Soliciting Book Recommendations

So it's absolutely pouring. I think we're getting the tail-end of the typhoons that have been hitting Japan and Taiwan, and so my plans to go market shopping were foiled. Spending the day doing an extensive cleanup in the apartment - I don't think the guy before me, nor the guy before him (who still had shoes in the place) had ever actually bothered to clean the kitchen area, despite the semi-impressive array of cleaning products. Was very happy to a rice cooker among the cooking amenities, until I realized that it was missing the bowl that you cook the rice in and was disgusting inside. Got the crap scared out of me while boiling water and all of a sudden what sounds like an air-raid siren goes off and I realize it's the teapot. Apparently it doesn't whistle like at home.

Went out to an EXCELLENT dinner the other night with one of my dad's good friends. It's very nice to have someone looking out for you in a country you don't know all that well. It's also nice to eat food that you have not thrown together yourself or picked up at one of the little street stalls. He's got a son who's my brother's age too so we might hang out. And in the hotel lobby, of all places, I bumped into my boss from my internship in DC last summer. Crazy.

And it took almost 2 weeks, but I finally saw it - Starbucks. I knew they were out here, it was just a matter of when I'd be hit, and it was a full on attack. There were 3 in 5 intersections. These were then followed by The Body Shop, Duty-Free stores, and other big-name places. Keil, poked my head into the Louis Vuitton store just for you...

I'm also asking for book recommendations. Need some subway and rainy day reading to devour after I've finished writing my essay for grad school which is killing me at the moment. Gotta get it done in the next couple of weeks so I can have it in on time...grrrrr.

I still haven't found postcards, I'm sure I'll stumble upon them soon...