It doesn't seem like Wednesday, does it? That Monday off really messed me up.
Let's see. On the nightstand is Paul Theroux's travel book Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China. After watching the Olympics in China, I wanted to revisit this book, which I read when it first came out in 1988 or so. While I suspect things have changed somewhat since then, in a place as vast as China, change comes mighty slowly outside that city center. I think I would find much of what he sees to still be true.
Theroux is a vivid and gifted travel writer, and one who steps off the main track to talk to people and get a more "inside" view of the places he travels. It's what we all wish we did when we traveled, but few of us do. He has rather obvious biases, likes and dislikes, but that makes it more like really talking to someone who has been where you would like to go. I'm not sure a train trip through China is my dream vacation, but he makes me at least consider it. That's saying something.
I finished my Peter Kreeft book, so it's back to Peggy Noonan's book on JPII to have something to read besides "all China all the time."
How 'bout you?
After tearing through a number of plays recently, I'm back reading some Rex Stout novels. Trouble in Triplicate is on tap for today and tomorrow.
I'll probably hit some plays again soon. I've been reading a bunch of Jacobean tragedies.
Not much beyond that.