Biblioteca Hicestului

I have been doing a lot of reading since I arrived at my site. I have finished two books in the matter of one week. This is pretty much a record for me. Anyone that was in my book club can attest to the fact that I generally can't even finish half of a book in the period of a month. I attribute this to the fact that I am lazy and in the US there are many forms of entertainment that take far less effort than reading, i.e. watching TV, watching a movie, talking, etc. However, in Moldova all of these things take effort. If I watch TV or a movie it is in Romanian (if i am lucky, most is in Russian) and I have to pay really close attention to have even a minimal idea of what is going on. If I talk to people,it is in Romanian and I have to pay really close attention to have even a minimal idea of what is going on. Therefore, reading has become the form of entertainment for me that requires the least amount of effort.

Unfortunately, I only brought two books with me to Moldova. So today I asked my partners, "Biblioteca are niste carti pe limba engleza?" Or for the rest of the world that has not attained my mastery of the Romanian language, "Does the library have any books in English?" To my astonishment both my partners said yes. Not even just "yes," it was more like, "Duh, of course the Moldovan library has books in English!"

So, around one o'clock we headed to the library. With my partner's help, the librarian led me to the section of English books. By section, I mean a three foot section of one shelf. About half the books are math books and another third are obsolete computer manuals circa 1995. Then there are the four books that one might actually read for pleasure, all from the 80's. I open two of the books and inside the writing is about size 14 font. In my opinion this means that the book is for either really old people that can't see, or really young people that can't read. Then, I pick up a third book and look at the back cover, and...

Here in library of a post-soviet nation that is half way around the world from the San Francisco Bay Area is a book with a picture of a man wearing an Oakland A's ball cap on the cover!!! For some reason, this astonishes me!!!

So, with a little difficulty, I check out the book, Catfish: My Life in Baseball By: Jim Hunter. The story of Jim "Catfish" Hunter who led both the A's and the Yankees to World Series titles. I think this book will be a winner!!!