheaper than most books its size should be.

Dude, Where's My Country, by Michael Moore. Moore annoys me sometimes, and he can be a little out there, but I'm certain his heart's in the right place, and he reminds me to ask questions that don't seem to get asked very much.

Arctic Summer, by E.M. Forster. This is an unfinished book, put out by some publisher so that people can pour over some dead writer's unfinished manuscript. But, since I've read just about everything else that Forster has finished (except for Where Angels Fear To Tread, which I would have bought instead if I had been able to find it), I might as well move on to scavenging his dregs.

Strunk and White's Elements of Style, by Strunk and White (obviously). It's recommended reading for anyone who writes, and that's me! I'm anyone who writes! I was looking for a book called Doing Grammar by Max Morenberg, because I am a geek, but I couldn't find it and figured I might as well add E. of S. to my personal wordsmith-geeky library.

Adam Bede, by George Eliot, who I've just discovered just now was actually a pseudonym for Mary Ann Cross/Marian Evans (not sure which name is more accepted, because, as I just said, I just found this out). This book was marked down to $3.99, so I tossed it onto my list of purchases. I figure that if a book is marked down, it's in dire straits, and so I should pick it up because one day it might be up to me to restore all the lost books in the world.

And that's what I got. Yay books! Boo poverty!

I'm not sure if I'll be writing more tonight...I hadn't intended to write just about the books, because I've been getting bombarded by non-violence messages in regards to global strife that have raised some questions for me, and also because No Logo, published in 2000, seems weirdly dated, because after September 11th, 2001, no one talks about evil corporations any more...instead it's all about evil governments, terrorists, and international policies, and it's got me wondering how convenient that is for the would-be plunderers amongst the world's CEOs.

I swear, one day I'll get all these little fragments of questions in my head all in order and then I'll be able to save the world.

Cheers,

The Magus

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