Barbarian Days

I bought a paperback of “Barbarian Days (William Finnegan).” It is unlikely for me to buy a paper-book in these days (most are e-books), but I buy a few if it is an excellent book. The physical book has some merits over e-books. Most of all, I’d love to pick the book and open any random page, then feel the move when I first read the page. It is the book that has the worth.

I had thought I would listen to the book as an audiobook on my way of driving home after buying my car (last June). In the US, we cannot live without a car - yes, now it is much more comfortable with Uber - but I wanted not to spend much on it. So, I bought a pre-owned one (2012 Kia Sorrento) from my CTO when I visited the Seattle office. The problem is, yes, it was Seattle, and I had to drive it to Palo Alto. It should be the great US west coast auto-travel, but I decided to do it in just one day. I left Seattle 5:30am in the morning. I ran through the I-5 passing Portland, Eugene, Medford, Redding, and arrived Bay Area. (I was surprised I got to know there is no self-serving gas station in Oregon.) It was 837 miles drive and took 13 hours 50 minutes. So, I could watch the Giants ball game at home. It was such an excellent experience, I never knew northern California was so beautiful.

I began my journey by listening to the audiobook of Barbarian Days. But after 30 minutes, I realized that listening to this through my way home could be dangerous as it was so touching, shook my mind. So, I turned it off and changed to some music. I read the book later both in English and Korean version as some parts are too flowing for me to catch. It was marvelous to see how a man’s life could be so full of passionate, unexpected, spontaneous, fateful events. I could also come up with some memories of my life. It was a great surprise to me; I also had some beautiful moments in my life that I hadn’t been recognized in my typical days. That must be the life, everyone has some chapters, and it’s going on to new pages.

PS: One interesting was the cover page of the Korean version. I hope it worked for the publisher.