To-Read List

Must remember to read: Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco and Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

In another interesting book reco, Gillette writes:

" i am reading a book about a guy's travels in mongolia. it's
amazing. the mongol natives apparently still live in tents and are nomads. they
drink terrible quality (coz china gives them crap) tea made with
horse/camel milk. tea is in the form of bricks which you've to break off and crush.
they eat sheep meat, which is boiled in water with sometimes salt added.
sometimes they just add the whole thing to tea. thats the extent of their diet. they
dont eat vegetables, fruits, grain, bread anything like that. mongolia claims to
be self-sufficient in vegetables. the author says it's true.. they dont eat
any, dont grow any. he once thought they'd have roast sheep's head coz they were
roasting it in fire, but soon found out that was just to singe off the hair,
they put the entire head in boiling water.

the horses are still half wild, people learn to ride before
they can walk (some people cant walk properly coz they ride almost everywhere,
even for 200 yard distances). but their legs are strong coz they often stand
in their stirrups coz the horses' gait is very bumpy. they never feed horses,
there is enough grassland apparently and in winter the horses dig thru the
snow to get at the grass underneath. they ride hours at a stretch, taking
breaks for tea. they apparently sleep contentedly with just a thin blanket on in
-10 C. they've only one city which is not really modern, even there a lot of
people live in portable tents. they've only 2 tar roads.

this was written in late 80s, so things may have changed since then."

Whoa.