The Don Quixote Conundrum

Remember a few days ago when I said I'd weeded some oversized picture-book copies of the classics from our library collection? One of them was "Don Quixote," an abridged translation.

I don't know if you've seen the unabridged "Don Quixote," but it is gigantic. Probably 1,000 pages of tiny type. I don't know how Cervantes had the spare time to write so much.

Well, about two days after I took the abridged version out of the collection, some poor eighth-grader -- assigned to read a book in translation -- decided he wanted to read "Don Quixote." So he checked out the unabridged, and was mortified to find it so huge. "What have I gotten myself into?" he asked Dave, who happens to be one of his teachers.

Dave relayed this story to me, and yesterday I had the kid come back to the library. I gave him the abridged translation and told him to keep it, since we'd already taken it out of the catalogue. I'm sure his teacher will be perfectly satisfied with that version. He was thankful and he returned the massive unabridged one.

So now, of course, I'm thinking we need to get a new abridged version. Maybe a smaller one (in terms of physical dimensions).

Isn't it always the way that the minute you get rid of something, you need it? This book hadn't been checked out since 2003! Amazon, here we come.

Last night, I realized in the wee hours of the morning -- after waking from a dream in which a coworker's father made me a gin & tonic, which was very strange -- that I had no idea where my French books were, and that I haven't yet done my homework for today's class. Last week, when I got home from class, I put them away because we had guests coming over. Well, I found them this morning, and now I am off to do my homework. A bien tôt!

(Photo: Stickers from a bunch of shop shutter and gate companies on a shopfront in West Hampstead.)