Category: San Francisco

the last weekend of february, i went to Vegas. man, i’ve been to Vegas a ton of times now, yet somehow it never gets old. actually, if anything, i’d say that this last trip was even more fun than usual. there was a large group of us who went, 12 people, and that made it hella fun. w e had three rooms and all of us kept switching off hanging out in each other’s various rooms, drinking day and night, going to clubs, and gambling. every single night there we stayed up till at least 5am and it was constantly party time.

chris taught me how to play craps and it was way fun. the cool thing about the game is that the fate of everyone around the table is in the hands of the guy rolling the dice. if he gets a good roll, instantly everyone makes a ton of money, so there is always all sorts of excitement and yelling around the craps table. there are sooo many rules to this damn game though. i still only understand the very basics, but it’s still fun to play. the rest of my gambling was done on roulette. this has always been my game of choice. ridiculously easy to understand, and the odds of winning (if you bet on red/black) are way good. it’s all too easy to see your 10$ bet bump up to 20, then 40, then 80 and next thing you know you have 160$ sitting in front of you. unfortunately, it’s always impossible to say “stop”, so soon enough (possibly after just one bet), you’re back to 0. lately i’ve also started betting the numbers as well at the roulette table, which is riskier, but the payback is great.

the thing with gambling is that if you dont set yourself a limit, you will never stop. luckily, i set myself a 200$ limit, and when it was all gone, i didnt gamble any more. not bad for three days in Vegas. the one thing that totally shocked me was that in some casinos, coins no longer fall out of the slot machines. instead, they print out a stupid little receipt. that is so weak. part of the fun in slots (what little fun there is) is seeing all the coins rain down when you win. i want 40 quarters to come tumbling out of the machine… not a printed coupon for 10$. it’s actually almost eerie how quiet it is in the casinos because of this. you walk though and no longer hear the constant “ching ching ching” sound of falling coins. it totally takes away from the atmosphere.

one thing that i find really interesting is how Vegas is a fun place to go for practically everyone out there. you’ll see people who look like they’re filthy rich and then see others who just look filthy. you’ll see men in tuxedos next to guys wearing baggy hip-hop clothing next to frat boys next to punk rock guys with Mohawks next to families walking arm in arm. there’s everyone ranging from 21 year olds celebrating their right to drink to aging senior citizens playing the penny slots. people of all different ethnicities and from all different countries. some come here for the food, others for the gambling, others for the partying, and still others for none of the above. it’s a city built on gambling, and yet even people who dont gamble whatsoever still enjoy it. it really is an amazing town.

*v

A few years back, my friend told me about one of her coworkers who took their cat to a kitty psychic. this was a while back, so I can’t really remember the details all that great, but I remember the story being pretty impressive. I can’t recall what it was, but the cat would do some bad thing every single day. they took the cat to this kitty psychic who “talked” with the cat, and the cat told the psychic several things that the psychic couldn’t have known otherwise. then, the psychic told the cat not to do the bad thing that it was doing any more. the very following day, the cat didn’t do the bad thing… and never did it again.

now, this totally sounds like some crap urban legend or some other nonsense that happened to some random unidentifiable person that can never be verified etc. but the thing is, it was my friend’s co-worker that it happened to, and she swears that it is totally the truth. of course, usually when I hear about these kinds of things I’m extremely skeptical though.

on one hand, there is a part of me that really believes that there must be something else to this world, something beyond the traditional physical laws that we all study in school. I think that it would be very presumptuous for humans to think that science pretty much has it all figured out right now and that any references to souls/paranormal activity/etc is fake. centuries ago, if someone said that it would be possible to talk into a magical box and have someone on the other side of the Earth hear you, that would have sounded crazy… yet today, cell phones exist and no one has trouble believing in them. who is really to say that there can’t possibly be other yet undiscovered forms of communicating, possibly via telepathy? on the flip side, I do usually think that a lot of people who claim to have “powers” or whatever are completely full of crap and are either weirdo hippy types who believe all sorts of nonsense, or are purposefully trying to make money by fooling people. the thing is, in my mind, I need proof. despite wanting to believe in this kind of stuff, I just can’t unless I witness something first hand. and up to this point, I never have.

