"As I much as I like to go for the comedy option, I'm gonna have to disappoint you," I say. "I may have occasionally secretly read gossip magazines? Those are kind of scarce on the island, although, ooh, you would not believe who Xenalizzz'x of the Third Cluster left her lifemate for."

The bookshelf gets stuff from all over, like, all over. Some of it's pretty weird. And not just that folks in the Third Cluster print their gossip magazines in English.