Doomed as doomed can be

At the end of last week, I decided to take advantage of the extraordinarily low cost of private lessons (about $28 U.S. an hour) and paid for ten lessons, so that I ended each of the last four days in school with an hour-long private lesson with Ciro, possibly the most charming Spanish teacher I will ever have. (His name is the Spanish version of 'Xerxes', a fact which I also find charming).

During today's class we listened to the music of the awesome Astor Piazzolla, who single-handedly invented a kind of fusion of tango and jazz, which earned him popularity outside of Argentina and the fury of the purists at home. At the end of class, Ciro recommended the Libertador bookstore as being a possible place to pick up some interesting tango CD's at a reasonable price.

Oh, dear Lord! The librería Libertador! I am doomed as doomed can be.

Readers of this blog will know that books are my major weakness (or 'punto debil', if you prefer). This store will be my complete and absolute downfall. Here is what I staggered home with earlier this evening, for a total expenditure of $23 U.S.

A 200-page dictionary of Lunfardo
The collected Father Brown stories (in Spanish)
A CD of Astor Piazzolla selections (20 tracks), with accompanying 100-page booklet about his life and work
A CD of Osvaldo Publiese selections (20 tracks), with accompanying 100-page booklet about his life and work
The Sibelius 2nd Symphony and various orchestral works (68 minutes), with accompanying 48-page booklet about his life and work
The Rachmaninov 2nd and 3rd piano concertos, with accompanying 48-page booklet (80 minutes)
10 volumes (each illustrated, 48 pages in length) from the Biblioteca del Conocimiento series , covering topic as diverse as "Human Beings", to "Physics: Energy and Motion", to "Literature: from Romanticism to the Present"

Let me tell you, a world in which it is possible to get a CD of the Sibelius 2nd Symphony (some of the most joyful music ever composed), for under 2 bucks is OK in my book.

¡Dear God, I'm doomed as doomed can be!