Bookwhoring

[muckefuck]

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)