I Love Books

Today after class and after having lunch and signing up for a ski trip in January with Almir and Addy, I went to the bookstore to get some books for my classes that I don't have yet.  I wanted to buy some books for my European Union class as well as some helpful tools for my Medieval German seminar.  I realized I didn't have the papers for Medieval German and that I should probably read through the book the professor recommended for the EU class to get a a general idea of the topic before I go buying a bunch of others.  So I just ended up wandering around the store a little bit looking for some good additions to my ever-growing library.

I found this -- Die Geschichte Europas.  The title is a play on words, meaning both "The History of Europe" and "The Story of Europe."  It's novel-sized, and is written like a novel as well, covering the main points of Euroean history starting with the Greeks and their literature (as well as the Bible), moving through the middle ages, and finally up to the 21st century.  It was 10 euros and I thought it would be a good read because I know next to nothing about general European history and would love to have an overview.

I love buying new books.  Books are the one thing I can spend money on without any sort of buyer's remorse, because I firmly believe that books and reading are always a good investment, no matter what the material is (although you get bonus points for everything you read that is non-fiction or historically oriented).  Bookstores are like candy stores for me.  I love walking into a bookstore, finding a good book that really grabs my interest, and then going to a cafe and sitting down with a cup of coffee for a couple of hours.  There's no cafe here in my dorm room, but I do have a new view out the window and an instant cappucino sitting next to me.

Bookstores here in Germany are especially fun because I have the chance to buy all sorts of books I could never get in the States.  I want to raid their sections on World War II, the Third Reich, divided Germany, European history, American history, fiction.....oh man.  My heart beats faster just thinking about it.  I want to have a nice, respectable, and above all sizeable library built by the end of this year, even if I have to pay a small ransom to ship the books back at the end of the year.

Camera update: went into a camera repair shop to ask about it, they said that I would definitely have to send it in to get it fixed and that they'd guess it would be at least 150 euro.  Sigh.