Wednesday, May 21, 2008

mmm... books *drool*

This past weekend (May 18th, to be exact) Amsterdam held the biggest bookmarket in the world. I only managed to walk through about a fifth of it (if that), making a circle around the Waterlooplein, not even noticing I was headed back to the tram stop I started from - that's how distracted I was by all the streets full of books...

The market covered most of the old centre and I just chose the part that was easiest to access with public transport. So, armed with a sturdy Body Shop bag (linen, less likely to break than plastic) I headed to the market. There were a few things I was specifically looking for, although not for me. A friend had asked some history-literature, and another friend had also made a wishlist...

As I wandered along the streets I felt a little hurried: so many books so little time to look at all of them! despite the vast majority of the books being in Dutch, there was also a rather respectable selection in English, French and German. Maybe it's my mania grandiosa again, but recently I've had this urge to try and read The Three Musketeers in French... But even if the book was on sale on the market, I didn't see it. Ah, well.

Three hours later, a hundred euros poorer and 12 books richer, with my migraine throbbing again and the effects of my last painkiller waning, I headed back home. The best part of my loot was the chronicle of Antwerpen, based on a manuscript from the 17th century (in turn copied from a manuscript from the 16th century) printed in 1843 and WITH the transcription of the manuscript. In Dutch, of course, or rather in mid-19th century Dutch. But that's ok, I already peeked inside and it's rather understandable. If I make it through that one, I might even pick the tome of Dutch economical history (in Dutch) that I bought when I first got here, up again.

The second-best book was Keisri Hull (De Gek van de Tzaar, I think - sorry, I don't have it at hand right now) by Jaan Kross in Dutch. I knew it had been translated at some point but had never seen an example so when I saw it on the market I promptly bought it. I'll make all my aquaintances read it now. I just wish I could get them hooked to Estonian culture with a bit of Kivir2hk's "Rehepapp", which is much more fun to read and in a way just as deep. But yay! I now have the book that would usually be among the first 3-4 books mentioned when discssing the best of Estonian literature (after/among Tammsaare's "T6de ja 6igus", Luts' "Kevade" and the aforementioned "Rehepapp").

I'm also thrilled that I found two books on the psychology of music, or rather... on how music affects the brain. Now those were nice gifts for Sander. Even if he doesn't find anything useful in there for his thesis, they'll still be interesting for him to read. And me too, of course. Thing is though, that I already have a pile of books (literally, a pile) awaiting to be read...

Ah, life is good!

No comments: