Books I’ve Read
I haven’t mentioned anything about what I’ve read on the trip. Usually I spent a lot of time reading the guidebook, but when I’m done with that…
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
I opened a drawer in a hostel bureau and there was The Bluest Eye just sitting there, and I was like SCORE! I think Toni Morrison is the only writer whose books just blow me away with her prose style and the way she weaves her story together. I just don’t know how she does it! So I was glad to find this and give it a read. It’s pretty short and pretty good. I still think Song of Solomon is better. The only other book I read of hers is …..oh man, I forgot. The really popular one.
The Damage Done by Warren Fellows
This is a book by an Aussie bloke who got caught trafficking heroin in Thailand and spent TWELVE YEARS in the worst Bangkok prison. It’s a true story. It is like looking at a car crash– it is interesting because it is sort of macabre. He describes things that happened there that you wouldn’t believe.
After reading that, I almost felt scared of the Thai people after seeing what they were capable of. Then Jim and I had a big discussion about that– do you think YOU could torture and beat someone to DEATH if it was your job, every day? Or do you think you’d have to be a certain type of person, or certain culture, to do it? I argued that that kind of torture and murder in a prison just wouldn’t happen in the US because people there just CAN’T do that. You can’t just hire some guys and expect them to beat a guy to death with a stick for no reason or break someone’s legs until the bones are sticking out and them make him crawl across the yard. I just don’t think it would happen! So how come it happens in the Thai prison? And this was only in the 1970s–not that long ago. How can anyone treat people like that?
This Accursed Land by Lennard Bickel
True story of Douglas Mawson, Antarctic explorer, and an expedition gone wrong. His buddies die and he survives on his own with hardly any food or equipment in Antarctica. A gripping, cool adventure story. And it’s true. If it wasn’t true, what would be the point?
Thai Lite by Tsow
A book that was supposed to have humourous short articles about Thailand but I found it very boring. I read it in one day.
Sex Slaves by Louise Brown
An academic view of the sex trade in Asia. The book was surprisingly very dry and Jim gave up reading it. I was shocked to learn that there is a huge sex trade in Muslim countries. I guess I was naive. Also, her main point is that while most people think it is Western men who feed the Asian sex trade, it is really Asian men who are worse. The lives of these girls is so sad and so awful, but because of the way the author writes, you don’t feel any emotions. And, strangely, once in a while she will add her own sarcastic comment, which just doesn’t fit in with the rest of statistics and dry storytelling. An informative book, but it didn’t make me feel anger or sorrow or anything.
That’s all I can think of for now!
Tags: 'Deep Thoughts'
Kelly
How come you categorized this as “deep thoughts?”
OK Don, in which of the categories would you have put a “book review article” that analyzes books, how they are written, and what thoughts they provoke?
Travel tips! Actually, Carl, it was intended as a joke. I am sure Kelly understood that.
Well, ha-ha then…
Don:
Better back off on that dry humor…. you seem to be frightening people. I think you need your whipping boy working for you again to keep you in line…….
Well, I didn’t feel like making a new category and I thought it was funny to even HAVE a category called “Deep thoughts” in the first place. Thanks for sticking up for me, Carl. And Don, the humor doesn’t always translate on here…
Obviously.