Monday, May 31, 2010

May: Buying

Only 4 this month. I tried to keep my purchases down during May, but once I'm within the Seoul city limits I have no defenses; it's like I left them back at home in my apartment.

Underground - Haruki Murakami. I had to buy this! I'd been thwarted far too long. Couldn't find it in Japan. Saw it at Kyobo but wasn't willing to cough up the equivalent of 30 USD for a trade paperback copy. Finally, success! I found it at the Book Fair at COEX mall for the sanely low price of 12 USD.

Shanghai Girls - Lisa See. This was the May read for Talya's book group. Once again, I tasted victory. Turns out that I've accumulated so many points on my Bandi & Luni card that I was able to leave the bookstore without even opening my wallet!

Tinkers - Paul Harding. I saw several copies of this at What The Book? so I grabbed one for my Pulitzer pile.

Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain. I had some used-book credit built up, so I was able to purchase this book for only a couple of bucks. I've long wanted to read this acclaimed autobiography about life before and during WWI. Am I imagining things, or was this also a Masterpiece Theatre production back in the 1970s or 1980s?

3 comments:

joemmama said...

you go girl! I got so excited in the bookstore I bought 2 copies of the same book...good thing my sisters bd is coming.

Heather said...

they all sound like good reads. Tinkers is on my TBR list.

Richard R. said...

You are not imagining things, this was presented on Masterpiece Theater. I watched it at the time and was interested and entertained enough to buy and read the book, which was also excellent.

The only citation I can find is: originally BBC, presented in the U.s on M.T. and later on the A&E channel, 1979, 5 parts. Amazon has a listing, but it shows VHS tape, unavailable. This is one that needs to be on DVD.