Re: THEORY: Browsing at Borders Public Library

> Date:         Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:01:51 -0700
> From: Sylvia Sotomayor <sylvia1@...>
> At 15:33 10/13/1999 -0700, [Charles ?] wrote:
> >I need to read "Languages of Pao" in its entirety
> >(having read excerpts like "Moon Moth" in various collections)
> >and "Babel-17 (Delaney is maybe my favorite sci-fi author
> >just based on his short stories; I read lots of shorts).
> >But the corner-chain-bookstore-abomination didn't have either.
> >I settled for some Stanislaw Lem, irrelevantly. Next, the library.
> That's because both books are out of print, so the only way you are going
> to be able to read them is by finding them in a library or a used bookstore.
And if you don't have a used book store handy, or can't afford all the
other irresistable temptations you'll meet there, you can try looking
in <URL:http://www.bibliofind.com>. If you don't care about condition,
both titles are listed for 3 dollars or less.

(The problem is usually that none of the booksellers have more than
one of the titles you want, so you end up paying as much in p&p...
unless you look in the catalogues of each dealer for other interesting
books).

Bibliofind even has dealers in the UK, so I just sent off for
Languages of Pao, as well as a book I never heard of before:

        Philip Mann, The Eye of the Queen, Panther 1984, 240 pp.
        Synopsis: When legendary linguist Matius Thorndyke visits the
                  bizarre planet of Pe-Ellia, he is inexorably sucked
                  into the local way of life, of sex, of death.

Search engines are a wonderful thing. (I searched for "linguist".
Honest). Total cost GBP 5.05 including p&p, and a few electrons.

Lars Mathiesen (U of Copenhagen CS Dep) <thorinn@...> (Humour NOT marked)