BookCrossing: Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China

I was at Metrotown mall with Biscotti, finishing up some Christmas shopping loose ends, and had some books to release. Releasing books at malls during the month of December is fun. There are lots of people, so surreptitiously leaving a book or ten goes unnoticed, and it's likely a shopper will pick up the book before a mall staffer scoops it in an attempt to keep the mall tidy. Plus it's a nice pick-me-up for shoppers feeling stressed during what should be a joyous time. I'm not just imagining that, that's what I've read in the catches for books I've released in malls at Christmas time. This leads me to Riding the Iron Rooster: By Train Through China. I released it on December 22, 2010, and the catch came the very next day:

Picked up today. Saving the book to read on plane to Malaysia Jan.22.

Of note: I had flown to Malaysia almost exactly a year earlier.

the opportunity to be hurt by other people

Luke is afraid of getting hurt, but he also knows that if too much time passes you miss out on the opportunity to be hurt by other people. To a younger Luke this sounded like luck; to an older Luke this sounds like a quiet tragedy.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland

equally on the brink

Luke still believes that we are all, at every moment of our lives, equally on the brink of all sins, except that now, in a world without faith, sin has no ramifications; it's just something humans do.

-- Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland