Moping around the house today, sleeping and reading. Feeling too crummy to do anything but getting anxious to get out.

Thanks to this virus (and an out of town the trip earlier in the month), I finished two books in December and started a third. My favorite was "River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze" by Peter Hessler who writes an account of his two years as a Peace Corp volunteer teaching English and American literature at a local college in the river town of Fuling. It is a fascinating book and very well written. Peter's details his experiences as an American living in a radically different and quickly changing society. Among the many things I gleaned from the book was the observation and explanation of some of the behaviors we observed while in China but didn't quite understand.

The second book is "The Places In Between" by Rory Stewart who writes about his incredible walk across Afghanistan shortly after 9-11. Sometimes funny, often filled with anxiety and hardship, Rory followed the route of Babur, Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor. He often quoted passages from Babur's travelogues followed by his own descriptions of the same area. This became a bit tiresome to me but history buffs will probably enjoy it. Quotes or not, Rory has an amazing story to tell!

Finally, I just started "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver. I picked up a copy at McKay Used Bookstore with some store credits I needed to spend. This book has been around for a while but everything I read indicates it is a great story.