Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.

"God these were days, pick up the phone and order a book. Now if I am not traveling I have to be satisfied with second hand books or photocopies. I am not getting into a discussion about copyrights, it is either this or I can afford nothing to read, I can't even get these photocopies easily since they don't have the approval seal of the ministry of information. Six months ago the ministry of information issued a ruling that states anyone selling books or photocopies of books without having the ministry's approval will be imprisoned and fined a truck load of money, I go almost every Friday but there is nothing new. I am still hoping to find that translated copy of Salman Rushdie's Shame I saw ages ago."

— Salam Pax, writing from Baghdad a couple days ago about the difficulty of finding reading matter in Iraq these days.