Shelving Geography

Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx

Okay kids - I would ordinarily not trouble you with an update on a life in which little has been going on, but as some of my friends (I won't mention any names, so don't expect Shannon to be specifically pointed out in this regard) insist upon hearing the dreary details... In the name of collective punishment:

What You Too Would End Up Doing If You Did Not Have a TV

This weekend I enjoyed a new pleasure. Since I'd moved in to my apartment on April Fool's Day 2004 (laugh, mortals, but far too many of my recent anniversaries have had that date), I'd not taken much trouble to re-organize my bookshelf.

Yes, I had done the obvious of sorting my books as they always have been ordered - my favourite books all placed on my favourite shelf of my favourite bookcase. The Russia-related books on the overflowing second-favourite shelf. The Balkans-related books on the third-favourite overflowing shelf. The other books on the less favoured shelves. Except for the large books, which regardless of topic had the top shelves of two bookcases.

This delightful order had a subtle charm of disarray to my pleased mind, though, yet might ha' seemed a cacaphony to those who don't intrinsically know my favourite book titles, my favourite bookcase, and my favourite shelf.

How many people know to expect Roland Barthes' Mythologies on the same shelf as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago, Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot, and Maria Todorova's Imagining the Balkans? Not to mention the anti-capitalist Inventing Reality and the textbook on Film Theory. Whereas if one was looking for World Mythologies, it was on the other bookcase on the top shelf, apart from Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, which stands on the bottom of the third bookcase.

Ergo, my life-change, my pivotal decision, my ... entire Monday night, Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening.

Dear readers, I married him.

Okay, that was a gratuitous Jane Austen quote. But what I did do, was decide to shelve my fiction by year of birth. That is to say, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales follow Plato and the Greeks, who in turn follow the Koran, which follows (wink) the Tanach (Jewish Bible). I have squished my teensy book of Revelations (from the New Testament) above these, as I am out of space in the Seriously Old part of the shelf. My only problem is that I have apparently collected quite a bit of fiction (who knew?), and am overflowing, and the books don't all fit (vertically) into the shelves. I have also discovered certain biases in my reading. Such as from the literature of the 1990s to present, I apparently read mostly East European literature and Harry Potter. I am now bridging my interests by reading through a gifted (spasibo!) Garry Potter i Filosofski Kamen' from a generous lady reader.

Okay, even I have a heart. You're free now to return to your regular programming. Incidentally, I admit that this was an odd idea. But do you know, until now, I didn't realize Jane Austen was 18th Century?? I thought she was 19th!!! Crikey! And Chaucer's pretty friggin' old. Makes me a'feared of where Beowulf fits in!

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings. ~ Heinrich Heine

The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man nothing else that he builds ever lasts monuments fall; nations perish; civilization grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts, of the hearts of men centuries dead. ~ Clarence Day

If I get more than two comments, one of which is Shannon begging me NEVER again to give in to her demands for an update... Why then you're shit out of luck; I'll be sharing EVER SINGLE DETAIL of my life.

Speaking of which I am seriously late in calling people back. HUGE APOLOGIES.

Mongolia, and other realms of the imagination

Over the past week or so, some d00dettes and myself have engaged in "chatter" regarding the far-flung, way-out-there, totally crazy idea of ... going on vacation to Mongolia. Or visiting exquisite areas on the Silk Road.

Thoughts of Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, the Gobi Desert, yurts, gers, Mongolian horses, and the like, have been bandied about in my imagination. What an insane trip this would be, but how beautiful, remote and new. At the same time, my knees are a 'quiver at the thought of spending boatloads of money (this would of course require my earning and saving said boatload, first).

I don't suppose any of you guys are also interested in taking a wild trip out to Mongolia or the Silk Road, and/or, does anyone here have any experience (or have friends with any) in that part of the world? I'm trying to figure out how necessary an organized tour would be, versus simply being a knowledgeable traveler conversant in Russian, but still obviously a foreigner.

(ahem)

And now I return to my work. Not looking up Mongolia online.

No. Not I.

Incidentally, I have found a promising piece of news on Mongolia, courtesy of the Association for Asian Research....

World tourists discover Mongolia
Michael Kitchen7/14/2004
http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2194.html

In an effort to boost tourism, Mongolia declared 2003 the "Visit Mongolia" year.

But, as the National Mongolian History Museum's assistant director Areuntuya notes, the tourism campaign was not very successful because of the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

"Last year there were a lot of problems about SARS. This year it will be okay, I think," he said.
So with the outbreak now over, Mongolia decided 2004 would be "Discover Mongolia" year.

Le sigh. It's simply THE place to visit, methinks... Are you not convinced? Let me know if you want to come, too. 2005 is "Discover Mongolia, For Real This Time" year.

Rumours of My Death ...

Yes, it has been a while, dear friends - or those of you who haven't departed to greener blogs. A brief update on my life follows.

Things Not Russian-Related

Hm.

Russian-Related Things

Since my electronic bytes last appeared on your computer screen, I've started taking Russian with a tutor. This has afforded me with the opportunity to rediscover my limitations and reach new degrees of self-frustration before the workday even commences. Of course, I love the sessions, and I love the language. I just wish I was closer to mastering it. Bilingualism would be ... insanely brilliant.

In the meantime, I get up early and stay up late studying, only to produce grammatically incohesive, phonetically damning and linguistically painful sound-bytes at my next lesson.

Perhaps my only comfort is that my grasp of Russian idioms is light years more advanced than that of English-language idioms. English mess-ups I've produced recently:

"To drink like a guppy."
"To give someone a tinkle." (I've been using this for years; why hasn't anyone told me it doesn't mean to give someone a call??? Are you friends or what?? *weeps*)
"No bars held." (To my credit, I figured out this one was wrong.)

I hear "Baby Fish-head is sweeping the nation." (Gratuitous When Harry Met Sally quote)

And it's a Wrap-Up!

That's all for now, folks. Simply wanted to breathe new life into this form of communication. God forbid I let a sleeping dog lie.

:)