Expensive Books

Rin lent me a bunch of books about Ancient Rome; From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68, The Annals of Imperial Rome and The Fall of the Roman Republic.

I figured I've been playing R:TW so much nowadays I might as well read about the period during which the game is set. Also, I like history in general so it's nice.

We went to Times' yesterday. I haven't gone there in a long time. And yes, so many books that I want to buy. Things like The Serial Killer Files, The First Crusade: A New History, The Fourth Crusade and The Sack of Constantinople, Genghis Khan and The Making of the Modern World and more.

Also, good military books like one about Iranian F-14s in combat and another one about Marine machinegunners. Oh yes, and the classic War of the Running Dogs, which I've read before. This one and The Jungle is Neutral are great books about war in Malaysian history.

The problem? They are too bloody expensive.

I'm an avid reader. Back in the days when I was still in school and the internet was something to be found in sci-fi movies, I actually spent a good deal of time in the library to read as opposed to checking out girls and things like that.

Yes, I may also add here that I was a nerd and therefore had no business checking out girls. I've always liked history and military related topics. Try as I might, I haven't been able to enjoy fiction as much, except Dragonlance books, Richard Marcinko and the odd Transformers comic.

Anyway, back to the increasingly expensive reading habit. I wish books didn't cost so much.

However, like I was telling Rin yesterday, I'm thinking of setting a budget to get at least one book a month. Which also means I may need to look for a bookcase or something like that since I can't put all those books on my bedroom floor.

This also means I need to cut back on DVDs, probably.

I also need to consider the pros and cons of buying books online vs a bookstore. I notice that some books are cheaper online, even after the shipping charges are factored in. Looks like I need to consider getting some kind of credit card. Which is one of the cons actually, since I still don't think it's a good idea for me to get a credit card. Dangerous thing, that.

I must say that, despite not being quite as huge and varied as the ones in KL and Singapore, some of our local bookshops have pretty good selections. To me anyway, I have this feeling that a lot of people won't agree with that.

But what can I do, I can't afford to fly out to S'pore or KL just to buy a book so I'll make do.

Seriously though, something needs to be done about the damn prices. Cheaper books will encourage people to buy books and more people buying books means better bookstores. Unfortunately, the only thing that I can think of that would help is to get better exchange rates vs foreign currency.

I guess that means books will still be expensive...Unfortunately, too expensive for a lot of people who stand to gain so much from reading i.e school kids.

But no matter, I'm going to seriously consider buying a book a month. Let's see how that works out.