The latest news is that I ordered a book just now: Gerusalemme Liberata, by Torquato Tasso. A friend of mine recommended it to me. Actually, he asked me if I’d read it and was incredulous when I told him I’d never heard of it. Well, have you? LOL. He was surprised because Torquato Tasso is a contemporary of Ludovico Ariosto, the author of one of my favourite works, Orlando Furioso. Renaissance Italian epic poetry is not a genre I am particularly into. I just happened to read Orlando Furioso because a friend lent it to me. I fell in love with it, bought it for myself, and read it two more times. Even if Gerusalemme Liberata is only half as good as Orlando Furioso (it’s only half as long: 500 pages), I think I’ll like it.

I was going to wait till this summer and buy it in the States, but I ended up ordering it from Amazon JP. I’m too uncomfortably close to the end of my present book. Alas, I ordered the paperback edition. What did I do that for? I WANT THE HARDCOVER EDITION!!!!! Paperbacks look so ugly on a shelf. At least I won’t feel guilty lugging the book all over Tokyo and getting it all dog-eared. The only good things about paperbacks are that they’re cheaper, and I feel less guilty when they’re abused. It hurts my heart to see a beat-up hardcover book.