7 January 2010

Book: $30

Books are pricey here in Mexico. Crazy pricey. For starters, they cost more than they do in the US. Springing 30 bones for the paperback above seemed a bit offensive to me. But when you add to that the fact that the minimum wage here is $5 A DAY, you start to understand why there's not much of a culture of reading, outside of the richie riches. Whereas in other lands, people connect over favorite authors or their favorite books, I've bonded with the hot dog stand guy (mysteriously called "The Antennas") based solely on the fact that we like to read. "You like books? I like books, too. Have another hot dog."

So although this is a book I've been meaning to read for years, I had to take a pass. Even though it was defying the odds just by existing in the always minuscule books-in-English section at the book store (which inevitably includes a combination of the following: books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende and Paul Cohello, a biography of Obama and/or The Audacity of Hope, the Twilight series, and not much else). History will just have to keep on waiting for me to catch up.