The UK has Cool Books I will Never See
It is sometimes a wonder in the modern digital library-soaked world when I come across the fact of a book that cannot reasonably be obtained. I'm not talking a specific edition or a shiny cover that's only available across the pond, I'm talking *any* copy. I'm so used to being able to snag something via Interlibrary loan or obtaining it via legal digital channels that when I run across something like Daniel Pinkwater's Norb, published in limited enough quantity that it just plain isn't in libraries, I find myself mildly flabbergasted that I can't just find a copy to look at. I mean, I could purchase one for $40.00 from Amazon, but how do I know that I want it? I'm just curious, damnit!
Anyway, my intrepid "Skin Horse" collaborator Shaenon Garrity lent me her copy of Norb while I was vacationing out West, and that particular itch was scratched to my satisfaction. Now I just need a friend who's a big fan of UK cartoonist David Whiteland, because I really very much want to get a glimpse at:
The Knot-Shop Man.
...But I don't want it enough to spend roughly $125.00 including overseas shipping. Pains me to admit, but it's the case. David Whiteland is my second-favorite cartoonist living, and he produces so catastrophically few books (Counting this as one book, a total of only three in the past decade). I hate that I'm going to miss one of them. But I guess I'm just not a $125.00-for-a-book level of fan. I have my limits.
So I ask of you: WHY DON'T ANY OF YOU ALREADY OWN A COPY OF THIS BOOK I CAN BORROW? I ask this because I am ungrateful, entitled, and cheap.
Anyway, my intrepid "Skin Horse" collaborator Shaenon Garrity lent me her copy of Norb while I was vacationing out West, and that particular itch was scratched to my satisfaction. Now I just need a friend who's a big fan of UK cartoonist David Whiteland, because I really very much want to get a glimpse at:
The Knot-Shop Man.
...But I don't want it enough to spend roughly $125.00 including overseas shipping. Pains me to admit, but it's the case. David Whiteland is my second-favorite cartoonist living, and he produces so catastrophically few books (Counting this as one book, a total of only three in the past decade). I hate that I'm going to miss one of them. But I guess I'm just not a $125.00-for-a-book level of fan. I have my limits.
So I ask of you: WHY DON'T ANY OF YOU ALREADY OWN A COPY OF THIS BOOK I CAN BORROW? I ask this because I am ungrateful, entitled, and cheap.