hopefully though, on Tuesday night, all of this might change. my friend Dan has two cats. one of these cats has a really big problem… it likes to crap on the floor. it craps on the floor all the time and will often totally refuse to use the litter box. sometimes, it will even get in the letterbox to pee, then crawls out and takes a dump on the floor. Dan has tried *everything* to fix this problem from changing the type of food it eats, to changing the type of litter, to moving the letterbox around, etc etc. nothing helps. after picking up many many poos, Dan is a desperate man.

so, I referred him to the kitty psychic that I mentioned in the beginning of this post. she is a last resort, and hopefully she can “talk” some sense into the pooping cat. Dan called the psychic, who lives in Oakland to set up an appointment. it costs 90$ an hour. if this keeps Dan from having to pick up poop for the rest of his life, it will definitely be 90$ well spent. so here’s the crazy part: she does it over the phone. yup, that’s right, she will psychically talk to Dan’s kitty over the phone. as if this wasn’t weird enough to begin with, it’s now like a psychic hotline for kitties. what’s next, talking to the kitty on instant messenger?

anyways, the phone call is scheduled for tomorrow night. can this woman really telepathically talk to kitties over the phone? or is she just some old crazy cat lady who’s lost her mind? we’ll know tomorrow…

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a few weeks ago, sage was visiting here from the east coast and invited a bunch of us to have dinner. the place she wanted to go was called Cafe Gratitude. i knew nothing about the restaurant, but am always down to try a new place. when i arrived, during the million hour wait for a table, i scanned the menu and noticed that there wasn’t any meat being served. oh, one of those vegetarian places. the thing is, i actually have nothing against vegetarian restaurants. some of them are incredibly good, and also i totally respect what they are trying to do. i’m not a vegetarian myself, but i totally think that vegetaraians are doing the right thing.

after reading the menu some more, we noticed that the place wasn’t only a vegetarian restaurant, but it was vegan. all the cheese was made out of nuts, the milkshakes were made out of “nut milk”, and there weren’t any eggs on the menu. doh! but, despite all of this, unlike some people, i still had hopes that the food would end up being pretty good. do you really *need* meat and dairy for food to be good? after we were finally seated, and the waitress told us that almost half of the items on the menu were unavailable, we scanned through the meager choices left over, and picked some food.

it was only at this point that i realized the worst part about the food here: it was all uncooked. yes… RAW. for some bizarre reason, there are people out there who have the impression that cooking food is a bad thing and that all food should be served room temperature. ok, maybe there might actually be some scientific evidence to back this up… i dont know… and i really dont care, cause raw uncooked room temperature vegan food tastes like crap. how appealing does tepid soup sound? how about uncooked pizza? well, let me tell ya, it tastes even worse than it sounds.

pretty much everything that i ate tasted horrible. everything was gritty, tasteless, and bland as hell. i think due to the lack of flavor, they tried to make up for it by adding as much texture as they could… everything was crunchy and crumbly, so you felt like you were chewing a rock slowly till it disintegrated into sand. basically, i felt like i was a little kid again, and for some bizarre reason had decided to eat everything i could find on the playground: there was gravel, there was tanbark, and there was grass. there were a couple good things (guacamole and an olive spread), but for the most part, the food was pretty lacking in… well, just about everything. on top of everything, they served us a bottle of wine that had gone sour, and then got all angry when we sent it back.

the funny thing is that they told us that it takes an insane amount of work to make their food. apparently, the kitchen is open 24 hours a day so they can prepare the food. there are constantly people in the back milking nuts and making falafel balls out of sawdust and kitty litter. maybe if they bought an oven, they wouldnt have to spend so long getting the food ready and perhaps it might even end up tasting decent!

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there are some places in the world where you dont really need a car to get around. Sunnyvale is not one of them. being careless here in this large sprawling suburbia isn’t easy, especially when you’re girlfriend lives in a city that is an hour away by bus and when all of your friends live in San Francisco which is at least 1.5 hours away by a combo of bus/train. for the last few months i’ve been trying to get by bumming rides off of people, begging my parents to use the car, and by attempting public transport. if i was living in SF now, i dont think i would need a car as urgently, but living down here, my situation was grim.

during my trip, i had made up my mind that i would buy the cheapest car possible when i got back here. i hoped to buy a beater for under a thousand bucks and to run it into the ground until i desperately needed to buy something else. but, as time went on, i worried that buying an old piece of shite might be more trouble than it was worth if it ended up breaking down in 5 seconds flat. i decided that i’d put in the extra money and get something decent. not something new by any means… my plan was still to buy something super cheap, but something that was from 2002/2003.

