Books

The Lost Bookshop run by an old Irish man with a penchant for winking has been the best find ever. Irish guy has been to Calcutta and the book fair and chatted amiably about it and recommended Scandi crime fiction to me. He also gave me a 130 baht discount. So far I have finished Shepherd's Crown, started My Brilliant Friend, and am halfway through Bryant and May Off the Rails.

Reading Shepherd's Crown was bittersweet. Afterword from Pratchett's agent says he hadn't finished tweaking the book and that, among other things, he had been planning a second installment of Maurice, this time aboard a ship. Geoffrey and Mephisto have so much potential, they should have had a series to themselves. Now for slowly re-reading the entire Discworld, especially the ones not very well remembered. The first one I ever read from Srin was Soul Music and possibly Wyrd Sisters.

The Mankell I bought isn't a Wallander mystery: I am a little scared of buying a Wallander and finding it had been part of the first series that I watched (the Swedish one not the Kenneth Branagh one). Incidentally I fell asleep during the climax of Murder on the Orient Express, even though I hadn't fully remembered it: it was that boring.

I was reading In the Light of What We Know (Zia Haidar Rahman) earlier but found it a but dry and never finished it. So the last book I read (with gusto) was Left Hand of Darkness. Wish I had read Ursula Le Guin more when she was alive. The first ever sci-fi story that I consciously remember, read out by Baba from a collection of translated sci-fi from around the world (mostly USA), was Daddy's Big Girl by Le Guin (Jewel Anne in translation).

The same day I discovered the second hand bookshop, I also found a very touristy place near Sunday Walking Street Market which served local craft beer. What the Pug Citrus Bomb is a rather hoppy pale ale from Cambodia: really quite nice. The absence of feni and urrak has nearly rendered me a teetotaler and I am only getting back in the beer game slowly. Acquired tastes can also become lost in just about 2-3 years it seems. Next is getting back into whiskey. Thing is feni is the only thing that's so easy on the stomach--even good whiskey unsettles my stomach. Old age, hah.

The point of the post is a supposed joyful return to reading: but wait and watch we must. It's true that I cannot binge watch TV anymore, and most series, no matter how well-crafted, seem insipid and annoying (case in point: Westworld S2, Legion S2 and Elementary S6). I have started and abandoned a bunch of Korean and Japanese tv shows (all quite good: Aggretsuko, Craving, Midnight Diner). Hell I haven't even finished watching End of the Fucking World (which is pretty fucking good, and exactly my kind of show). I feel no urge to watch the many movies saved in the hard drive. I only watch Hollywood blockbusters in theatres now. Going to watch Jurrassic World today.

Meanwhile I have even stopped exploring, photographing and feel no urge to. It seems like a chore. Reading though, I am looking forward to with joyful anticipation. Maybe I should carpe moment and read as much as I can with broken attention span. The large bundle of books, and reading 2 at once reminds me of post Bookfair haze of happiness from oh-so-long-ago. Books, are you here to stay in my life and occupy the central position you had before internet and smartphones? I certainly hope so because apparently it's one of the best anxiety combatant activities: possibly why I always sleep better when I ditch the phone an hour or two before bed and read.