Oh me Gardy. Lookies!

Hello all. This is the book I picked up at Borders today, while on me and MZ's outing today. Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Birthday of The World and other Stories'. Now, we all know Ms. Le Guin's books are remarkably cheap (you can practically smell the sarcasm here) and so when I found this in the Bargain corner... Well. Last copy people. LAST COPY on the table, that is. And another rather interesting story follows this book, by the way.

Ahem.

Guess how much I picked this up for. No, really. Guess. I hear.... RM 30? Nope. I hear.... RM 15? Hello, my friends, this is not a flea market. No way. It was cheap, but not that cheap. I hear.... Rm 45? Erm, bargain, didn't you hear? Ahaha, I hear a RM 25.90?? Congratulations sir/miss/madam/dato/datin/tan sri/tun sri/yg berhormat/sensei/senpai/you-get-my-point, you have got it right.

RM 25.90.

Which, when you think about it, is not like jaw-droppingly cheap for a book. Some books are that price anyway. But ahaha, remember my friends, this is an Ursula K. Le Guin. Her Earthsea books go for a whooping RM 50++. And this is a short story anthology. I love short stories.

The interesting story is when I went to the counter to ask if they have a better copy of the book, and the Indian girl at the counter checked it out for me on the computer. She then told me most nonchalantly, in a moste casual manner, that they actually have THREE copies left, but if the one I hold is the only one there then the others must have been stolen.

STOLEN.

Her tone was one of such remarkable nonchalance; so much so it occurs to me that damn, book-lifting must happen quite often there, dunnit? And it hits me that heck, it ain't difficult really, to steal a book. Just remove the sticker thing you find inside and voila! You can walk out with it, and nobody will be the wiser.

And then she proceeds to give me the punchline of the day.

"But we have other books by this guy if you want...."

My jaw dropped (in my head) and I thought "Ursula? A guy? You've gotta be kidding me!"

I mean, even if you are not familiar with her works, at least c'mon. Common sense says that Ursula is a girls' name. Not a dude. MZ was equally as horrified.

Huh. Stranger things have happened though. Of which is a tale for another day. For now, I hear thunder so I must leave. Goodbye all.