trying to buy a used car was an insanely agonizing process for me. i’m one of the most indecisive people on the planet, and even tiny decisions like choosing what to eat at a restaurant are agonizingly difficult for me… i never seem to be able to settle on anything. so, trying to narrow down what brand i wanted, what year, what exact price, etc etc was utter torture. night and day i read about cars, looked at car ads, checked out car ratings, and stopped by dealerships. in the end, i decided that i would get a ford focus. everything i had read online had said that these cars were hella good despite being made by ford. of course, i still had some doubts, especially since pretty much every friend i had told me i was *nuts* to buy a ford.

after going on a few test-drives, i started realizing just why everyone hates car dealers. sure, some of them were actually allright, but a lot of them were the slimiest bastards you could ever imagine. every word that spills out of their mouth was either flat out bullshit or something used to kiss your ass. dealing with these people was exhausting and ridiculously frustrating. luckily, it wasn’t too long till i finally found the car i was going to buy. a 2003 light green ford focus. it only had 25k miles on it, excellent condition, and was still under warranty. quite a bargain for only nine grand. after driving all the way down to halfmoon bay a few times and investing a ton of time into this, i had my dad put money into my account to buy the car.

but at the last second, the deal fell through. it turned out, that the salesman had lied to me and told me the wrong price. we had a long argument over the phone where he told me everything he could to drag me into the dealership nonetheless, but i wouldn’t budge. i couldn’t believe it. i was literally *minutes* from buying this car, and now i wouldn’t get it. i was insanely pissed. after hanging up, i called back to talk to the manager. and the manager, no wait, the *owner* of the dealership, flat out lied to me on the phone. he told me that he had heard my conversation with the salesman when i was there and said that the salesman never made the offer that i *heard* him make. unfuckingbelievable. ok, i’m not surprised to have a salesman lie to me, but i couldn’t believe that the owner of “James Ford”, who supposedly values the reputation of their dealership so much, could lie to me. dont ever buy a car from James Ford.

after all of this, i was back to square one. crap. unfortunately, now there was a new factor to consider. i had made the irreversible mistake of test-driving a couple new cars. oh man. slowly, all my resolve to buy a crazy cheap car was starting to crumble. i had been saying for ages how people in the states are way too materialistic, too obsessed with flashy cars etc, and waste too much money on them instead of using money for what’s really important… but all of a sudden my morals were disintegrating before my eyes. i mean… i could buy a new car if i didnt buy an *expensive* new car right? it’s not like i was dropping $40k on a bmw or something. i could spend $15k on a new compact car and not sacrifice all my values, right??! hrm.

in the end, my choice fell to two cars. the Ford Focus ST, which is the super fast version of the focus or the Mazda3. it was a really tough call… they’re both really nice cars. i liked the focus a lot… but as soon as i actually sat down and test-drove the Mazda, i was totally blown away by it. i felt like i was driving a little race car. this car looked ridiculously beautiful both inside and out. but… it was $2k more than the ford. i agonized for a few more days. i went to look at the focus, then the Mazda, then the focus, then the Mazda, and then the focus again.

finally, i made the choice. i picked the Mazda3. i just couldn’t resist that car. even after deciding, i still had a few doubts, but that’s just the way i am.. and i had to push them aside. i called my parents, who had graciously agreed to loan me money for the car so i wouldn’t have to pay financing charges. they drove down, and within an hour, i was the proud owner of my new car. unbelievable. to say that i was ecstatic would be an understatement.

i’m way psyched on this car. first off, it just looks so dope. i love the color and i love the styling. inside, i love the sporty way that the dash is laid out and the stereo looks cool too. also, i ended up getting the 2.3L version which has way more power. the first time i drove that car, i was practically flying. i hit 60 mph before i even got a chance to change out of second gear. the car is so damn fun to drive.

so that’s it. after 3 months of being back, i finally have a car of my own. i’ll be honest, there’s a tiny part of me that still wonders if i should have bought a beater car… but whatever, i love my new car. every time i walk out my door and look at it, it puts a smile on my face… and that counts for something.

