A bookworm in Hong Kong, Part 2

As promised, here’s the post about my marathon trawling of secondhand bookstores in the Central District of Hong Kong.

On the itinerary my sisters planned, I had the Central expedition moved from Sunday to Tuesday, because I knew the stores weren’t open on Sundays. The downside of it was that we’d come from Disneyland and I was lugging half my luggage and a big bag of Disneyland souvenirs with me. I left the sibs at IFC mall and armed with the street maps in the appendix of my trusty guidebook (and my cousin Dianne’s instructions).

My older sisters told me I only had a couple of hours, and I knew that wasn’t ample time to browse, especially because I had to locate the spots first, but I really wanted to scope the stores out so I could blog about them, at the very least. I was right in that, as I spent most of my time surveying the streets, ended up scanning the shelves at each stop, and then went back to meet my siblings empty-handed. But I have notes for future visits (hopefully with people who understand my passion for books!), and I hope you’ll find them useful, too, if you ever find yourself book hunting in Hong Kong.

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A bookworm in Hong Kong, Part 1

I was clearing space on my laptop tonight, and I realized I haven’t properly blogged about my vacation in Hong Kong a few months back, other than that Winnie the Pooh ride and the Little Prince ceramic cup I got from the airport.

The months have flown by in a blur — I can’t believe August is ending! But because I’d give anything to get away right now (I need this upcoming long weekend to recharge), here’s a photoblog of my trip.

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Surprise find

After checking in on our flight home from Hong Kong, I was bemoaning the fact that I was not — cue those gasps now! — able to buy any books on the trip. Nope, not one. Zilch. Our itinerary was packed, and I squeezed in some bookstores at the malls, but the selection of English titles wasn’t  that extensive; I couldn’t find any books that weren’t outrageously expensive or were not available to me here in Manila (which makes me glad about how local bookstores have improved in terms of getting the new titles in over the years).

I also did a marathon trek (loaded down with a backpack and two canvas totebags, and streets were going uphill!) from IFC mall to the bargain bookstores in the Central area in two hours (because that’s all the time my siblings gave me — unaccompanied, too, and they left me to find my way to Causeway! Harr, It’s hard to go book hunting when you’re with people with different agendas!) and I spent about ten minutes in each store. Don’t worry, though, I documented everything, and I’ll write a separate post about my book trek later.

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Chasing Cezanne by Peter Mayle


This was the first Peter Mayle book I ever read, and I had no idea that he was a travel writer so I was in a totally different frame of mind when I read it, expecting an art heist thriller. But like all Mayle’s books, Chasing Cezanne is more like a travel book than anything else. It also reads like chick lit, which is kind of weird, because the protagonist is male.
The premise was really good: photographer Andre Kelly is off on a shoot when he sees a Cezanne being removed from the premises of a former client. He photographs this event and is embroiled in a chase for the missing painting.

Except that it’s got to be the most leisurely chase I’ve ever read — Andre and his gang (a fastidious art dealer, plus Andre’s love interest Lucy) stop to eat and sightsee (and sleep together) every chance they get, hehe.

The language is languid and dreamy, the descriptions are beautiful and picturesque. No rip-roaring chases here — the book is more like Under the Tuscan Sun than Da Vinci Code.

Even Cezanne is only incidental, you can substitute some other painter’s name in the title and the story wouldn’t change, that’s how little Cezanne. And there’s very little actual art discussed, other than the process of selling famous paintings and a bit of forgery (haha, Incognito was a great movie for that!). Actually I think even the mystery is only incidental, it was just a reason for Andre to get together with Lucy and romp from New York to Paris and the South of France.

Worth reading for the travelogue and food commentary — this is what Mayle does best, and he delivers commendably, but mystery lovers might feel shortchanged.

***
My copy: trade paperback upgraded into a hardcover with dust jacket

My rating: 3/5 stars

Photo courtesy of Amazon (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5154TY62ARL.jpg)