Impossible Traveler
Killing Time with books
Now who (and how) would want to do that? Well...when you travel there is a lot of waiting around. First you can't wait to leave, then you wait for the taxi, bus or train, you wait online, you wait to check in, you wait to land with and get off the airplane. A good way to kill time is reading a book, playing a game or watching a good film. I like both digital and traditional paper books (especially when the internet is down). On this page you will see what I am reading or have read, with some comments about the book. If you have any suggestions about killing time, please send me feedback!
At Home
“It is always quietly thrilling to find yourself looking at a world you know well but have never seen from such an angle before.”
Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life
This entertaining book by Bill Bryson is packed with all sorts of interesting facts you can then use as conversation starters anywhere. From bedbugs to the Eiffel tower, body-snatching to the Industrial Revolution.
You will never again be in want of a topic to spark up a friendship while on the road.
Here is a quote from the book just to give you an idea:
“If a potato can produce vitamin C, why can't we? Within the animal kingdom only humans and guinea pigs are unable to synthesize vitamin C in their own bodies. Why us and guinea pigs? No point asking. Nobody knows.”
― Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Bangkok Tattoo
“Your fear of letting go prevents you from letting go of your fear of letting go.”
― John Burdett, Bangkok Tattoo
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A must-read if you want to understand the intricacies of Thai life, traditions, superstitions and prostitution, plus a lot more, come from John Burdett.
As the New York Times puts it: "His passages about the sex trade are explicit but not titillating. He is neither judgmental about prostitution nor particularly probing about its sociological impacts. His personal view is that there is nothing to justify.
When Burdett takes the reader to a red-light district during daylight hours, we trust that a bar might really smell like "pine-cleaning fluid blended with stale beer, cigarettes and cheap perfume," as he wrote in "Bangkok 8." Yet Burdett's writing is also keenly anthropological, decorated with wry observations that carry a ring of truth to those who live in Thailand."
cit. Thomas Fuller Oct. 24, 2007 New York Times
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Quote from book:
“The great weakness of the West is that it has nothing with which to inspire loyalty except wealth. But what is wealth? Another washing machine, a bigger car, a nicer house to live in? Not much to feed the spirit in all that. What is the West but a gigantic supermarket? And who really wants to die for a supermarket?”
― John Burdett, Bangkok Tattoo
"The Island of Sea women"
by Lisa See
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“They did this to me. They did that to me. A woman who thinks that way will never overcome her anger. You are not being punished for your anger. You're being punished by your anger.”
― Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women
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An absolutely wonderful read is "The Island of Sea Women" by Lisa See - This novel tells the story of two friends, Young-sook and Mi-ja, who grow up to become Haenyeo divers in the 1930s. The book explores their friendship, their experiences during World War II and the Korean War, and the changes that occur in their lives and their community over several decades.
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“How can I help change things if I sit by and do nothing?”
― Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women
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