Books I currently hunger for, because a) I don't have the money for them, b) they aren't available here in the Philippines, or c) both of the above:
- Inside Anne Frank's House: An Illustrated Journey Into The Life Of Anne Frank— beautiful coffee table book I found at Powerbooks. It documents the Secret Annexe, the hiding place Otto Frank set up behind his company's offices, with relevant excerpts from the diary. Beautifully prepared. Pretty expensive.
- The Diary Of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition— a really hefty book (700++ pages) prepared by the Netherlands State Institute for War Documentation, this is a scholarly work documenting the three extant versions of the diary: the actual diary that she made, a self-edited work, and Otto Frank's edited version (which used the other two versions) that became the published diary. Also contains forensic analyses of the work. Haven't checked, but I strongly doubt it's available here.
- Dive Into Python— not available locally. I have a copy of the downloadable PDF, but I really want the dead tree version. A must have for every newbie pythonista, valuable even if you haven't touched Python yet.
- Just For Fun— biography of Linus Torvalds. Currently out of circulation at Powerbooks, so I might have to try digging through Booksale or Books For Less (hah, like I have even at least a snowball's chance in hell of finding a copy).
- Cryptonomicon— haven't found a copy for me yet. Tato (formerly my boss) has a copy that someone bought for him via Amazon. Lucky bastard.
Edit, 10:40pm: I forgot to mention that the Critical Edition was published in 1986; there's a Revised Critical Edition that was published in 2003, with revisions reflecting five pages that were recently found. I checked with Powerbooks— they don't have it on hand, but to get the revised edition shipped I'll have to fork about PhP 6,000. Ouch. Amazon has it for ~$60.
Previously: Feeble Attempt At Angsty Poetry