With a lot of help from my friends.

Today it was suggested that I may have a bit of culture shock, but upon a quick read through of all that such a thing entails, I am not quite sure one way or another, but am inclined to think that this place, like any place which does not offer up the abundance of material pursuits and culture galore, is just like any other place.

Most fortunately, I have as my companions some new and old friends, by which I mean two bookshelves (not filled, alas) with books that have been shipped to me (by me).  I knew that in this place where one would be hard pressed to find proper literature (such is the case, surprisingly, in New York and London as well, and they are english speaking countries), I best stock up on what I could (and I did), in terms of what I really would need and what might be fun (such as The Complete Saki).  So, right now, I've got plenty to read (even at my accelerated reading speed), and also quite a number of books waiting on the digital front.  Of course, as days and nights go by here, I think of other books that I "need" (such as the complete Faulkner, which I never bought because the Library of America edition has such small type, and the new reissues have generally unattractive covers), but was not the whole purpose of coming here to write and not to read?

Well. so it goes, so it goes.  In the meantime, just for fun, see if you can identify the books on my shelf. Give you a hint- the complete Tintin (including the "racist" Tintin in the Congo, which was refused publication in the land of the free, and which I had to order a copy from the UK); two versions of Proust's In Search of Lost Time (in english, including the contemporary version of six volumes which for copyright law cannot be released in the US until years from now, and which I have the UK version), and of course Simon van Booy's work grace the shelves.  By the way, that tan box sitting on top of the left bookshelf is The Ingmar Bergman Archives, the monumental book on the Master released by Taschen.