Hang up your skin suits

Kat and I went to a bookstore a few months ago and bought books in Spanish. The option that appealed to me the most was not originally written in Spanish, but I needed motivation more than I needed an authentic local voice. I went with Crónicas Marcianas– Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. It was a good choice because I am in the mood for classic sci-fi, so I push through and make the effort to read something that is honestly too hard for me. On the other hand, I have discovered that science fiction might not make the best language learning genre, and here's an example of why.

At the very beginning of the book, right in the first paragraph, I came to phrase made up of two words I thought I knew, but I didn't know what they meant together: "abrigos de piel." "Abrigo" means "coat," and "piel," as far as I knew, means "skin." Keep in mind, this is sci-fi, and I don't remember anything about the beginning of the story from reading it in English decades ago. What's a coat of skin? Who are these characters? Are they aliens? Are they people-skinning Reavers like in Firefly, or maybe Martians that can take off their skins?

After a few puzzled moments, it clicked. Fur coats! It's winter, and these people are wearing fur coats. Not a removable alien exo-layer, just fur coats.

If I had been reading realistic fiction, I probably would have passed right over "the flayed skins of thine enemy" as a translation option and gotten to the right answer faster.

Then again, where's the fun in that?

Close enough...

...right?