Thursday, January 24, 2008

Two bukhs and another one already

In the past month or so, I picked up a few books. Like that's unusual?

The Joys of Yiddish by Leo Rosten and Words on Fire by Dovid Katz are both books about the Yiddish language.

The first is one that I had back in high school, then I sold it / lost it / lent it out and it never came back. I found a copy at the Book Eddy in south KnoxVegas over the Holidays.

The second is one that I purchased tonight at the Family Book Outlet in Maryville. It was 50% off the lowest marked price ($3.99). I didn't even open it up, just saw that it was a clean copy (remainder). It is subtitled The Unfinished Story of Yiddish. Who could pass that up?

The other book I purchased tonight is A Splendor of Letters (The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World) by Nicholas A. Basbanes. I've read another of his other books on books. A Gentle Madness. That was about 10 years ago, and I still long for his writing. It, too, was 50% off the lowest marked price ($9.95).

I do have some other things to read. I exchanged some of my frequent flier miles for a subscription to Smithsonian magazine. I've just started reading Equal Rites, one of the DiscWorld novels by Terry Pratchett. And I got Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength.

I just finished up the Tolkien story, Farmer Giles of Ham, which was quite an enjoyable re-read. I don't think that I'll actually be starting any of these tonight, but I did want to share them with my faithful readers. Thank you, both.

2 comments:

Dan said...

Oh, you're welcome.

Steve said...

Me, too! Me, too!

I remember you had Farmer Giles of Ham way back in New York.

And good of you to read Terry Pratchett's book now that you know exactly what percentage of his lifetime outlet it is.

Finally, The Joys of Yiddish is a great read. Very good for browsing. If Words on Fire is half as good, it'll be a fun time.