Today I went to the campus bookstore for the ritualistic pre-semester check of my book order, and–ZOMG!!!–all the books are ordered in the correct editions! And almost all of them are in!
You’ll pardon my excitement, but this is the very first time this has happened. It hasn’t always been the bookstore’s fault (one semester there was a cockup at the publisher’s end regarding a special bundle), but nevertheless: Every single semester there’s been something. Until now. I guess it really is a fresh start this year.
One slightly curious note: The bookstore had used copies available of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, both vols 1 & 2. How is that even possible? Who are the poor souls re-selling their Alan Moore comix?
A final point: I’ve started pulling the syllabus together and otherwise getting ready for my course on The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I realized one of the reasons I’m so excited: It’s been a Very Long Time, Indeed since I read some of these books. It’s been at least 20 years since I read War of the Worlds or Invisible Man, and coming up on 30 years since I read 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. I’ve not read King Solomon’s Mines in 12 years. Some of the material–Dracula, Jekyll/Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, She–is more familiar–but otherwise it’s like a fresh dose of youth serum.
(Between today’s post and yesterday’s, I sound pretty old, huh? 1971.)
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