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Another one of those “wtf did i just read” books. The plot started out slow, but the disorientation of being dropped into a world where no explanations are given outright makes the initial discovery process quite engaging. By the middle of the book, enough clues were given and I was emotionally invested in the plot and the characters. The pages just flew by as I braced myself for an amazing reveal… which never came. The “resolution” was so simplistic that I was sure there was more to it that would be revealed at the end, but alas, it was just as it was. ...

I haven’t done these in awhile, so I’m a bit rusty on verbal flourish. Bookish snobbery, I felt, had constrained my reading diversity to a limited range, directing me to more of the same sort of books as I’d read in the past. I found that I was not reading the books that I had researched and bought, choosing to keep them in their pristine condition. I wanted to experience the joy of spontaneity and the experience of working within constraints. So, last September, I decided to only buy used books from charity shops. The added benefit was the fact that everything was quite cheap and the books were already in a “well loved” condition. This in turn ensured that I wouldn’t keep these framed on my bookshelf, and would actually read them, in whatever manner I felt comfortable. ...

I was pleasantly surprised by the depth with which the story portrayed the feelings involved in an affair, capturing the feeling of love that can never be. The later part of the book was an utter disappointment as it devolves into (slightly) incoherent religious blabber.

My fascination with Huawai began when I walked into what I thought would be the Apple store in Shanghai. Fashioned with high white ceilings and see through windows, they had everything from smartwatches, to trifold phones, to cars. The book captures the journey of this behemoth, interspersing it with the history of Modern China. It’s fast paced, sprinkled with ample references, and manages to capture to readers attention even while stitching together pieces of publicly available information. ...

Interesting take on religion, hell, eternity, and the impact on human relationships.