::A Geek in Korea::

I’ve been reading Quicksilver: The Baroque Cycle Volume 1 by Neal Stephenson. I have this massive 900 page paperback book that contains the first of the three books in the series. There are two more volumes in the series, which are equally massive. Each paperback is broken up into three separate stories with plots that may or may not overlap. I’ve only finished a third of the first book. If I finish this series, I’ll have read close to 3000 pages of literature.

While I was up in Seoul, I went looking for the second book in the series. I wanted the 900 page version that contained all the next parts of the stories I’ve been reading in my current book. While I couldn’t find that, I did find a book called “The King of the Vagabonds: The Baroque Cycle #2“. This book was wrapped in plastic, and the cover was incredibly vague. Was this was I looking for this book? I hadn’t finished the previous volume yet, but I didn’t know the next time I’d have the chance to find the next book in this series at all.

I didn’t know if this was the entire next book or not, but with #2, I thought it was the sequel and what I was looking for. I couldn’t open it up and check, and I didn’t have the massive 900 page paperback available to check.

When I finished the first third of my first volume, I discovered that the vague #2 on the cover was referring the second story in the first volume. The book I bought was already in the volume I owned. I didn’t discover this until today. Luckily we kept the receipt, and I never took the plastic off the book. Now I have a book that cost 8,000 won, but no reason to read it. While it would be nice to carry around a 400 page book instead of a 900 page book, it’s not worth that much to me since I can only focus on Stephenson’s work in the quiet of my home.

The cost to deliver the book back to the store by delivery cost more than the book was worth. We’d lose money returning it to them on our own. There are no book stores of this franchise in Daejeon either. Someone we know is going to Seoul soon, and we’ll pass it off to her to get our refund.

This is the second time I’ve attempted to read this book. The first time, when I bought the book in Europe, I failed. However, since visiting London, I’ve grown to appreciate the story to a greater degree. Having seen the setting personally, and learned some of the history, it was much more interesting. If I can get through the second and third “books” in this volume, I’ll look for the next volume. It’s taken me several years to get through this first volume though, so I’ll have some time.