It’s beginning the feel a lot like…winter. Today was 18 degrees and also the first day I wore long johns. Strange, that. The weather in Taipei has been that like Indian summer days on the cusp of crisp fall bitterness in Canada. Although I welcome the drop in degrees after another scorching Taipei summer, my bones shiver and chill at the tangible realization that a cold, humid, and damp winter has arrived.

I spent 24 years of my life enduring blizzards and ice storms, essentially Arctic like winters where temperatures often reach -40 degrees Celsius. One from home would scold my complaining of Taipei’s winters, but really, it gets COOOOLD here. Constant rain and humidity make a cool 15 degrees Celsius feel somewhat closer to a nippy zero, minus the frost. Homes here are not heated, there are times where I’m certain I’ve seen my breath whilst purritoed in a duvet, only my face and typing fingers protruding from the duck down layers.

Mom – skip the next paragraph.

This morning I saw, another, scooter wreck. I’ve seen plenty, but never front row like today. I was driving in the tunnel beneath the SongShan Airport, at the north end of Fuxing Road into DaZhi. At top speed, the scooter in front of me drove straight into the back of a stopped truck. The trucks rear acted as a spring board and the driver of the scooter ricocheted off the back of the truck into the wall of the tunnel, his scooter landing on top of him. I was the very next scooter behind him. It was HORRIFYING. The impact was swift and loud, echoing throughout the tunnel. I stopped (slash braked hard), fully in shock, I didn’t know what to do. I was equally as horrified that NOT ANOTHER DRIVER STOPPED. I’ve seen this before, nearly all accidents I’ve been witness to in Taipei, never does a soul stop, they simply scoot around, often crunching over the scattered shards of plastic and glass. Audrey and I once came upon the aftermath of accident, an elderly woman crossing JianGuo had been smoked by a scooter and was lying motionless, probably dead. Not a person came near her, as if she were gravely infected with the plague, and any civilians in the vicinity simply went along in their lives. In Canada, accidents attract masses, whether it’s a trained civilian or a curious bystander, everyone wants to help, even to just offer a call into emergency, or ten. Today, two people stopped, me and the truck driver. Unbelievable.

Taipei has a MAJOR traffic problem, recently relieved somewhat by a fast growing Mass Rapid Transit (MRT, or Metro) system. The population of Metropolitan Taipei, including Taipei county and surrounding areas, is about 10 million. Taipei city covers about 272 square kilometers, and every square kilometer is densely occupied by approximately 10 000 people. Taipei is known as the ’scooter capital of the world’, fittingly. In 2009, the total scooter population in all of Taiwan was 14.2 million (the population of Taiwan is only 22 million), and in 2002 Taipei cities roads were driven by about 1 million drivers (that’s 1/3 of the population of the cities core), outnumbering cars at about 700 000. Scooter hell, armies of scooters at every light, in every alley, on every sidewalk.

Imagine rush hour.

Driving a scooter along Civic Blvd in Taipei

It’s only December 1st and I’ve finished my Christmas cards, Christmas presents, Christmas movies, Christmas songs, and Christmas decorations. All I’m missing is eggnog. Taipei is bustling with entertainment. Only 49 days until the 6th and final season of LOST, and I’m nose deep into the Fountainhead. As requested, and as promised, this is the beginning of what will become dozens of diverse and varying book reviews. It is likely evident, in my writing mostly, that I am an avid reader. Now, commencing with a few reads from 2009..

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

The is the first of four Murakami reviews by me, his literary imagination has taken over my soul. I casually borrowed the Wind Up Bird Chronicles from a friend without being familiar with the author, and powered through the 700 or so pages in less than a week. I lost sleep over this book. It blew my mind, like I had no mind left. THIS BOOK IS A MASTERPIECE AND IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ.

Bolded.

The story is many things amidst a search for identity, a search for a missing wife – Kumiko Okadu – but it begins with a quest for a missing cat—Noboru Wataya – a cat named after Kumiko’s older, political, and supernaturally evil brother. The plot advances chronicling a chain of events surrounding the absence of the cat, events that were once seemingly mundane are now surreal and bizarre. We follow Toru Okadu – the protagonist – into his dreams, both lucid and shared, far into the earth where he spends some time in a well, an act inspired by Lieutenant Mamiya – an officer in the Japanese military who accounts his horrifying memories of the military’s efforts in Manchuria – to his eccentric and dark encounters with May Kasahara. Creta and Malta Kano guide Toru metaphysically fusing together fantasy and realism whereas Cinnamon and Nutmeg Akasaka provide Toru with more of a pragmatic and tangible yet still thoroughly surreal direction in his quests.

This book is long and requires some mental muscle, but never do you feel it becoming frivolous. It is full of Japanese culture yet western references are prevalent throughout. Loneliness is an underlying theme, but is never fatalistic. It’s dark, poetic, insightful, it is literary brilliance.

A Spot of Bother and the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

I probably picked up a Spot of Bother five times and put it down five times over. It is written by the same author who wrote The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, it was also sent to me by a friend in Canada with whom I regularly share interest in many of the same literary works. I could not be bothered with this book, I found it dull and the style irritating, the style of the narrative being the predominant basis of my disinterest. The book is about a 61 year old hypochondriac who discovers a small lesion on his hip that he is certain is cancer although its been diagnosed as eczema. He begins to quietly loose his mind, the sleeve reads. If someone else out there has read and loved this book and thinks an opinion otherwise to mine, I welcome your persuasions in my completing this book. Even so, the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was nothing less than brilliant. This wonderful story is one of an autistic boy solving the mystery of the murder of a neighborhood dog. This story is both melancholy and delightful, and the author does a beautiful job interpreting the events and the world around as that of a boy who is challenged by his fears and inabilities. I especially recommend this book to one who has a difficult time getting through a book, or needs an easy reintroduction to habitual reading. A terrific gift for any age.

The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald

My second read by a fellow Canadian Ann-Marie MacDonald. The first being Fall on your Knees..but I will keep this critique for another day, as I need to ferret through my memory for elements on the read and collect the exemplary words needed to define this stunning novel. I picked up this book, the Way the Crow Flies, on the simple adoration of Fall on your Knees. I saved this book for some time to read in an appropriate atmosphere, and did just that. I read it whilst perched alongside the Nam Song in Vang Vieng, Laos with nothing but enitre days to spend leafing through books. At 900 pages, a simple yet thoroughly engrossing story of a murder in a small Canadian town fills the pages for a swift read. Nazi’s, Russian rocket scientists, sexual predators and the Royal Canadian Airforce meticulously link together themes in secrets, family, loyalties, and morals, and keep this story captivating and strong throughout. I don’t typically enjoy happy endings, Anne Marie MacDonald understands me here. This story is a fictionalized account of the Steven Truscott Case.

And that’s more than enough for moment.

O.