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on Saturday evening, i went out to dinner with my cousin. we went to We Be Sushi which was pretty damn good for inexpensive sushi. after dinner, when we drove back to Natasha’s house, the house was dark… apparently her roommates must have been out. i walked up the stairs, and just as i was entering the living room, i noticed Dan huver and rob sitting there on a bench. WTF? what the hell were they doing at Natasha’s house? and what the hell were they doing sitting there quietly in the dark? for a second there, i felt like i had just walked into a dream or something… where weird inexplicable things happen that just make *zero* sense.

after a brief confused pause, i ascended the last few steps and then things got even weirder. there were other people in the room. lots of them. a bunch of people just standing there in the dark. ummm…. huh? seconds later, the lights flicked on and everyone was yelling “SURPRISE!” at the top of their lungs and shooting those little confetti poppers all over. i stood there, blinking, still trying to figure out what the hell was going on. was i just imagining this? had i finally lost my sanity? were these people really here? and if so, then why? wait a minute… is this some kind of bizarre very late welcome home party? i just didnt get it.

finally, everything was explained to me.. this was a surprise party to celebrate my “half birthday”, the date right in between my last bday and my next upcoming one. my last birthday had been miserable. caryn and i had ended up in Moyale, a crap town on the border of Ethiopia and Kenya. we had been on a bus all night, and were exhausted, dusty, dirty, and it was super hot. we spent all day shuffling back and forth trying to get all of our documents in order for the border crossing the next day. i had no email access and so i couldn’t get in touch w/ any family/friends from back home. basically, it was the worst possible birthday ever.

in order to make things better, caryn planned this surprise “half birthday” party to make up for the birthday i never had last august. she invited all of my friends, had my cousin divert me from her house, and then set everything up. crazy eh? i had never had a surprise party before and even after i found out what was going on, i still was totally shocked for at least the next half hour. it was all just such a surprise!! i mean, who would expect a surprise party 6 months after/before their bday?

the rest of the evening was hella fun. the party had an international theme, and people had brought all sorts of appetizers and different alcohols to make new drinks. kim made this awesome cake. but most of all it was just fun to hang out with everybody. that’s what birthdays are all about kinda.

all in all i was really blown away by the whole thing. it was just so touching that caryn had gone through all that trouble to throw me a birthday party to make up for a crappy birthday that i had pretty much forgotten all about. it was just another random day and that day was turned into such an awesome surprise. best “half birthday” *ever*!

*v

as of last week, i am once again a member of the working world. i was surprised to find that the company i used to work for asked me to come work for them again. i worked there as one out of only 2 engineers, and when i had left there, they hired a replacement for me. due to the tiny budget that their engineering department runs on i had been fairly sure that they would not be hiring a 3rd engineer to work for them, so i never even considered asking them for a job. then, out of the blue, i got an email asking me to come work for them.

I’ll be honest, at first i was a bit hesitant to go work there again. i had worked there for 5 years before my trip, and now i was kind of hoping to start something totally new and fresh. 5 years is a long time to be in one job, and the thought of doing something different sounded really appealing. but, after thinking about it for a bit, i took the job.

first of all, i got hired on as a full time contractor instead of a salaried employee. this is actually what i wanted because it gives me a lot of freedom there and i can make my own hours, take extra time off if needed and also could potentially do contract work at another company for part of the week. this works out really well since i could be trying out new jobs, getting different experience, and broadening my skills, while at the same time having a steady income from my company.

second of all, there are a lot of good things about the job i left. the people there are hella cool and fun to work with. pretty much everyone there is fairly young and into mountain biking/snow boarding/photography and other cool things. also, i know the job inside and out so it was super easy for me to slide right back into work. at another job, it would have taken me ages to catch up to speed with how things work, but here it took me less than half a day to get back into the swing of things. it’s amazing how fast things come back to you.

it’s pretty weird working again. after spending 16 month with no job and not a care in the world, it’s a bit difficult to actually have daily duties and obligations.

