Be that as it may, seeing as I don’t think I’ll fail any of my exams, I decided to take a quick trip downtown, to visit my favourite purveyors of fine leisure activities.

The first of these was Avalon, also known as Gotham. I was primarily looking for John Scalzi’s Ghost Brigades, but it as turned out that Avalon had sold books by the dozen for approximately 200 kroner, I ended up leaving the store with considerably more than I had intended. And I didn’t even manage to find any Scalzi. What I did find, however, was this:

R. Scott Bakker’s The Thousandfold Thought.
I gave away my TPBs of this series to my sister, the mass market PB was released only recently, and I hate to have holes in my collection. So I bought this, the concluding volume of Bakker’s excellent Prince of Nothing trilogy.

Jeff Vandermeer’s Veniss Underground.
I’ve been wanting to read something by Vandermeer for a long time now, so it was nice to find this short, little thing. It cost fairly much considering the size of the book, but I’m hoping I paid extra for quality…

Tank Girl, vol. 1.
This is an Australian comic from the 80s, early 90s, which I’ve heard good things about. However, I should learn to pay more attention to description of the content of things instead of just the writer’s/speaker’s subjective evaluation of the thing, because even though I’ve only read ten or fifteen pages, I’m pretty sure this isn’t my cup of tea at all.

These items were the ones I paid full price for. But I also bought 8 books for a reduced price (200,- for the lot). These were:

Evangeline Walton’s The Mabinogion.
A Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks collection of Walton’s stories based on the Welsh Mabinogion legends. Sounded like something I could like.

Nancy Springer’s I am Mordred.
A retelling of the Arthurian legends from Mordred’s point of view (duh). Sounds like a cheap Grendel rehash to me. but it was just about the only other interesting thing I could find, and I needed an eighth book, as I’d already picked up:

Michelle West’s The Sun Sword.
This is an epic fantasy series published between 1997 and 2004, which I’d never even heard of before I put in in my shopping basket. But it’s only six books, albeit fat ones, and I have a serious craving for epic fantasy. If the series turns out to be utter rubbish (I’m afraid I suspect this is the case, as Avalon didn’t seem to have sold even a single book of the series), well, at least I haven’t spent much money on it. :P
(Anyone heard anything about this one, by the way?)

That’s all from Avalon. Next up was Outland, a more pleasant shop in many ways, as it is both more orderly and better lit. Regardless:

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and The Ghost Brigades.
The latter is the book I was looking for to begin with, and I threw in the former because it fitted the format of TGB better than one copy Lotta sent me. (Which I intend to tell my flatmate he can have, if he promises to pass it on to his girlfriend or another friend when he’s done with it, and tells these to do the same.) Looking forward to reading this one. Will probably be one of the first I read next year…

David Petersen’s Mouse Guard, Fall 1152.
A comic about a bunch of militaristic mice in a Medieval setting, which I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about. Additionally, the kinda cute girl behind the counter at Outland said it was one of her favourites. And she seems to have an OK taste, in spite of her goth-ness.

J. Michael Straczynski’s Midnight Nation, vol. 1.
I remember reading a few issues of this comic when it was translated and published in Norway about five years ago, and I also remember liking it. The art is beautiful, and I’m hoping the writing is, too.

And that’s the books. But there is more! I also had to buy some additional Winter Solstice presents for my sister, so I had to pay the record company Platekompaniet a visit. This is what I added to the content of my inventory when I left:

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away.
Not only is the album title splendid — it’s way up there with Modern Life is Rubbish (Blur) and titles like that, in my book — the band is, too. No wonder Nathalie Portman’s character in Garden State told Zach Braff’s character that The Shins’ “New Slang” would change his life. That one’s not on Wincing the Night Away but what is is great, too. Possibly except “Black Wave”.

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife.
Got a track from this album when I bought an issue of Q magazine this spring (they had a ten-page article on OK Computer, did I have to have it? That’s a no-brainer), and liked what I heard. I’ve liked what I’ve heard of the rest of the album, too. Good stuff.

Tom McRae - King of Cards.
Not to be confused with Tom MacRae. :P
Much like Just Like Blood, King of Cards isn’t as immediate as Tom McRae, but its still a decent album.

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin.
I’ve only listened to it once yet, but I have a distinct feeling Cease to Begin isn’t as awesome as Everything all the Time. But then again, once is once, and Everything all the Time really is an amazing album.

Then, there’s the records which with this in mind caused me a bit of worry:

The Beatles’ Revolver, 1962-1966 and 1966-1970.
Considering that I’d just complained about how I don’t like the Beatles anymore, I took a few minutes to decide about buying these. However, I soon realized that it’s not the Beatles as such I’ve grown sick of, it’s just the White Album. Or, more precisely, certain songs on this album. And as I sit here listening to 1962-1966, I’m becoming more and more sure that this was a sound decision. A bit of the downer that Platekompaniet’s überstressed employee (the queues were, like, thirty metres long) put a Rubber Soul CD in my Revolver cover, but that’s the kind of thing that’s easy to fix. And Rubber Soul isn’t exactly what you’d call horrible, and I’ve had good experiences with this kind of mix-up before. (They once gave me a Kings of Leon CD in a White Stripes cover, and I found out that Kings of Leon is a great band.)

Those were the CDs, but I also bought a couple of cheap DVDs:

Wall Street.
One of my flatmates claims that this is a brilliant movie, and that I, as a quasi-socialist, probably will love it. And 59,90 isn’t much, eh?

The Quiet American.
Based on a Graham Greene novel, this is a movie I wanted to watch when it was screened in cinemas, but I lived in Molde at the time. Again, 59,90’s hardly any money at all. :P

Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou.
A good movie by one of my favourite directors, Wes Anderson. Looking forward to watching this one again, it’s been over three years since last time.

And here endeth the list. I’ve obviously not mentioned the three CDs I bought for my sister. Granted, she doesn’t come here any more, but I’m not taking any chances.

‘Tis been a good albeit expensive day. :)