Lookshelves

Who are you?

Vincent Alesi, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

What do you do?

Marketing director for a small business.

What do you do for fun?

Study languages, write and practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
 
Tell me something about your shelf.

It's the only bookshelf that I have and I obviously need another one. Not shown are several stacks of textbooks, dictionaries and phrasebooks I have lying around in other spots.
 
Tell me something about one of the books on your shelf.

I have a battered ex-library book from India titled "Telugu Without Tutor". It says it was printed in 1980, but the first printing had to have been decades (if not a century) before.
 
From this book, I learned that if you need to tell a soldier that the lock on his musket is rusty, you say, "Ni tupakiyokka bigam truppu pattiyunnadi." If the soldier does not remedy this, you may then have to say, "Repu atanini urivesedaru" or "He will be hanged tomorrow."