Ryu2.mind

Currently Reading Governing China: From Revolution Through Reform By Kenneth Lieberthal see related

Oneof my favorite places to read is while sitting on the toilet doing mything, and in China I find myself doing that a bit more often than inthe US (hope that's not TMI for you all... ;P ).

For mepersonally, the selection of suitable bathroom literature has severalunique constraints; first and foremost, it needs to occupy me and getme thinking enough to take my mind off of my bodily functions, and thusit should be more than just light reading such as the fluff found inentertainment mags like That's Shanghai.

On the otherhand, it's not something I can get too engrossed in, due to the factthat I (usually) have a limited amount of time I spend in the restroom,so novels or other literary works are generally out because I'm thetype who loves to voraciously read ahead (and ahead and ahead) to findout what happens in a good fast-moving story.

Basically, Iwant information that I can quickly pick up by reading, so somethingnon-fiction that's of use to my life, professionally, or otherwise isbest.

As for the specific subject matter, I for one don'tlike to read Christian books in the bathroom. Reading about His gloryand majesty while being surrounded by pungent odors is the wrongsetting for me; when the Book talks about fragrant offerings, I doubtthe writers were referring to that of Number 2... =P

But otherthan that, I read almost everything, from textbooks (Math and CS theorybooks are especially good, because they get my mind utterly focused onthe subject at hand, and not what my body is doing) to dictionaries(relieve mmyself while at the same time learning a few new words ofChinese or Japanese) to "deeper" newsmagazines such as The Economist.

For a while in my nerdiness, I was reading a commentary on the Linux source code-- little more than a listing of the core source files, and commentary.It's an perfect example of something that fits the criteria: somethingI can learn from quickly, but which I can take in in bite-sized chunksof 10 minutes or less, and yet is (somewhat) relevant for me. Also,it's a book that I can read in a non-linear fashion, for oftentimes Iforget where I left off in my last restroom excursion.

Currently, I've been picking up Lieberthal's Governing China,something recommended to me by more than 1 poli sci/IR friend of mine-- a work that I've always wanted to read, but never found the impetusto. Now that I'm actually living here, I figure it would be good to geta deeper understanding of this country and what makes it tick -- aswell as getting a good reality check on things. I've just crackedthe first chapter (so no commentary for now on the book itself), but it seems to be conducive to bathroom-break sizedreading and processing in terms of its organization... a rarity in andof itself.

I figure that this should keep me occupied for thenext month or two. Beyond that... anyone want to share their goodrestroom reading picks? =)