Books of the World--Halfway Mark

I've summitted Books of the World, with 50% of countries "visited" yesterday according to Travel Buddy. On a rough count, I read about half of them in the less-than-11 months since I began, while the rest I'd read before. Technically, I could count countries like Cambodia for this year since I've read books from those authors recently, but the ones I wanted to list I had read further in the past.

There's no definitive list of "countries," and Travel Buddy lists quite a few independent-yet-dependent countries like Greenland. Not Guadalupe, though, nor Palestine (and there's a South Pacific country missing from their list). I'm being flexible and reading books from places like French Polynesia as I can.

I know that some of the books I've read in the past are at my office (The God of Small Things, for example), but some seem to be missing. Where is North, or Sonnets to Orpheus, or the Amos Oz that I know I owned? A mystery.

Now I'm off to a city with a big bookstore.

International Orders and Reading Skills

For my ongoing Books of the World challenge, on June 1st I ordered seven books from IPS Publications in Fiji. On June 8th, DHL made a delivery attempt, and I was able to get the package on June 9th.

I spent the morning of the 9th marveling that a box of books could get to Oregon from Fiji in a week.

When I opened the package, the cost listed was about twice as much as their stated prices (online and in the confirmation e-mail) for goods and shipping. I sent an inquiry to them (which bounced back) and the shipper (University of the South Pacific Book Centre, another Fijian seller/publisher with an overlapping inventory) and took screen shots of the posted prices and shipping rates on both sites in case I had to pursue it through my credit card. Even allowing for fluctuating currency exchange, one does not want to pay $94 for a paperback on traditional medicine of the Marshall Islands. "Caveat emptor," I thought.

In fact, "caveat lector." The mystery was solved within a few hours by a kind e-mail from Fiji. A tiny sentence in the invoice reads "NB BILLED IN FJD EQUIVALENT TO USD," which initially cryptic but ultimately intelligible phrase means "N.B.: Billed in Fiji Dollars Equivalent to US Dollars." I'd read it (quickly) as meaning the reverse--that FJD had been expressed on the invoice as USD. I am very fortunate that even in a lousy economy, $140 is cause for annoyance, not alarm.

Some are faintly mildewed, but a month in the freezer should take care of it. It's exciting to have a set of related but distinct books (3 poetry, 1 ethnography, 1 sociology, 1 memoir, and 1 medical reference) from from countries and other governments that I don't encounter very much.

The quality of the writing is also varied, but if I were reading only for high quality I'd just buy more Pamuk and be done. Part of the pleasure of the Books of the World game is the different voices, and wondering how the work was received in its own community, and what the author is doing now. Yes, it smacks of the Intentionalist Fallacy, but I like to know about the authors' lives and intentions.

Orson Scott Card

When reading Orson Scott Card, I often feel a twinge of unease (most recently while reading Ender in Exile). There's a subtext about secrets and boys that emerges now and then and sets off my child abuse alarm. In Ender in Exile it's more explicit than usual, with Ender and the (Asperger-y?) boy Abra exploring the contours of the giant man's body (you know what I mean if you've read the books) while Ender asks Abra to keep a secret for the rest of his life. Well, the enemies are called "buggers."