Trade ya...

13 December 2009

I have always loved to read, though in the years since my son grew up and left home I have done less and less reading for pleasure. Working to build a business I seemed always to have necessary reading to do, some book that needed to be read to increase my knowledge or understanding of some thing. Since moving to Argentina I have more free time and have been between stages in my life, with little or no “necessary reading” to do. The longer I am here, the more I read. I don’t read in Spanish, that would be work. It would require that I look words up in every sentence, at least for some time, and maybe for a long time, and while I know I would learn a lot from it, I find I simply don’t want to. I study Spanish in other ways, in conversation, by turning on my subtitles if I watch something on the television, by reading my Argentine friends’ FaceBook posts and with my Rosetta Stone program. Reading I save for pleasure.

Finding books is one of those things you don’t consider before you move to another country. If you did, you might stock up. Most book stores here carry a select number of English titles, but there are very expensive. The first time Jimmy and I found English books in a store here we excitedly selected three or four each and went to the check out stand. As we were waiting for help from the girl behind the counter I stopped to look at the prices on the books. Not one was less than A$R 60 (60 pesos was about U$S 20 at that time, when the value of the peso and the dollar shift the prices of imported items shift with them) and some were much more. This was double and sometimes triple what we would have paid for these paperback books at home and funds were tight, so we sadly put them back. Thankfully buying books new from a bookstore is not our only choice. We have discovered, as I imagine most immigrants do, other ways to feed our appetites for books.

In San Telmo, an hour from here by subway with some walking, there is a bookstore called Walrus Books. They sell both new and used English language books. It is very small by American standards but they always have a decent selection of books there. If you can’t find something you haven’t read you are either very well read indeed, or a bit picky. This store, as one might imagine is on Calle Estados Unidos (United States Street).

In the middle of Avenida Santa Fe in Barrio Palermo past the Jardin Botanico (botanical garden) and Plaza Italia, past the zoo but before the military base where you turn to go to Jumbo (a supermarket where you can buy imported goods like Jiff peanut butter and Camp maple syrup) there is a book market on an island in the middle of the Avenida. There you’ll find about twenty used book sellers in stalls. If you ask for “libros en ingles” they will pull out a crate or two, or sometimes even three, of dusty, dirty used English language books. Many of them are things I would never read, romance novels or old classics I read in elementary or secondary school. Lots of Agatha Christie for some reason. Still, every time we’ve gone there we’ve each found a book or two to bring home and they usually run A$R 10 - 20. The last time we were there a seller quoted Jimmy A$R 30 (U$S 7.80) for a book he wasn’t sure he wanted. When he hesitated he dropped it A$R 20 or around U$S 5.25. He bought it. If you ever end up on Avenida Santa Fe looking for books, bring something with you to wash your hands because they’ll be black as soot when you’re done sorting through them all and give them a good wiping down when you get home, after you’ve flipped the pages some to get the dust out. A funny thing about asking for English books. When you ask, they'll always ask you what specific book you're looking for. That strikes me as odd, since most of them wouldn't know what you were talking about if you named one and would likely just have to pull the crates out and let you sort through them anyway, even if you were looking for something specific. I also suppose I can't imagine going there thinking to myself, "oh let's go over to the books stalls in Palermo and pick up that new Stephen King book".

The thing we’ve done that has cost the least though has been to have book exchanges. We’ve had two and between us we’ve gotten a number of good books from them. The best thing is that we make it a social event and invite anyone who wants to come to bring two books and something to share to eat. We share coffee and food and talk about life as expats. We always see old friends and meet new people as well. It’s a lovely way to pass an afternoon. These books are free, I don’t even count the cost of whatever we have to eat and drink because that’s just a part of socializing. Better yet these books are easy on the environment and they usually aren’t dirty.

None of these avenues offers the kind of selection you are used to from home, though I’ve found that it means I read things, wonderful things, that I might not have if I could to Barnes and Noble to be enticed by the publisher’s latest selections. I’ve read books here that were written too long ago for them to hold a place of honor at the book store any more. I just read The Known World, by Edward Jones. It was on Oprah’s list some time ago, from those years when I was mostly doing “necessary reading” and so I missed it. I enjoyed it thoroughly and am glad I had the chance to read it.

A final note on where to find books when you live in a non-English speaking country. Audible.com sells a wide selection of audio books. They are not for everyone. Jimmy finds that he doesn’t enjoy listening to books he’s never read before. He can enjoy the retelling of a story he already knows, but he misses too much if he tries to listen for the first time because he’s usually doing other things at the same time. I have come to love audio books and they are not terribly expensive, between U$S 5 - 15. they do take up some space on your laptop and your iPod but if they are read well it can be a very special kind of joy to listen to a story being told to you.

When I go home to the United States I will enjoy going to a big book store and finding books, but I know it will take me some time not to be overwhelmed by the vastness of my choices. I will also continue to buy books at used bookstores and I will get back to the library because it is a gift I have for many years taken for granted. There are no free public libraries in Argentina and that is something about the United States that should be appreciated. If you pay taxes you’ve already paid for those books and getting them from the library gives the planet a break as well. I doubt I’ll have any more book exchanges when I get home, mostly because I don’t think anyone would come. Americans are too used to having whatever they want at their fingertips, the $18.90 charge on your Amazon card seemingly so much less an inconvenience than having to pick a couple of books to give away and spend three hours with people talking, only to have to select from fewer than one hundred titles. I think though that I will miss book exchanges and plan to do them regularly until it is time for us to go....