Borders Binge

I discovered that Borders was having a coupon promotion (25% off the total bill on all books, CDs, DVDs) and I just happened to mention it to my sister. So, it was quite inevitable that the two of us tromped down to Borders to take advantage of the offer (it is open to question as to exactly who exactly is being taken advantage of here). It is worth mentioning that dear sister of mine couldn't quite resist the temptation posed by discounted books despite the fact that she had an examination the next morning!

Despite valiant attempts to limit the damage, so to speak, we managed to clock up close to $400 in purchases between us. Purchases on my part included the following: Armageddon Averted by Joel Kotkin, a book about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and A History of Modern Russia by Robert Service. I have a keen interest in 20th Century history and I lack knowledge of Soviet or Russian history outside the context of the Cold War International Relations paper I studied at University which had whetted my appetite for more.

I also bought a copy of Guests of the Ayatollahs by Mark Bowden, about the American Embassy hostage taking crisis in Iran in 1979. Bowden had earlier written Black Hawk Down about the American debacle in Somalia in 1993 (which was turned into a Ridley Scott movie). Although it smacked of being a populist account, I decided to buy it anyway. I have taken a keen interest in Iranian history after travelling there in January, and reading All the Shah's Men about Iran's great Prime Minister Mossadegh and the end of democratic rule in Iran.

Other books that were bought in this particular spree included The Last Oil Shock about the "imminent extinction of petroleum man". I decided not to be put off by the obviously over-exaggerated title and bought it based on the view that it would provide a useful introduction to oil and energy issues.

The final purchase was my main indulgence that evening as I succumbed at the sight of a 10 book boxed set of P.G Wodehouse books collectively called Jeeves and Chums. I absolutely fell in love with Wodehouse's dry biting British humour when I first read him at Oxford. Yes, it may be true that he recycles most of his plots and his characters are carbon copies of one another. In the end, all that matters to me is that inimical verve and wit.