100 Years of Reading in Solitude

Vientiane, Laos

Things of minor note:
I have really been struggling to read 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I've been chewing my way through it for weeks now to about half way but find my mind and eyes wandering every time I attempt to read it. What makes it feel worse is that there's a wee rosette on the front marks it as one of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club choices and I would like to think I have slightly more literary staying power than the average Oprah fan. But no.

So I've pitched it. Not something I like doing or indeed do often. The decision was made after I thought I'd just have a quick 'look' at The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini that Christina had given me in Myanmar, and ended up reading it in a day.

So farewell 100 Years of Solitude. (I was going to title this post '100 Years of Reading in Solitude' by the way for those that need the crap title fix.) [Adendum - coz I can add titles again, I have, so gorge away on the crap 'straps'.]


When I say I pitched it, I swapped it at a book exchange for a book I'm finding equally challenging - The Horses Mouth by Joyce Cary.

Rice - how does it all work?
Being in the engine room of global rice production hasn't passed me by. Apart from eating it pretty much daily, I have been staring out of bus windows at square miles of green shimmering paddy fields. What I don't understand is that you see teams of people planting the stuff in little green shoot form. Where do those little green shoots grow? And why can't they just be left where they are growing rather than transplanted? Perhaps I should look on Wikipedia or ask someone. In fact just have had a look on Wikipedia and it doesn't seem to explain the transplanting element. Answers on a postcard (or Tag me).

Jeepers, this is exciting stuff, huh?

In the words of Columbo: Oh, just one last thing:
Saw this interesting collection of what I thought were Beerlao bottles, but on closer inspection...no: sulphuric acid of cause. They look worryingly similar to Beerlao bottles. I wonder if Beerlao and sulphuric acid are produced in the same factory? I can envisage classic Laurel & Hardy style mix up with 'hilarious consequences'.