snacks and short stories

The weather recently has been terribly unpredictable. Shaz calls it schizophrenic and in doing so, reminded me of my initial one-sided disagreement with it early on in the year. It bothered me that every time I went out, I wouldn't know if it was going to rain or shine - but that's just the magic of it. Out of the blue, a distant a rumble, then an overcast sky and the heavens open to pour out this wonderful, gloomy weather. Just perfect for a shadowy room and light from a single lamp. And a book. And crackers.

My father bought me Jacob's Cream Onion crackers this morning while I was at school. The fridge is chock full with Magnum ice-cream and chocolate bars (Crunchie, my favourite!).

A few weeks ago, I was looking through the bookshop on campus and saw this title: "The Best Short Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky"; these include 'Notes from the Underground', which I've been desperate to lay my hands on ever since I was introduced to the Russian author. For several weeks, I flirted with the idea of buying the text (I'm an extremely indecisive buyer. One minute, I'd have made up my mind to get it - "I must, I absolutely totally must!" - and then - "Maybe I can guilt trip Anil into getting it for me.." or "Maybe I should go to the library instead" - and I vacillate fiercely between these two opposites), and again today, when I went to buy Cranberry juice and 'accidentally' detoured to the literature section. I picked it up, suppressed any other thought, and now I am sitting with it in my bedroom while the rain pours outside. I would like to say that I will resist the urge to read it before my exams end on the 3 May, but alas, I have no such discipline.

Stainslaw Lem's Solaris was available as well - it was the last copy - but there was a grumpy lady who made such a scene about the pages being weathered and yellow (and she was standing next to me, enquiring about another book which I presume she complained just as much about) that I left without purchasing it. Well, good thing too. The universe is insisting that I budget. Until then, I can only dream:

Stainslaw Lem - Solaris
Tolstoy - War and Peace
John Barth - Chimera
Dostoevsky - The Idiot
H.P. Lovecraft - Collection of Stories
Frank Herbert -Dune series (this I'll probably get from the library)

..and several others. I have three months; that's a pretty long time to a college student.