(no subject)

I am back!!

Picture post and an observation about a deeply magical place of books will follow when I am more awake (the night train had footrests constucted so the feet couldn't), so for now, just for my own reference, a link to a video containing Apocalyptica that essayel sent me.

More later!

Threatened picture post

( Cut for excessive normalcy and total absence of geekiness or angst )

The magic place of books

Every few years, I travel via Hamburg by train.

I make sure I have more than ample time to change trains there, to the point of taking one an hour earlier.

When I arrive, I get up the excalator at the far end, to the big entrance hall and all the little station shops.

I enter the bookshop, my big, heavy trolley suitcase following me like a cumbersome dog, and take the elevator to the upper level where the English books are, because that dog will not follow me up stairs without a fight.

We approach the magic spot, and there it is, waiting for me.

The Book.

I do not recognise it at once, turn over this one or that until something tells me that This Is It.

I take The Book and pay for it, all mundanely, and then I make it mine.

Last time, I was given 'At Swim, Two Boys' that harmonised perfectly with where I was at the time - Irish history and all that.

Yesterday, it was 'Vellum'. I haven't read much, but it sounds absolutely delicious - a many-faceted world describd with a language and narrative structure to match the complexity, and two gay central characters.

It is good to read new fantastic literature written by Brits not intended for kids for once. This Hal Duncan is a worthy compatriot of the likes of Clive Barker or Ricardo Pinto. I am, once more, very grateful for the magic of that one seemingly mundane spot - or, more plainly, to the unnamed gay employee of the railway station bookshop in Hamburg who keeps putting truly well-written and challenging books in places where people can find them when passing through.