So the Kindle has been my friend during covid, a period in which my kids monopolized the tv and I couldn't really go anywhere. In under four months I read twelve books.
Calypso
The Marriage Plot
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
Vanity Fair's Women on Women
The Vanity Fair Diaries
Born a Crime
Prisoners of Geography
The Whole Brain Child
From Socrates to Satre
The Brothers Karamazov
The Course of Love
Mood of Future Joys: Around the World by Bike
The last book was one I had been meaning to read for a while and when I say a while I mean a while, since 2004 when I lived in Japan because that when I met it's author Alistair Humphrey.
I was at a party and a welsh friend casually came by and was like, hey you live nearby right? When I said yes he proceeded to ask me if I wouldn't mind letting two guys who had just biked through Siberia stay with me as they had no place to go. Not sure why I said yes because I was basically letting into my home two strangers of whom I knew zero about except that they had willingly cycled through Siberia in the dead of winter, so obviously two crazy men. Good thing I was in my carefree 20s and probably a little drunk.
So that is how I ended up with Alistair and Rob on the floor of my tiny Japanese apartment. When they left they left behind a black fur Russian hat and a goodbye note thanking me and informing me that said hat, in which I had immediately put in my head, was probably made of cat.
What has been particuarly satisfying about reading Alistair's book is that it and my brief experience with Al supplement each other. There are things in the book he never mentioned to me (witnessing the death of a man during a fire in Siberia) and there are things we talked about that he doesn't mention in the book (somehow crossing the border out of Siberia even though he inadvertantly used Rob's passport instead of his own).
After more than ten years the details of my time with Al and Rob are blurry. What's not is my image of Al sitting on the floor of my Japanese apartment, enjoying the mudane existance of shelter and warmth, listening on repeat to Glory Days.
Calypso
The Marriage Plot
Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls
Vanity Fair's Women on Women
The Vanity Fair Diaries
Born a Crime
Prisoners of Geography
The Whole Brain Child
From Socrates to Satre
The Brothers Karamazov
The Course of Love
Mood of Future Joys: Around the World by Bike
The last book was one I had been meaning to read for a while and when I say a while I mean a while, since 2004 when I lived in Japan because that when I met it's author Alistair Humphrey.
I was at a party and a welsh friend casually came by and was like, hey you live nearby right? When I said yes he proceeded to ask me if I wouldn't mind letting two guys who had just biked through Siberia stay with me as they had no place to go. Not sure why I said yes because I was basically letting into my home two strangers of whom I knew zero about except that they had willingly cycled through Siberia in the dead of winter, so obviously two crazy men. Good thing I was in my carefree 20s and probably a little drunk.
So that is how I ended up with Alistair and Rob on the floor of my tiny Japanese apartment. When they left they left behind a black fur Russian hat and a goodbye note thanking me and informing me that said hat, in which I had immediately put in my head, was probably made of cat.
What has been particuarly satisfying about reading Alistair's book is that it and my brief experience with Al supplement each other. There are things in the book he never mentioned to me (witnessing the death of a man during a fire in Siberia) and there are things we talked about that he doesn't mention in the book (somehow crossing the border out of Siberia even though he inadvertantly used Rob's passport instead of his own).
After more than ten years the details of my time with Al and Rob are blurry. What's not is my image of Al sitting on the floor of my Japanese apartment, enjoying the mudane existance of shelter and warmth, listening on repeat to Glory Days.
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