Hobbit-spotting 13 June 2016

I’m a month in to living at my new flat, for which I’ve taken out a mortgage.  So far, so good.  Nearly everything is set up as I would want it.

This weekend, visits from Southern Dave, and from my mother.  Dave was here two nights, he has secured my bookcases to the walls.  He was here for the Regent Theatre’s 24 Hour Book Sale.  This year I left the sale with only two books: The Maestro, by Hoffnung; and The Algebraist, by Banks.

Mum was here for Turandot, the Metropolitan Opera performance at the Rialto Cinema.  My new couch is now more colourful with a blanket throw and cushions from Mum and family in Invercargill.

I went to the volunteers meeting for the Midwinter Carnival, which is this weekend.  I visited the Public Library on the way back, just in case the books I had been looking to borrow from there were in.  They were.  I am set up to spend time reading for the next month, in the comfort of my own home.  All good.

Reading

Report on this year’s Regent Theatre Book Sale: Small pickings this year.  No new language books.  An Italian grammar that I picked up proved to be a text I already had.  I have put it into the stack to go to the Opoho Church fair next week-end.  Down-stairs among the priced books proved a couple of finds: Bacon’s Up to Date Atlas and Guide to London, undated, the spine is split along the third folio however it is still holding together.  Also the New Zealand Historical Atlas (1997): the copy I picked up for $8 had a dust jacket in better condition than the one I saw for $10, a good buy.

My comics came for the week-end.  They have made my week-end’s reading.

Dial H: End of this series, the Dialers arrive at the nexus of the shared universes on the Network.  After the end of the Dial Wars it is a shattered world.  They can rebuild and go out again.

The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin: The end of a six-part story-line.  I don’t plan to continue with this series.

Doctor Who: The final stories of IDW’s run with this title ends with the stories Sky Jacks and Dead Man’s Hand.  The 2013 Special that concludes IDW’s run is a delightful one-off story penned by Paul Cornell, The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who.  The TARDIS lands in a parallel universe where the Doctor is a fictitious character on TV.  In a universe without monsters  (the Land of Un-Fiction) the Doctor goes to a convention, meets Matt Smith, and still saves the day.  (‘And how can parts of my life have titles?! And if I’d known some of these were called things like “The Android Invasion” it would have saved a lot of bother!‘)  This one is a must-read for fans.  Recommended.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9: End of the Ninth Season.  I need to give the whole season a consecutive reading.  I have already seen flyers for Angel and Faith Season 10.  It has piqued my appetite for more.  Both titles seem to be up and running for another season.  I still want to see a ‘Li’l Ripper’ series.

Books

One of the moveable feasts of year was observed this weekend.  The Twenty Four Hour Regent Book Sale is a high holy day of the year.  As It Is Tradition, I expect to host Southern Dave for the weekend.  Dave is a collector of books, CDs and grave-sites.  We spent a morning traipsing around the non-Euclidean graves of Dunedin, sister-city to R’lyeh.

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu Northern Cemetery wgah’nagl fhtagn!

Translated from the original Gaelic as “In his grave at the Northern Cemetery Great Cthulhu politely requests that nearby student flats keep the noise down!”

I found a copy of The Dunwich Horror and Others by H. P. Lovecraft at the book sale, produced by Arkham House.  Bill who works at Scribes observed that they would sell something like that for $60.  I got it for $5.

I found copies of Teach Yourself Turkish and Teach Yourself  Basic Spanish among the Foreign Languages.  My big purchase of the sale was in the Nearly New Books where I decided to fill out The Black Company Series by Glen Cook.  I picked out about eight books so that made a significant contribution to the upkeep of the Regent Theatre.

Came a wet Sunday and Dave has returned to Invercargill.  He has left me with the next two books in the Dresden Files as I never see White Night on the shelves.  Also a block of cheese and a tub of margarine.

My flat is restored to its original state.  Now to sleep dreamlessly.

Finally a wave and a shout-out to my friend Dr Ali Clarke.  Welcome to the bloggersphere!  Everyone else, follow that blog!

24 Hour Book Sale

This annual event took place on Friday.  I browsed for a couple of hours after work until I went home for tea.  The range of books was about the same as last year.  They gave more space for displaying the paperbacks on the floor of the theatre.  The numbers of buyers remains down so that even in the early evening it was easy to move about and rummage for books.  This was despite there being no rugby match on in the city for it to compete with.  There were rally cars leaving from the Octagon outside.

I spent eleven dollars in the end.  Most of the books I collected came from two areas of the one dollar books: the language section where I picked up a couple of interesting things, including a second copy of a French Phrase Book I already have so it can go back into the cycle of booksales; and the religious section that contained several worthy Presbyterian titles that I can add to my personal library.  There was nothing downstairs in the newer books that was a must buy for my collection.  I also picked up a travel book on Roman Britain and coffee table book on Wales if I want to do more on the history of Brithenig.

I spotted a couple of familiar faces in the crowd and was spotted by them.

After the book sale

I have no idea how posting links to Facebook works with the current version so here’s a link to the Otago Daily Times article on the Book Sale.

I even know the date for next book sale: 26-27 May 2012.  Fortunately using a calendar that goes from June till May I have it already marked in.  The sale for things people donate which are not books will be in March.

