"Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - Final Circle of Paradise, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strugatski Arkady)

hand and a fat bluish-looking little tome in the other.
I stood up.
"Judging by the look on your face," he announced, smiling,
"you are debating whether it's proper to tip me or not."
"I confess," I said.
"Well then, would you like to do it or not?"
"No, I must admit."
"You have a healthy, strong character," Ahmad approved.
"Don't do it. Don't tip anybody. You could collect one in the
face, especially from the girls. But, on the other hand, don't
haggle either. You could walk into one that way too. Anyway,
that's all a lot of rot. For all I know you may like to have
your face slapped, like that Jonathan Kreis. Farewell, Ivan,
have fun, and come to Chez Gourmet. Any evening at seven. But
most important of all, don't think about a thing."
He waved his hand and left. I picked up the mixture in the
dewy glass and sat down with the guidebook.

Chapter TWO

The guidebook was printed on bond paper with a gilt edge.
Interspersed with gorgeous photographs, it contained some
curious information. In the city there were fifty thousand
people, fifteen hundred cats, twenty thousand pigeons, and two
thousand dogs (including seven hundred winners of medals). The
city had fifteen thousand passenger cars, five thousand helis,
a thousand taxis (with and without chauffeurs), nine hundred
automatic garbage collectors, four hundred permanent bars,
cafes, and snack bars, eleven restaurants, and four first-class
hotels, and was a tourist establishment which served over one
hundred thousand visitors every year. The city had sixty
thousand TV sets, fifty movie theaters, eight amusement parks,
two Happy Mood salons, sixteen beauty parlors, forty libraries,
and one hundred and eighty automated barber shops. Eighty
percent of the population were engaged in services, and the
rest worked in two syntho-bakeries and one government shipyard.
There were six schools and one university housed in an old
castle once the home of crusader Ulrich da Casa. In the city
there were also eight active civilian societies, among them the
Society of Diligent Tasters, the Society of Connoisseurs and
Appraisers, and the Society for the Good Old Country Against
Evil Influences. In addition, fifteen hundred citizens were
members of seven hundred and one groups where they sang,
learned to act, to arrange furniture, to breast-feed, and to
medicate cats. As to per-capita consumption of alcoholic
beverages, natural meat, and liquid oxygen, the city was sixth,
twelfth, and thirteenth highest in Europe respectively. The
city had seven men's clubs and five women's clubs, as well as
sport clubs named the Bulls and Rhinos. By a majority of
forty-six votes, someone by the name of Flim Gao had been