Kind of a tough week, this week – getting very busy with Frankfurt stuff, and everyone super stressed. So I'm tired and feeling down, which probably isn't the best state of mind for a post. But some nice things happened; a friend at work gave me some music, which had this AA Bondy song that I liked. And another friend gave me a Spanish CD so I can practice for Argentina (October trip). So things ain't so bad. And a book I designed is sitting on the shelf down in reception, which means it's out in the shops – or will be very soon.
On the way home I went to the London Review Bookshop to try and cheer myself up. It's on Bury Place, just round the corner from the British Museum. What's nice about it is that it's linked to the monthly London Review of Books so there's an ever changing line-up on their front tables that is always thoughtfully selected and not just what publishers are pushing. Plus they often have things that are just beautiful to look at, especially in the windows. It's a very quiet, thinky sort of place; if ever anyone yells at me or I'm upset about anything at work I go here to calm down. Plus they have an amazing cafe next door, run by a lovely crew who serve up delicious food & coffee (also to take away, although they don't make a big thing of it).
I'm going to Lisbon tomorrow, so I bought The History of the Siege of Lisbon by José Saramago. I can't quite decide if I'm reading this because I really want to, or if I'm being influenced by the fact that I'm posting things here. I've never read any Saramago before. I do definitely think that reading things that 'belong' to a particular place is often a nice experience. When I went to Japan I read Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (see, I have previous nobel-prize-winner form), which I'm sure under normal circumstances I would have found impossibly hard going. But in Japan all those little haiku-like sentences seemed just right.