This will be yet another post when I am whining about my addiction of buying books and spending way too much money on them, but the truth is I am really happy whenever the slightest excuse comes up to purchase yet another volume.
So this is how the whining goes:
I should be researching for my thesis, reading all things Sylvia Plath, but I am way too lazy to get down to business, and instead, just to get out of my duties, I am reading anything and everything I can put my hands on. I am one of those geeks/bookworms who, whenever an allusion or literary reference comes up in a novel, googles that certain allusion, then makes either a mental or a written note to read something by that writer that has just been discovered. This morning I was reading Leányregény by Polcz Alaine, in which the main character lends a Kaffka Margit book to another character. It immediately reminded me of the mental note that had been floating around in my brain for a few months, to read something by Kaffka Margit. I knew that Színek és évek was her best novel, and it had been on my To read list for a long time. Of course I could not get the bug out my ears, I looked up the above mentioned book on bookline, and found out that I could buy it for a few hundred forints. However, if I get something on my mind, I want it immediately, and cannot wait, especially not for days, and especially when it's about a book, so I decided to look for the book on Múzeum körút, as there are several second-hand book stores in that area. In the afternoon I went for a hunt, did find the volume, and although it cost almost three times more than if I had gotten it via bookline, upon being this incredibly inpatient and restless, and eaten up the consumer society, I had to buy it on the spot. (It was still pretty cheap though.)
But before locating Színek és évek, I had to go into a few other bookstores, and in of them I found Halálos Tavasz by Zilahy Lajos. This is yet another book of the Ulpius Anno series: these novels were written and first published in the 1930's, written by prestigous but maybe not that well-known writers. I guess this Ulpius-Anno series did not become that popular and successful when the books were republished a few years ago by Ulpius, and now they are being sold for 400-500ft in discount book shops. First I thought that these were shitty books, written by contemporary authors (I had not noticed the "anno" word at that time, I guess.) But then I looked them up, and quickly realized that these are good writers who wrote great, real literature, unlike those so-called writers whose rubbish novels are being published by the dozen and advertised on the windows of the metro cars by Ulpius. I think they write pure crap that has got nothing to do with literature and real writing, yet, they are incredibly popular and are on the top of the bestseller charts, simply because the marketing of the publishing house is really good (Meaning: they put a rather incredibly high amount of money into advertising.) So, after finding out how great and entertaining this Anno series were, I decided to buy every volume of the series, or as many as I can still find in the shops. Halálos tavasz is one them, it's almost sold out, or at least I had thought is was already sold out, so I did not have the heart to leave it in the store.
So this is how I ended up buying two books today, although I really should not have, becuase I already have plenty of volumes to read...
Then upon returning to the doorm, the door-man handed me a package that has arrived for me in the mail today. It was from Los Angeles, another book I was lucky enough to mooch: Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford. It's the biography of the great American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, written by the also great and prestigious Milford.
The situation is the same: soo much to read, in so little time. Especially when I should be concentrating on completely different books.
(The qoute in the title is by Erasmus.)
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