mutterings and ravings no. 52
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 22:03:39 -0700
Sender: Bibliofind News and Views <NEWS@BIBLIO.BIBLIOFIND.COM>
From: Harry Nudel <nudel-soho@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: m&r...this must be bratislava
Back by popular and un demand..fEmail-troubles...and...
Came back from 3 weeks of Prague, Budapest and Helsinki to 632
messages..erased quickly most of biblio news..but glad to see all and
sundry still want to know how much is that little doggie in 'my' window..Find of the trip, thot you;d never ask, a nice NAKED LUNCH, Paris
Olympia 1958 but the second issue with 18 Francs on the back, still OK for
80 florints, about 2.50 cent american, from an in court book store, two
blocks from the Astoria Hotel (worst cafeteria food ever) and the
McDonald's (unbelievably better than the 3 star hotel) anyway, amidst a
pile of rubbish reading copies of English books that no one will ever
read...Let me start with Buda/Pest..the Paris of the East...the home of Zsa
Zsa, eva et al, and the mineral baths/spa of the Hotel Gellert, where in
the long afternoons the numbers crunch down to nada and the heat high lifts
the spirit beyond bibliography or even poetry...On the main street oppposite the Hungarian National Museum are 3
bookstores, one up from the last time i was here 6 years, ago, the first
and most prosperous specializes in Art Books and various and sundry prints
(prints are defined by East European booksellers as any image that can be
matted- book illus. of ANY sort are the staple) Rather lots of books..but
nothing extraordinary at any price..I could have bought a book about
Romaire Bearden but didn't or a French folio of David Hamilton but
didn;t...too big...should have bought a German book about posters..but 40
dollars in Hungary seems like money..in NY it's lunch..The English books here consisted mostly of pb romances and h.c.
mystery fiction from a Hungarian literary agency that was going to
translate them...no hi$$$$spots, and of all things lots of proofs, incl. a
McMurtry's Buffalo Girls..that i decided to leave since i already had
one...and was sure would one day..make my day..of a long lost texan in
these parts...More stores..next time..which reminds me that 15-20 years ago when I
stayed at Shak. & Co...with George Whitman in Paris...visiting poets,
thiefs, stragglers, misfits, grad students et al..on a hot summer aft.
apres lunch i climbed the long ladder to the last dusty shelf..and there
were the first two James Bond books which had lain sleeping peacefully for
25 yrs, alas the Casino Royal was a 2nd, which I should have bought anyway,
but the other I bought and undersold for 500 dollars..many years
later..dream on sweet prince...Summer reading Eca de Queroz and Don Quixote..in the Penguin
Wordsworth Ed..cheaper by a mile than 2nd hand...well good to be back...for
those who wrote thanz=x so much and those who fingers are itching to
delete..dreamers all...onwards...dr.n...
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