Having spent all my intellectual energy (there wasn’t much of it to start with, obviously) writing a horrendously long entry for the reading log yesterday, I will now ramble aimlessly here for a while. Have I mentioned that I’m going to Scotland in September? One of the most active members (and currently chairman) of the Norwegian Malt Whisky Society is organising a trip to the Speyside autumn festival, and following the sudden improvement of my finances, I decided to join. I also decided that if I’m flying to Scotland, I’d be a fool not to go for more than a long weekend, in order to make it down to Glasgow (The School of Art and The Willow Tea Rooms and…). And I’d hate to think myself a fool. So I’ve been randomly looking at sites with information on Scotland, as well as reading the Rough Guide, and searching for good travelogues. I thought maybe I would drop by the library on my way home and see if I couldn’t find some there. I get easily tired of guide books, but I adore reading descriptions of travelling, especially for places I’m going myself or places I know pretty well already. Anyway, I am now completely disenchanted with the library. I’ve been having increasing doubts about the extent of their collection, following a couple of “surely they must have”s followed by “I can’t believe they don’t”s lately, and today was worse than ever. Not only was there very little of promise in the electronic catalogue, but even the few things I found there that were supposedly “on the shelf”, were either not there (“missing, presumed stolen”?) or reference copies (yeah, right, I’ve got the time to sit in the library to read a 1000 page work). So, no luck. See, this is why I spend money on books… Not only do I then get pretty much exactly what I want, I also have it there, waiting, on the shelf, just for me to read. That is, if I don’t let people borrow it… I am inclined to regret lending my mother Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island, I can’t remember whether there are actually any chapters on Scotland, but surely there must be? I will have to check if the library has a copy (surely, they must have – it’s probably already out, or stolen, though), if not, I suppose I could probably get mine back before the end of September. I also need to locate a copy of Neither Here Nor There, as it’s one I don’t have and I want to reread it (I can’t rememeber whether he actually got to see the northern lights in the end). There’s also a Penguin edition of Boswell/Johnson travels in Scotland that might be worth having a look at (one of the ones supposedly on the shelf but manifestly not there), and I seem to remember R. L. Stevenson writing something of the sort, too. Can you tell I’m looking forward to the trip at all? Mmmm, an excuse to go to some second-hand bookstores again (yeah, like I needed another excuse…)
My grandmother just phoned, apparently “they” (as in the collected Friends-and-relations living in Solør – this is small-town, or rather countryside Norway) are having a visit from some of our relatives from Minnesota. Some of the people I spent Christmas with in 1999, in fact. It’d be lovely to see them again, question is: am I really up to a weekend in the country? I dunno. I’ll have to think about it. Also, there is a sad lack of second-hand bookshops in Solør. Hmm.
Music in my head: That Was Your Mother (Paul Simon)