Some books

In what has been a year of relatively low book buying, the following were bought on coupons + cc points

Taj Mahal Foxtrot by Naresh Fernandes

Korea by Simon Winchester (from Blossoms)

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth
A Japanese Mirror by Ian Buruma
The Information by James Gleick

The above 3 from Landmark.

In general, I am quite saddened by the lack of attention to books in most bookshops these days, especially both Landmark and Crossword. While both have drastically cut the size of their bookshops (which I am not as fussed about, since I do most of my reading at home), they have also cut on the time/attention their staff bestow on the books section. While earlier you could walk in and ask the staff for certain books, these days you could pretty much do as good a job as the staff in finding the books you want. Maybe that's what they should do. Set up multiple terminals for catalog search, since the staff  manages little beyond that anyways. In Crossword, I went and found Naresh's book after the staff told me they didn't have it!