by erilaz » Sun May 18, 2014 1:02 pm
On my way into Berkeley this afternoon, I saw that Albany Public Library was having a book sale, and despite my attempts to minimize my book-buying, I still managed to buy eight books:
Amerika by Franz Kafka. It turns out that I already had a copy of this, but I wasn't sure, so I was willing to risk 50 cents on it.
Greta Garbo by Richard Corliss. Only 50 cents, so why not?
Grundlagen des Studiums der Germanistik, Teil I: Sprachwissenschaft by Bernhard Sowinski. A general overview of Germanic linguistics, from the library of Herbert Penzl. I was working as a research assistant for Prof. Penzl when he passed away in 1995, and I spent hundreds of dollars on books from his collection when they showed up at Turtle Island Books. Only spent $1 on this one, though.
A Homestay in Japan: Intermediate Reader for Students of Japanese by Caron Allen and Natsumi Watanabe. Something at just the level I need. $1.
A Japanese point-and-speak phrasebook for speakers of Korean. I don't know Korean, but I can understand the pictures (and a lot of the Japanese), and it was too cute to pass up. I especially love the section on music and celebrities, which includes モーニング娘。$1.
Poketto Atorasu Nihon (Pocket Atlas of Japan). Nice, detailed maps in Japanese, but somewhat antiquated (1982). $1.
Majo no Takkyuubin (Kiki's Delivery Service) by Kadono Eiko. Hardback with dust jacket and obi in lovely condition, only $1.
And today's big score: The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien, translated into Chinese (simplified) by someone whose name I can't read. It's a trade paperback in nice condition, with a foldout map by Christopher Tolkien, color illustrations by Alan Lee, and appendices on the original names (English, Sindarin, Quenya, etc.) and how they're supposed to be pronounced. A fine addition to my collection of Tolkien translations for only $2.
EDIT: I went back on Sunday and bought a 25¢ library discard of Essential Japanese by Samuel E. Martin. It's not terribly up-to-date (1989 printing of the 1962 third edition) and it's entirely romanized (bleh), but it has some good grammatical information and some very helpful stuff on accent that tends to get omitted from Japanese textbooks. It also has useful tables of things like counters and the sound changes associated with them, and the different verbs meaning "wear" associated with different types of clothing.
"Sometimes it seems as though the whole point of the Japanese writing system is to keep non-Japanese people from understanding what the hell is going on." — Dave Barry
bedroom slippers as well. 
