Got A Hobby?

I know we all have one interest in common – Science Fiction and/or Fantasy; but do you have a hobby? I’ve discovered, much to wallet’s disgust, that I have several. Apart from the usual guy-type interests, I have two main hobbies: assembling small scale plastic kits or models, and collecting books, and history books in particular. Can’t get enough of them. As much of what I am interested in is focused on this part of the world, it would appear I’m in almost the ideal place to satisfy these lusts. Well, there are a few problems.
The first one is a decided lack of money. Due to some appalling lack of planning, I’ve got less money to spend than I would really like. I know I have a great and oversized limit on the plastic card, but that is being approached at light speed. The sudden financial crisis has hit the exchange rate badly, and while NZ$1 = 15RR, or thereabouts, several small purchases can add up to a lot of RR and then that translates into a significant pile of NZ$.
The second is that, while plastic models make be quite cheap and light, they are also fragile. So they have to go into the carry-on luggage, or be subjected to postage. Poor choices in packing can result in some serious hissy-fits when I get home. It doesn’t bear thinking about. I was asked, by a friend, if I could buy a particular model kit while I was on my peregrinations. Not really a problem from the money point of view, but the man wanted a 1/48th scale Polish bomber. The kit is rather large and I would have had trouble keeping that intact, if I’d bought it. So, sorry Brett, but it stays in Poland and you’ll just have to buy it over the Internet.
Books don’t suffer from the fragility problem that models do, and I could go mad and buy heaps. I mean, the Russians are obsessed with the history of WWII and there are several small publishing houses devoted to producing memoires, illustrated histories, monographs and what have you on the subject. Their own history is also quite interesting (well, it is too me) and there’s a lively publishing scene devoted to that subject too. But the really good ones are HUGE and cost accordingly; a good, and I do mean good, tome on the subject will cost well over 1000RR.
You’ll probably notice I said "tome" – we’re talking something that would sit alongside the Encyclopaedia Britannica and not look out of place. Which means the bugger is going to weigh heaps. My suitcase was shedding handles on the way here. I don’t want to have to carry it by the zips on the return journey, or pay God knows how much in excess baggage. These big books weigh over a kilo, and my bag weighed close to 20kg, the limit, as it was.
I could buy a few SF books and pass them around the club to enjoy. I’m sure you’d like that – most of what is available is in, surprise, surprise, Russian. And who, apart from me, reads that? I know, we’ll get Leonid to read them to us. However, having only a working knowledge of Russian, I am hard-pressed to choose really good representatives of the genre from the local selection. SF is still considered a viable and acceptable literary expression in Russia. This comes of it being one of the few acceptable forms of escapist fiction that could sneak a broad range of ideas, and criticisms, past the censers. Thus, the bookshops are having a hard time parting me and my shekels.
Of course, apart from the local writers, and there seem to be quite a few, foreign authors are also translated into Russian. Sometimes it takes me a moment to recognise their names after they’ve been transliterated, but it’s not that hard. The problems usually occur with W and H, not letters or sounds found in Russian.
But I have bought one Russian SF/Fantasy book: an omnibus edition of Night Watch, Day Watch¸ and Twilight Watch¸ by Sergei Luk’yanenko (and Vladimir Bacil’ev). It’s hardback, over 900 pages and I’ve managed to wade through 200 pages of Night Watch, mostly without the help of a dictionary. I’m not using the dictionary because firstly, I want to improve my Russian, and secondly, the safety net has to come down sometime. I brought the English translation of it with me, but somehow, I don’t know if I’ll read it. Actually, with the Russian, there’s a lot of guessing the word and “fill in the blanks”. Kind of fun, in an odd sort of way. I didn’t realise the books were actually three stories each. Once I’ve finished the first book, I might watch the film, in Russian of course.
Maybe I will buy a few more books. Tease you all with them.
Next post: My Normal Routine.