Bookwhoring

In compensation for the lack of a language book entry last week (I had intended to cover G before the article on instruments swelled up like a rary), here's an overview of the books I bought in Hyde Park today, nigh all of them of linguistic interest. Just as well that I went a little mad because the art show was rather disappointing. So bunj and I parked the s.o.'s a Café Istria and made a dash for the Co-op. My treasures:

• Modern Mandarin Chinese grammar : a practical guide. Ross, Claudia, and Sheng Ma, Jing-heng. (Routledge, 2006) This looks pretty snazzy: Half the price of the corresponding "comprehensive grammar" and chock-full of communicative examples. It looks like just the ticket for reviewing my grammar in advance of October's trip.
• Romani : a linguistic introduction. Matras, Yaron. (Cambridge, 2002) A little spendy ($43 before discount), but there simply aren't a lot of decent books on Romani out there and this looks better than decent. Not a grammar or a textbook, but probably just the thing for dilatorily examining the links to other Indo-Aryan tongues.
• Istanbul : memories and the city. Pamuk, Orhan. (Vintage, 2004) I've been jonesing to buy this every since the translation appeared, but couldn't bring myself to put money in Borders' pockets. Then I saw it in the checkout line and voilà!

We started heading back without even being harangued (though possibly not for lack of trying), so I gambled on making a dash into Powell's without being left behind. For less than $25 I left with:

• Nederlands-Engels pocketwoordenboek. (Elsevier, 1987)
• Asia's orthographic dilemma. Hannas, Wm. C. (U. of Hawai'i Press, 1997)
• A dictionary of sociolinguistics. Swann, Joan, et al. (U. of Alabama Press, 2004)
• South Asian English : structure, use, and users. (U. of Illinois Press, 1996)

Trousers half empty

monshu and I bought shorts online today and I was fretting over which size waist to order.

"There are two approaches that make sense in my opinion," he counseled me. "Buy the size that fits you now, or buy one size smaller and then that's your goal."

"What about figuring you're going to gain weight and buying one size bigger?"

"That's another approach."

In the end, I ordered one pair in my current size and another pair one size up. If I lose so much weight that the latter doesn't fit me for dick, I'll be so ecstatic that I won't care about the $30 down the drain.