Poetry : To This Day by Shane Koyczan

Something that moved me today....

The City of Dreaming Books By Walter Moers

Where shadows dim and shadows mate

in caverns deep and dark,

where old books dream of bygone days

when they were wood and bark,

where diamonds from coal are born

and no birds ever sing,

that region is the dread domain 

ruled by the Shadow King.

...Walter Moers

I am completely, hopelessly and heads over heels in love and I think I may have very well found my current all time favourite book even though I am only at page 21 of this 455 paged speculative fiction- something new I learned today, this genre called speculative fiction, but I digress.

Imagine having an authorial godfather once you are old enough to read. Imagine him to be 888 (a very auspicious number for Chinese) years old when he died. Then imagine being bequeathed a piece of perfect writing, so immaculate that you might find reading it "a terribly traumatic experience. It will dash all your hopes and tempt you to abandon a literary career. You may even consider doing away with yourself." Finally, imagine travelling to a city called Bookholm, in search of this genius of a writer.

I am starved of the words required for me to describe every tingling down my spine and every single sweet sensation I experienced as I savoured the jewels of the 1st 21 pages. Let me show you why.

In Western Zamonia, when you've traversed the Dullsgard Plateau in an easterly direction and finally left its rippling expanses of grassland behind you, the skyline suddenly recedes in a dramatic way. You can look far, far out across the boundless plain to where, in the distance, it merges with the Demerara Desert. if the weather is fine and the atmosphere clear. you will be able to discern a speck amid the sparse vegetation of this arid wasteland As you advance, so it will grow larger, take on jagged outlines, sprout gabled roofs and eventually reveal itself to be the legendary city that bears the name of Bookholm. 

You can smell the place from a long way off. It reeks of old books. It's as if you've opened the door of a gigantic second-hand bookshop- as if you've stirred up a cloud of unadulterated book dust and blown the detritus from millions of mouldering volumes straight into your face. There are folk who dislike that smell and turn on their heel as  soon as it assails their nostrils. It isn't an agreeable odour, granted. Hopelessly antiquated, it is eloquent of decay and dissolution, mildew and mortality. But it also has other associations: a hint of acidity reminiscent of lemon trees in flower; the stimulating scent of old leather; the acrid, intelligent tang of printer's ink; and overlying all else, a reassuring aroma of wood. 

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Is there any wonder why mere mortals like me find it hard to review this book? What possible words can I string together to do all that justice? Maybe I should just resort to sounds like sighs or oohs and ahhhs . 

So for the next few days if you don't see me hanging around on blog land, you know where I'll be.

Bookholm, of course!

I Will Not Stop Running

Race Bib of Runners United to Remember

I am a runner. I don't run like one, I don't look like one but I am one. 

December 2006, I ran a full marathon in just under 6 hours. It was the most grueling race of my life. It was also my most exhilarating. I couldn't walk for 3 days after that and I stopped running for 2 years. 

In early 2009, I resumed running again with a group of friends who have become like family. Thanks to them, I haven't stopped since. 

For some of us, we harbour dreams of running what we deem the most prestigious of all marathon races, the Boston Marathon. For me, the dream is a distant one as it is near impossible to make the qualifying time. Yet,  I continue to harbour that dream because running a marathon is precisely about overcoming what we often think is the impossible.

Because a marathon is a race to celebrate a super human will and tenacity,  it generates a goodwill beyond boundaries. It is not uncommon for people to withstand extreme weather for hours waiting at the finishing line to see their friends or family run in. Or for strangers to stand by at the half way mark, with bags of bananas, handing them out to runners swishing past. Runners who can probably only manage a  fleeting smile and a single word of thanks and who they will likely never meet again. 

What happened in Boston yesterday shocked and saddened me. It felt really close to home. In fact, I knew these people. They were the people I ran with in all those races, they were the spectators who cheered me on. I mourn their passing; I cry for their loss. 

And that is why I will not stop running. In their honour, I will continue to run for as long as I can.

Art, Artistry, Artisan- Mary Leu

Every stitch, every fiber, every stroke, she painstakingly carved out of wood.

Her gallery,  呂美麗精雕藝術館 or The Mary Leu Fine Arts Carving Gallery was one of the highlights of our trip when we were in Yilan, Taiwan. 

Forgive me, Mary for taking these pictures but I hope more people will visit your gallery when they see them.