The space between where China is squeezed out into the ocean between Japan and Philippines to the east and Europe to the west – particularly that mysterious place north of the Himalayas was once a blank for me on any … Continue reading
Which is the one I’m ripping through at the expense of Women with Mustaches, Men without Beards, which I heard about on China Rhyming late last year – a blog that has been responsible for quite a bit of my book reading … Continue reading
Back to China. Three of the unfinished books on my shelves are on China, and none of them light reading. But having finished my latest science-fiction frenzy, it’s time to read for self-betterment and such forth. My attention lately seems … Continue reading
Finished the 800 violent & drunken pages of filial piety, loyalty & justice of The Water Margin. Definitely deserves better translation.
Tomorrow a very hideously early rising, to be at the Hauptbahnhof by 4:30am catching a train to Lindau, and from there across the Bodensee to Bregenz. One night there, and westwards to Zürich for a couple of days to see … Continue reading
This is one I haven’t been able to pretend I wouldn’t eventually get hold of, having been greatly discussed on quite a few blogs I read. From anthropology to science-fiction, David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years has been peculiarly unavoidable … Continue reading
An unexpected read. Saturday being my last full day in Brussels and wanting desperately for something to take on the train (and having my eyes on one thing in particular), I was thwarted by the country’s national day. Appropriate as … Continue reading
This is one book I’ve been waiting for a long time to arrive. It was around August last year when first set to be published, and I was fearing it would remain elusively in the future. So now, the top … Continue reading
Waiting months and finally it’s arrived and waiting for me … continuing a long Afghan tradition, Poetry of the Taliban.
This is one that fell into my reading list in a couple of disparate but connected ways. The first, or rather more direct, being the author James Palmer, is also responsible for Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Tangshan Earthquake and the … Continue reading