Books and planes

I'm on the train back to Hong Kong. I have a window seat, but the two seats next to me are empty. How nice, because I just took a nap lying horizontally. Now I'm sitting with the tray down and my PowerBook on top of it. The space is tight for my 17"; my arms are cramped to the sides while typing on the keyboard. If there was a passenger seated next to me, I would not even consider using it. Besides, the screen is so clear and bright even at the dimmest setting that it's practically begging my neighbor to look at it, if I had one.

Before taking a nap I was reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. This is the book where Robert Langdon first appeared.

I had read The Da Vinci Code a few months ago and thought it was brilliant. The author is brilliant. The book deserves every bit of its phenomenal popularity. I can't remember a book ever that was read by almost everyone in my family, in different editions, too, i.e. Chinese, English and illustrated. I was probably talking a lot about it at work, because one of my staff gave me Angels and Demons for Christmas, and so far, it reads as captivating as The Da Vinci code.

I've also finished reading Who Let the Blogs Out? by my favorite blogger Biz Stone. it's an easy and light read, with many a moment where it put a grin on my face. I was glad to read about Justin Hall in the book, because his was the first blog I ever read, before they were called blogs or weblogs. I remember spending many hours digging into his homepage, vast and deep, intrigued by his extensive journaling, some on topics so personal that I felt like I was prying open his most private window. Yet, anyone who knew his link was welcome to his inner world. Back in the nineties, that was incomprehensible. I remember sending friends his link. We would discuss how and why anyone was brave and crazy enough to do that, sharing their private diary with the world. Today, sharing your journal seems to be the most natural thing to do. Even I have a blog, though, not nearly as divulging as Justin's. But here's someone whose blog reads every bit like yesterday's Justin, a coming of age story.

Filed Tue - January 11, 2005, 10:02 PM in

Return to: |  



.