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the other day i took the bus again. after last week’s bus adventure, i assumed that today would be just a boring day on the bus. but, no.

everything started out with me accidentally taking the wrong bus (apparently the 81 sometimes doesn’t go all the way to Sunnyvale). after getting off the bus, i waited for the next one. by random coincidence, i ended up waiting with this guy who I’m almost positive was the guy yelling in the back of the bus last time. while sitting around, this guy told me about how god gets upset with people who have sex before marriage. apparently this guy is currently abstinent after going to prison for a few months, then getting out, then going back to prison again, and then getting out again. I’m still not sure how the prison and abstinence tie together.

when we got on the bus, he met up with his friends and spent the next 20 minutes discussing: stealing stereos, being in prison, selling weed to cops, being on parole, and other such things. I’ve never been to prison, and neither have my friends really, so it’s kinda weird to think that there are so many people out there that have been to prison multiple time, all of their friends have been to prison multiple times, and there is most probably prison in the future for them as well. prison is just a totally normal fixture in their lives just like taking a trip somewhere is for us, while for us going to prison seems like a totally crazy and extreme thing.

i spent 14 month traveling the world and seeing how different the lives are of people in different countries… but sometimes it’s pretty mind-boggling just how different the lives we lead are from the people who are right next door.

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when i was younger, i had to take bus to school all the time. it pretty much sucked. i hated waiting for the bus. i hated riding the bus. and i definitely hated missing the bus and having to run after it… which happened all to frequently. at the end of high school, i got a car and i never took the bus again. but now I’m living in the south bay and have no car, so the other day when i had to get back home from downtown san Jose, i hopped on the 81 line… a bus that i used to take all the time years ago.

now, some people think that taking the bus is hella ghetto and that the people who ride those things are total freaks. i don’t really think that way… yet somehow this bus ride took a turn towards the unexpected. the guy across the aisle from me kept kind of slumping over during the ride. he was around 25 years old, and i assumed he was probably just drunk or something when all of a sudden he starts muttering “I need an ambulance. bus driver… bus driver… I NEED AN AMBULANCE. i can’t see. i can’t seeeeeee”. wtf? i slowly look around me. either no one heard him, or people just don’t give a fuck. i look at the guy… he definitely looks messed up. so now what? do i call an ambulance? is this guy really hurt or is he just a crackhead? i don’t want to call out an ambulance for nothing, but at the same time, i can’t just ignore him.

luckily, eventually the bus driver hears him. i guess the bus driver must deal with stuff like this all the time, cause it doesn’t even phase him. he just angrily asks the guy why he needs an ambulance. the guy, who is having difficult speaking, stammers that he hurt his back a few days ago and that it hurts like crazy and all of a sudden he can’t see anything. he asks the bus driver where we are, and then has him stop at the next stop, where he gets up stumbles forward towards the bus door and then proceeds to crumple in a heap on the bus floor. shit.

the guy’s laying there on his back, muttering that he needs an ambulance over and over. at this point there’s not really another option. the bus driver (very reluctantly) agrees to call an ambulance. now, at this point you would think that people would feel sorry for this poor guy. nope. this guy sitting at the back of the bus starts totally yelling at him: “Hey! what the hell?! couldn’t you have fallen down *outside* the bus? now we all have to wait for your stupid ass! what the hell is your problem! man, I’m gonna throw your ass in a shopping cart and shove you down the street. how’d you hurt your back man… what, did you fall off your little skateboard or somethin’?? you’re probably takin’ drugs yo… that’s why you can’t see!” and so it goes on and on for twenty minutes straight. up until the minute that the ambulance hauled the hurt guy away, this dude in the back was yelling at him and making fun of him.

how messed up is that? the crazy thing is that he wasn’t the only one. other people on the bus were also grumbling about having to wait. what exactly is wrong with some people these days? are they really so wrapped up in their own lives and always in so much of a hurry that they can’t even have compassion for someone who is in pain if it inconveniences their commute? is this just such a common occurrence that people are immune to caring? maybe it’s just too routine. the paramedics that came to get him didnt seem all that concerned either and joked amongst themselves while they hauled the guy off. i can’t even imagine being in that guy’s situation… laying on the floor of the bus in pain, unable to see, and people are just straight up dissing you the whole time. crazy.

