Monday, April 16, 2012

Bookspotting: Mammoth Edition


I was on holiday for most of this week, so I didn't spend much time on the MTR, my primary bookspotting grounds. Today was my first day back, and on my way home from work this afternoon I spotted a young man reading a hefty tome called Moral Vision in the New Testament. I saw someone sitting in a restaurant with Paulo Coelho's Aleph on the table beside her. This week I also spotted one person reading a book on a tablet, two people carrying Kindles around town, and three people reading Chinese books.

I also paid a visit to Lyuba, the mummified baby mammoth on loan to Hong Kong from a museum in Russia. In a twist that seems uniquely "Hong Kong" she is not on display in a museum, but in a shopping mall. Life seems to revolve around shopping malls in this town, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I lined up with the crowd in the IFC Mall Atrium to see what all the fuss was about.


There are ropes directing traffic into an enclosure made of info boards about the discovery of the almost perfectly preserved mammoth. Rising above the crowds and the info boards is a replica of a full-sized mammoth's skeleton. Past the legs of the skeleton and dozens of camera-wielding people, the baby mummy sits in a glass box.


For some reason, I found the crowds around Lyuba almost as intriguing as the mammoth herself. It was a strange scenario, but one that somehow manages to be typically Hong Kong.

Have you seen anything strange in your town lately? Have you spotted any books?

By the way, thank you so much to everyone who took my survey on last week's Bookspotting post!

2 comments:

  1. It is not as big as I expected it to be!

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  2. Haven't had a chance to go see the oxymoronously named "baby mammoth" yet, we've had so many visitors. I laughed when I read "Have you sen anything strange in your town" Yes, in HK, strange things are to be seen every day. Recently, I saw an old rigged sailing ship at Tsim Sha Tsui harbour. A bride and groom were having their wedding pictures taken right up in the "crows nest" on top of the highest part of the rigging. She wore a short tutu style dress whilst he had a normal tux suit, however they both wore lace up boots and a safety harness!
    I spotted a man reading a Tom Clancy, couldn't see the title, a woman reading Patrick Flanery's recently published Absolution, which I'd like to read as it is set in South africa where I used to live. 2 Chinese books being read on the MTR from Tung Chung and 2 kindles by our pool on Saturday. A friend recommends Red Dust; a path through China buy Ma Jiann but I haven't seen it locally, have you?

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