Oh, Sinister... Wednesday I was downtown, near the office I work at, and had the almost brilliant idea to go to a bookstore spend my time, as I was out of work for at least two hours from then on. I went to my favourite one, called "Berinjela" (egg-plant). It's really cool. It's in the basement of a business building, and you reach it after descending a long spiral ramp, as if you're going to some kind of medieval dungeon. In the end, instead of skeletons in chains, you find a pharmacy, a small restaurant and two bookstores - one of them being the so called "Berinjela". At first, everybody wonders: "how can people have this kind opf commerce underground!?!?". For me it's no longer so mysterious... At "Berinjela" you can find a lot of cool stuff, among books, CDs, LPs, comics and bibelots. When I am out of money, that's the place I go to spend a couple of hours listening to records I won't buy and reading books without taking them either. Once in a while, I freak out and buy lots of stuff, some really desired and some I won't remember why are at my house a few weeks later. That's just what I felt when I bought three albuns of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions at once. I like Lloyd Cole, but not with that...urgency. But, this wednesday, as I arrived there, I glanced at the bookcases, as ever, and saw something amazing: one of the books I searched more desperatly in my whole short and unsufficient life!! It's called "A Pedra do Reino", by a brazilian author called Ariano Suassuna. It's sold out. It's rare. It's perfect - and, at that time, it was cheap!! But - oh, irony! - I had no credit card in me, no cash, no one to bring me the money - I was alone in the office - and no chance to get the book immediately. I said to the the atendant, a very sympathetic middle-aged man, with agony in my eyes: "Couldn't you make a reservation, keep it out of sale for me until tomorrow?". He was so cruel: "sorry, our policy doesn't allow us to this anymore". I stacked. said: "so it's better saying goodbye now, because this book is going to disappear from the shelf as soon as I turn my back". He agreed: "I don't even know how you've come to find him today, as I put it there yesterday. It's a miracle!". I didn't laugh, as he probably thought I would, and went away, to try to find someone to lend me the money. Two hours later I made contact with my elder brother, who was casually nearby, and he said he'd come with the money. I was happy, of course, but I decided to go check if the book was still there after asking my brother to change his plans for me. And my fears were fully confirmed: not a trace of the most awanted book... It was gone, took by some other book-adicted as myself... so sad. I still hope to find the book someday... wish me luck. Until then, knowing there's an italian writing for the list (Stefano, I guess...), I must congratulate him for the greatness of his country's authors: I am just finishing another Alberto Moravia's novel, "Il Conformista", and had already been delighted by "Paura Alla Scala", by Dino Buzzati, with delightful short stories. As I see, the twentieth century was generous to italian literature. Beto (and his boooooooooring messages) +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+