I have no vices at all! I don’t dink alcohol, I don’t smoke and I don’t go whoring. Drugs are totally out of the question.
Of course, these “faults” of mine make me the most undesirable companion when it comes to parties and night outs. I mean, who wants to socialize with me when everybody in the room is intoxicated with alcohol and I am the last sober man standing? Nobody! But that’s all right as I don’t want to socialize with them (whoever they might be). This is probably one of the main reasons why I have so very few friends here in Thailand. Some think that this makes me strange, but they’re wrong. It only makes me special!
Now, if I don’t waste my money on booze, tobacco or women, then one might as well wonder what do I do with my money? Well, I do have my addictions. One of them is archery equipment and the other, as you might have guessed from the title of this post, books. The truth is that I spend way more money on archery stuff than books.
In the last year I spent over 4,000 US dollars on arrows, bows and club memberships. But, you can really see where all dough went! Arrows expire after being shot a certain number of times (usually 10,000 times / dozen), so I just give them away to other archers from my archery club in Bangkok. My entire archery kit is neatly packed into a medium sized hard case that I always carry in my car. So, if you come to my condo, there’s no trace of archery with the exception of one “bronze” medal I won as part of Parin Team at Ramkhamhaeng Archery Championship in 2009 and a book about archery. That’s it.
With books, it’s different. The more money I spend on books, the more space they take on my Bangkok bookshelves. I rarely buy brand new books as I can most of the times easily find them at one of the second hand bookstores in Bangkok, so money is not really an issue. The problem is space and, of course, the time needed to read. It’s been long now since I’ve decided that I’m not going to keep on my bookshelves books that I know I will never re-read again. So, a good method of making more space in my personal library is to give away the books I’ve already read and I know I won’t need them anymore in the future. Usually, I donate these books to my school’s library (where I teach, not study!) or, if there’s any mention of sexual intercourse, then I either leave them on benches in shopping malls or give them to my colleagues.
Another big difference between buying archery stuff and books is that you know exactly when you need new archery equipment, but you can always buy more books. I could buy three books every day for one year and I would still need more the next day. So, what can I do? The smartest decision I’ve arrived at is to buy only books that I know I will need (or want to re-read) even after I’ve finished them.
The books that I will keep on my bookshelf in the future are only the ones that relate to my interests and writing projects. That is Thailand and Japan, in particular, and Asia, in general. This week I finished the manuscript of my first work of fiction, a thriller about Thailand entitled The Buddha Head. In this wonderful book of mine that is now in the hands of a trusted colleague for proofreading and feedback, alongside the Thai characters, I also gave life to three Japanese characters. And, as I have already started the outline of my second thriller, which still combines Thai and Japanese culture, history and civilization, it makes lots of sense to me to just go on buying books about Asia.
The problem is that the offer is so big and there are so many book sales in Bangkok that I cannot control myself. Dasa Bookstore recently had a 20% percent sale to all second hand titles in the shop; that is, on top of the very cheap books on the blow out table in front of their shop on the sidewalk. Last books I bought from Dasa are a novel about China and a children’s book about Japan. Thinking back, I have to admit that I also bought a young adult novel by Robert Cormier. At that time, I thought that the next time I’ll buy more books would be in July when, between the 14th and the 18th, Queen Sirikit Convention Center from Bangkok will host the Book Festival for Young People 2010. But, guess what, I was wrong.
This week I heard on the radio that Neilson Hays Library from downtown Bangkok is holding their bi-annul book sale. As I’ve always wanted to visit this particular library, but never really got the chance to do it, yesterday I decided to lighten my wallet of some cash at their sale. The trip to the library was quite a ride. It took me almost an hour on the motorbike to reach their gate, but I enjoyed the carefree aspect of the journey. With my manuscript finished and blog posts scheduled for publication on my blogs, I took it easy and drove slowly to Silom, the area where Neilson Hays Library is located. After a few wrong turns, I found Surawong Rd. and I parked my red and black Honda Wave on their driveway.
The sight of endless rows of books put on display under a huge marquee made me forget about the sticky sweat that until then caused a slight discomfort and the vague feeling that I was a bit thirsty. At first, I just had a quick look at all the tables stacked with books of fiction and non-fiction and took some pictures. Then, with deliberate slowness, I browsed through all the lines of books and selected the books that I was interested in buying. All the books had a colour marked price which was set at 50, 80 or 100 baht. Of course, after about half an hour I had chosen more books than I could possibly carry back with me on my motorbike, so I made a second triage and ended up paying 970 baht for 13 books of fiction and non-fiction plus a 2010 calendar illustrated with photographs taken in Bangkok. Eight of these books were about Thailand (two of them by Bangkok-based Canadian writer Christopher G. Moore) and the other five were, obviously, about Japan.
When I thought I was done book shopping, on my way to the garden café-cum-gallery, I ran across a stand with booklets and magazines. From here I bought three more booklets about Thailand and an old issue of Time magazines about Pearl Harbour. After I visited the library itself, the exhibition from the Rotunda and had a cold drink, I got on my bike and negotiated my way back home through the heavy Bangkok traffic. The only stops I made were at Sri Maha Mariaman Temple and the gas station.
Readers, I invite you all: let’s go on reading!