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over a year ago, i went to grocery store in SF and was pretty surprised to find a huge box of turtles for sale. it seemed quite shocking that these living turtles were being sold to be someone’s meal. when i came home, i wrote a post “one man’s pet is another man’s dinner”. i mentioned that really the term “pet” is quite subjective and that in other countries, people have no problem eating animals that we would think of as pets such as dogs, guinea pigs, etc. i wondered aloud if i could ever possibly bring myself to eat dog. soon after i posted, tom made a comment saying he would definitely try dog if he had the chance.

i had totally completely forgotten about my post, when all of a sudden, a whole year later, i got a comment on it. someone named “Terry” was totally outraged that i would even consider eating a dog. we argued back and forth a bit, and terry got progressively more and more pissed off. soon, there were more people who joined in the conversation. as of now, that post has gotten 112 comments and there are at last 6 or 7 people that have been arguing. it’s actually pretty funny. i’m still really not sure what to think. part of me thinks that the comments are just from someone totally joking around and acting stupid to annoy me. part of me thinks that maybe these people are actually real and actually are as stupid as they sound. it’s hard to tell.

if you want a quick laugh, you can check out the post here.

what do you think? are these people really as dumb as they sound, or just messing with me?

and, what do you think of eating dogs? would you try one? what if it didnt look like dog… like if it was just prepared as a steak or a burger? is eating dog really all that different than eating any other animal?

*v

I think pretty much everyone out there has a weakness for a particular kind of store. it’s the kind of thing that whenever you go into one, you cant help but spend ages there perusing everything you see and wont leave until you have bought a ton of stuff. for some people it’s clothing or shoes… they just cant get enough. for others it’s collectibles, or tools, or gadgets, or whatever. for me, the addiction has always been for music. every time I would go into a record store or CD shop, I just couldn’t be trusted to not buy anything. luckily, with the internet these days and mp3s, I haven’t really had the need to go to music stores in years.

unfortunately though, music stores aren’t the only ones that I have been obsessed with. I also love bookstores. I’m pretty big on reading, and each time I get to go to a bookstore, I end up with a huge stack of books and agonize for ages as to which ones I wont buy. in particular, I love Green Apple books in SF, but really almost any bookstore will do, ranging from huge chains like Barnes and Nobles to small tiny mom & pop shops. back home, I would all too often buy way too many books, and then end up with an ever growing stack by my bed. frequently, some books in the stack wouldn’t get read since I would end up in a bookstore again, and just bring home yet another stack to replace the old one.

on this trip, it has sometimes been hard finding books. most of the bookstores are small or only have a very small English section. plus, often enough the books they sell are only the super popular thrillers that I am not too huge a fan of. but, when I have been able to find a decent bookstore, I’ve, as usual, ended up buying too many books. my backpack is fairly small, and already hella full, so adding like 4 books to it is not a good idea. sometimes I’ve had to have a separate plastic bag that I carry around just for books. yeah, I know it’s a bit nerdy carrying around plastic bags full of books when you’re traveling around the world, but what can I say?

the amount of reading that I can do really depends on where I am. there are times when I spend a lot of time on buses or in towns where everything shuts down by 8pm… during those times I´ll read a crapload, sometimes a book every two days. other times, I’m hella busy doing all sorts of stuff, and I´ll read like one book per month. it really varies. anyways, a few months back, I thought it would be a cool idea to actually keep track of all the books I’ve read on this trip… and maybe even keep track of all the books I read from now on. some of the books I’ve read on this trip have been really really damn good! so I started writing them down.

I’m sure many of you probably wont really care, but if you are interested, here’s the list of the books I’ve gone through since I started this trip (guidebooks not included):

1. Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett
2. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
4. The Middle East by Bernard Lewis
5. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman
6. The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
7. The Stranger by Albert Camus
8. Hold the Enlightenment by Tim Cahill
9. The Liar by Stephen Fry
10. Paint Your Dragon by Tom Holt
11. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
12. The JOKE by Milan Kundera
13. Notes on a scandal by Zoe Heller
14. Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by Dalai Lama
15. The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by Dalai Lama
16. Emails from (Over?) the Edge by Nick Woolsey
17. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
18. Don’t Read This Book If You’re Stupid by Tibor Fischer
19. The Scheme for Full Employment by Magnus Mills
20. Lonely Planet Unpacked Again: Travel Disaster Stories by Don George
21. Inscrutable Americans by Mathur Anurag
22. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
23. How We Are Hungry by Dave Eggers
24. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman
25. Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho
26. Past Mortem by Ben Elton
27. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend
28. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
29. Strong Motion by Jonathan Franzen
30. Natasha : And Other Stories by David Bezmozgis
31. The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
32. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
33. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
34. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
35. Nonfiction by Chuck Palahniuk
36. Dark Star Safari : Overland from Cairo to Capetown by Paul Theroux
37. Voyage to the End of the Room by Tibor Fischer
38. The Society of Others by William Nicholson

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