reesesWeb

A friend mentioned yesterday that it had been an absurd length of time since he had read any fiction, apart from the Harry Potter books. When I say "absurd", I mean a matter of years, not less than five.

I've always looked upon people who spout "I don't read fiction" as similar to the twits who proclaim "I don't own a television." I.e., the first thing I think is,"Get over yourself, you illiterate douchebag."

I've used Amazon zShops/Marketplace for a while, at least since '99 or so. Up until very recently, I've had very good luck. I used it mostly for out-of-print books, but also occasionally for what appeared to be a good deal on a book I was going to buy anyway. "Hmm, $30 or $50, guess I'll take the $30!" Sure, you miss free shipping, but sometimes you have to be cheap.

I bought and read L'Assommoir (The Dram Shop) a few years ago. Let me quote from the back cover.

With its naturalistic description and street argot, L'Assommoir vividly evokes the poverty and squalor beneath the superficial glamour of Parisian life under the Second Empire. But in telling the story of the rise and downfall of the laundress Gervaise Macquart, Zola surmounts his moral and social intentions. For L'Assommoir is, in the words of Robin Buss, a novel that is 'marvellous, warm and human...with a tragic heroine who is among the most touching and credible creations in all the literature of the nineteenth century'.