Still no City of Saints and Madmen.

  • Marie Nilsenova’s PhD thesis, Rises and Falls: Studies in the Semantics and Pragmatics of Intonation. Again, it’s fun to know people who write books!

  • Iain M. Banks, The Player of Games, which is about a different sort of game theorist. From the kringloopwinkel, where we also bought an electric organ.

  • Introduction to Book Binding (with sketches by the author), by Lionel S. Darley. First published in 1965 (this is the 1977 edition), this is as delightfully old-fashioned as its author’s name suggests. Still, I doubt the handicraft has moved on much since then, even if the chapter on the Smyth casing-in machine (patented in 1902) has likely been superceded. Boekenmarkt Spui of course, where else do you find gems like this? > Inevitably there are times when the place tends to get in a muddle, but the desirability of > being neat and tidy must always be kept in mind; it facilitates work and reduces to a minimum > the danger of outside assistance in such matters, which may well frustrate the best-laid plans.

  • Orwell, Penguin Selected Essays. Nice to have “Politics and the English language” between covers. Also from the Boekenmarkt.