Collect Experiences. Not Things. :')

January 05, 2014

Disappearing Act of the Book

“TO read a novel is a difficult and complex art,” Virginia Woolf wrote in a 1925 essay, “How to Read a Book.” Today, with our powers of concentration atrophied by the staccato communication of the Internet and attention easily diverted to addictive entertainment on our phones and tablets, book-length reading is harder still.

It’s not just more difficult to find the time and focus that a book demands. Longstanding allies of the reader, professionals who have traditionally provided guidance for those picking up a book, are disappearing fast. The broad, inclusive conversation around interesting titles that such experts helped facilitate is likewise dissipating. Reading, always a solitary affair, is increasingly a lonely one.


Faced with a dizzying array of choices and receiving little by way of expert help in making selections, book buyers today are deciding to play it safe, opting to join either the ever-larger audiences for blockbusters or the minuscule readerships of a vast range of specialist titles. In this bifurcation, the mid-list, publishing’s experimental laboratory, is being abandoned.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Reader

January 03, 2014

Day 9 - Lisbon, Portugal




We are only in Lisbon for the day, the city Aquarium had high marks, so we decided to check it out.  And it was impressive. Except its impressiveness was dimmed, at least for me, having dived in so many spectacular places. First hand diving trumps staring through windows at underwater life.  For dinner, we have the best lobster I’ve ever experienced. But for $125 a lobster it better of been good.

January 02, 2014

Day 8 - Interior of Alhambra, then Toledo


Interior of Alhambra (below)
City of Toledo (below)


We stayed an extra night and entered the Alhambra – quite spectacular. After we headed back to Madrid, on the way we visited the Imperial City of Toledo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where all the cultures and eras of Spain (Christians, Moorish and Jewish) once lived together.  We spent the night in Madrid, near the airport then flew to Lisbon the next day.

January 01, 2014

Day 7 - Granada, Exterior of Alhambra


Visited the exterior of the Alhambra, the last stronghold of the Moorish Kingdoms up to 1492. It’s definitely one of the most popular attractions in Spain. However, because it was New Year’s Day, the interior was closed.