Books

So I'm back in Germanz again, this time with Paul in tow. I've caught a cold unfortunately, so I'm way more irritable than usual. I'm sure Paul appreciates it. Anyway, today will be a recovery day for the most part. Also a planning day. Whilst I like flying by the seat of my pants as much as the next guy, it can also wind up being more costly sometimes. Like wanting to see a bunch of museums and buying an "I amsterdam" cultural pass. It's an alright premise, but from the museums & sites we wanted to see, it would've been much cheaper to buy each ticket independently.

In any case, coming to Germany was a welcome change of pace. Right out of the train station we saw a sight for sore eyes, a supermarket. In Amsterdam there are museums, coffeshops, cafes, restaurants, bars, piano shops and streets devoted to designer clothing...but no grocery stores. No convenience stores. No barber shops. I wasn't quite sure how people were actually living in that city. Of course Germany is not all gumdrops and lollypops. The Düsseldorf train station vending machine annexed my KitKat bar. Paul ominously warned that "we trusted them too soon."

Anyhoo, Paul's up finally so we're going to consult Frommer's, Lonely Planet, the Eurail timetables & possibly a combination of constellations to determine the route for the next 4 weeks. And I might start a new book today...

I had a prewritten post about books, hence the title, and here that is.

I've read a few books on my travels, most I picked up in India cause it was so inexpensive there. Textbooks are (like some CompSci ones that I saw) are often at least 50% cheaper, and some 80% cheaper than buying them from the campus bookstore. It'd almost be worth it to fly there before the school years starts and buy all your texts. You'd get a free flight and all your textbooks.

Well, maybe it wouldn't be worth it, but if you were buying other people textbooks too and resell it for a tiny profit. And instead of you flying there, you could have shipped them via boat a 2 months or so in advance...wait a tick...

In any case, two recent ones that I can highly recommend are the Curious Incident of a Dog at Night Time, which was a very quick, fun read. I also worked my way through Guns, Germs and Steel, which was a non-trivial read, but well worth it. My only complaint is that I thought there was some redundancy, but I guess really it wasn't redundant, just more and more detail on the same concepts.

Definitely something I'd recommend if you're into human history, evolution, sociology, and/or anthropology. I can't wait to read Collapse when I get home.

Oh yeah, and here's my traveller tip of the day:

When going through the random screening, and they're swabbing your carry-on book for trace amounts of explosives, it may speed up the process if the books you're carrying are not titled "Guns, Germs, and Steel" or "Slaughterhouse 5"

from Germany