24 Hour Book Sale

With the Regent Theatre closed for renovations for the better part of this year the high holy day of the Zen Bukkhists was postponed until September.  It usually takes place close to the hypernotian shortest day.  This year it took place while Dunedin was hosting one of the opening matches for the Rugby World Cup: Argentina versus England.

I watched the game on t.v.  It proved to be an exciting match.  I decided to cheer for Argentina since they are regionally closer than the English to Dunedin.  Vamos los Pumas! and all that.  The Argentines did well in the first half.  In the second they were beginning to crumble and the English got a conversion that took them into the lead.  The Argentines took some heavy hits and came off the field without dishonour.  (I think I’ve got the sports talk right.)

Back to the sale.  I was there with my mutual friend Southern Dave from Invercargill.  I had taken the day off and we got in earlier, after the booksellers’ rush.  I’m glad we did.  The renovations to the theatre meant that the aisles were no longer being used to display books and everything was either on the stage, or in the area underneath the stage.  It took me a while to find the language books.  I found four books there to take away: a Teach Yourself Russian phrasebook from the Soviet period; Teach Yourself Basic German and two of the Made Simple series: Italian and Spanish.  I will start adding notes to my eclectic language files.  The language books were depleted very quickly and I might not have picked up anything that would interest me if I came in later in the day.

In the nearly new area below the stage I picked up a copy of Wise’s New Zealand Index (1945) and a copy of Shona Dunlop MacTavish’s autobiography which I can give to my mother when she visits.  She feels an affinity to the dancer as her mother was a servant to the Dunlop family when they were the minister’s family resident at my mother’s church in Invercargill.

Hopefully Southern Dave has set up the R. S. S. feed so he is reading this now.  He’ll let me know.  I’ll remember his visit.  Apart from the two volumes of New Zealand as it might have been that he left for me to read, his watch is sitting on my book shelves!

2010 in passing

January: took my Christmas decorations down on Twelfth Night. It rained.

February: started writing dialogues for a new imaginary language project. Hippies moved into the flat behind me.

March: The last of my aunts died in Invercargill while I was at an interfaith conference in Christchurch and I didn’t get back home in time to travel down to the funeral. I’m still pissed off about that.

April: ummmm…

May: new Doctor Who. A Samoan tribe visited me for Capping co-inciding with the High Holy Day of the Zen Bukkhists, the 24 Hour Book Sale. SG:U started, a slow mover.

June: was mostly television. A lot of exceptional weekends happened.

July: I wrote half a story in Brithenig. The soccer world cup happened and a lot of New Zealanders got excited about how well the All Whites played and had to have a liedown.

August: Tao went to the vets twice and died. Dragon visited New Zealand on a farewell tour.

September: Local body elections. The Christchurch Earthquake.

October: I left my lovely flat and moved into Manono House. I regret leaving that flat but the Castle had other plans for it. Presbyterian General Assembly: conservative and unpleasant. Infection in my leg.

November: end of year events began, and ice-cream cake. Burns Seminar.

December: more end of year stuff. Christmas with family.

Hobbit Spotting and Books

Since Southern Dave has arrived home safely I should list what I found at this years 24-hour book sale.

In order of loot:

Foreign Languages:
TY German Reader; and German Made Simple. Special mention should be made that Southern Dave found a copy of TY New Testament Greek. I already had it in a later edition from Hodder and Stoughton, this was a hardback English Universities Press with the original dust cover. As I have been collecting these books for years, mostly for inspiring imaginary languages rather than learning new languages, this is an appreciated gift.

Nearly New SF:
The Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly. Got home and found I had a copy on my shelves. In better condition too and I didn’t have to pay 2/6p for it. It’s the third book in that series of which I don’t have a copy of yet.

Dictionaries and Bibles:
The Children’s Bible, arranged by Arthur Mee; and my own copy of Y Geriadur Mawr. Two good finds.

Children’s Literature:
Lots of great finds here this year. I am picking up things I read as a child in the 1970s and that I want to read again: Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Finn Family Moomintroll, the Young Unicorns. Also picked up a copy of Heartease by Peter Dickinson and found it was one of the two books of the Changeover trilogy that I already had, so another one to go into dispose pile. It is The Devil’s Children for which I’m still looking.

Southern Dave tells me that I was looking through the children’s books the Music books were behind me on the stage. This is another area I like to browse closely for the little gems that one can pick up, and I have missed it for the last two years. I will look out for it next time.

Religion:
Breath Becomes the Wind, a history of the Protestant mission to the Karo people of Indonesia. I know the author personally.

Other than that I found a interesting fantasy novel for children in the Novels, which I usually find barren pickings; and I glanced in the specialist books on the mezzinine floor. It was insufferably crowded and hot, and I had been browsing for three hours and was thirsty for something wet. Enough!

In other news I have had some meetings with the Majellanic Urban Tribe. I saw Taniwha at the opening of the Dunedin Combined Archives’ City of Letters display, and later in the same week I met Chris at one of the open lectures held at the Hocken Library, an interesting talk by an archives supporter about childbirth in 19th century colonial letters in New Zealand. I saw Dr. Moorlock in the university capping parades over the last two weekends, I hope he managed to stay awake. Shirley H. was looking for a bus while George Street was closed for the parade and I managed to point her in the direction of an alternative street. The previous time I had seen her she told me about the Tibetan Buddhist display at the Public Gallery and I got along to a couple of evening events there, including a jam session with a Tibetan monk on a flute. I wished Albie could have seen that, he would have loved it.