bookstore

[beige_alert]

I stopped the Giant Chain Bookstore At The Mall (Barnes and Nobel, specifically) on the way home from work. Evidently the shipment of foreign magazines arrived, among others. Things I've learned:

• There is a German GQ, and compared to the Spanish GQ, it is notably lacking in photos of naked women. Let's face it, GQ is not the greatest thing in print, and if I'm going to try to read it in a language I don't even speak well, I at least want naked women.
  
• Der Spiegel is also lacking in naked women, but it's a lot more interesting.
  
• Wow, I really don't know any vocabulary, do I? Still, I actually have learned a lot recently.
  
• There is a magazine for every interest. The number of highly specialized gun magazines, for example, is amazing. Gun magazines? Of course. Handgun magazines? Naturally. A magazine about just .45 cal M1911-type handguns? Yup. (I imagine there must be a magazine magazine out there somewhere, too.)
  
• For some reason not clear to me, Joyce has been reading up on Airsoft pellet guns recently. Is there a magazine for that? Of course! I bought a copy for her.

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

There's a magazine in the UK called Wallpaper! (though it's more of a general design magazine)

I have bought a magazine on Graffiti (which was really good!), and avoided one called Total Carp!

There is indeed a magazine for every interest :-) though many of them aren't stocked by most bookstores.

I need to improve my vocabularly, so I may start reading the news each day from a German news website.

Oh, and "naked women", agreed 100%!

[madfilkentist]

Even Der Spiegel has enough naked women that it would set American censorship groups screaming if they noticed.

The differences between American and European standards on this are very interesting. (Here I'm talking mostly of German, where I have the most experience, and probably should explicitly exclude Britain, which I think is more like the US.)

In one restaurant in Germany the sign for the men's room had a picture of a little boy peeing into a pot. The men's rest room behind the Köln Cathedral had a female attendant. And, of course, the showers in the Freusburg are time-shared co-ed, or just plain shared depending on the preferences of the occupants.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

and if I'm going to try to read it in a language I don't even speak well, I at least want naked women.

Men... ;)

For some reason not clear to me, Joyce has been reading up on Airsoft pellet guns recently. Is there a magazine for that? Of course! I bought a copy for her.

Hmm... did you do something to annoy her recently? In that case I'd be careful.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

In one restaurant in Germany the sign for the men's room had a picture of a little boy peeing into a pot. The men's rest room behind the Köln Cathedral had a female attendant.

Oh yes, those images of little boys/girls and a pot are very common for restaurant bathrooms here.

And you'll find many bars who have a sign hanging over the bar with a little boy peeing into a river and saying "Don't drink water". ;)

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

There's the "Newsweek" magazine in Germany where they write out news in English but use easy sentences and give vocabulary explanations at the bottom. I used to read that when I learned English in high school.
Maybe there's something similar vice versa?

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Or the experience I had exiting the restroom stall and thinking, huh, wasn't expecting her to be waiting her turn. Which is fine, it just causes that moment of 'am I where I'm supposed to be?'

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Yes, men are hopeless

I don't think she's planning on using me for target practice....

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen such a thing, though it may be worth doing a little hunting.

I was always frustrated in school by the total lack of *anything* to read other than the textbook exercises. They might be great exercises and all, but not nearly so compelling as, say, reading a friend's LJ entries :)

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

Somehow that sign doesn't sound like a good advertisement for beer to me, but what do I know. ;)

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

Of course, so were the showers at some of the co-ops at Oberlin.

[lisande.livejournal.com]

;)

But you're not sure? uh-oh...

[lisande.livejournal.com]

Well... I never drink beer. Looks so... yellow. ;P