So, I hauled my pissy and lonely self off to The Last Bookstore in America, prepared to do battle with the lack of mid-list, the paid-for endcaps, and the All The Other Shit That’s Not A Book.

Turns out I had a lovely experience.

I got brave and asked a rather dashing Serviceman who was also browsing the SF&F section which books he had picked out. We chatted Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Tad Williams.*

He was on his way back to his station in Japan (hi, Mac!) and was looking to stock up because it takes so long to get books there.

I coughed up my undying devotion to Harry Dresden by Jim Butcher with a short description, mostly because with 13 books, The Dresden Files is a good candidate for “stocking up”. In exchange for this recommendation, the Serviceman offered up a recommendation for Akutagawa Ryunosuke.

Serviceman earned his degree in Japanese Literature–is that not the coolest?– and told me that these short stories written by Akutagawa are similar to my description of The Dresden Files in that they are concerned with a hidden or unseen Otherworld.

Nice. And! Holy moly, that damn bookstore actually had ( <—past tense, I bought the one copy) a copy in stock.

So, to celebrate this momentous event of connecting to people through books, I'm giving you a copy of either Rashōmon and 17 Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Or Storm Front by Jim Butcher (if, in fact, you haven't yet read these).

Here's how:
1) have read this post to know that I'm giving you a book and tell me that you’d like one
2) check out Operation Paperback. I used to do this pretty regularly, and, like donating blood, got out of the habit.

And so, there’s a book recommendation for you.

*my pissy statement: IT’S TOUGH TO RECOMMEND BOOKS THAT YOU DON’T KEEP IN STOCK, Barnes & Noble!!