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A Guy's Moleskine Notebook

Thoughts and reflections on works of fiction and literature. Pondering of life through pictures and words. Babbling about gay rights. Travelogues and anecdotes.

  • [1] Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain
  • [2] Arthur Golden: Memoirs of a Geisha
  • [3] Yu Hua: To Live
  • [4] Alan Hollinghurst: The Line of Beauty
  • [5] Colm Toibin: The Master
  • [6] Carlos Ruiz Zafon: The Shadow of the Wind
  • [7] William James: The Varieties of Religious Experience
  • [8] Charles Higham: The Civilization of Angkor
  • [9] Graham Greene: A Burnt-Out Case
  • [10] Dai Sijie: Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch
  • [11] Alan Hollinghurst: The Swimming-Pool Library
  • [12] Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
  • [13] Colm Toibin: The Blackwater Lightship
  • [14] Alan Hollinghurst: The Folding Star
  • [15] Ross King: Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
  • [16] Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
  • [17] Jonathan Franzen: The Corrections
  • [18] Colm Toibin: The Story of the Night
  • [19] John Banville: Shroud
  • [20] Leo Tolstoy: Resurrection
  • [21] Peter Hessler: River Town, Two Years on the Yangtze
  • [22] Ian McEwan: The Atonement
  • [24] Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Love in the Time of Cholera
  • [25] Ignacio Padilla: Shadow without a Name
  • [26] Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
  • [27] Richard Russo: Straight Man
  • [28] Fyodor Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground
  • [29] Alan Hollinghurst: The Spell
  • [30] Hermann Broch: The Death of Virgil
  • [31] James Baldwin: Giovanni's Room
  • [32] Ken Kesey: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
  • [33] Xingjian Gao: One Man's Bible
  • [34] C. Jay Cox: Latter Days
  • [35] Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird
  • [36] William Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew
  • [37] Daniel A. Helminiak: What The Bible Really Says about Homosexuality
  • [38] James Baldwin: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone
  • [39] Kenji Yoshino: Covering - The Hidden Assault of Civil Rights
  • [40] Italo Calvino: If, On a Winter's Night A Traveler
  • [41] Arthur Phillips: The Egyptologist
  • [42] George Orwell: 1984
  • [43] Michael Warner: The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and Ethics of Queer Life
  • [44] Andrew Sullivan: Virtually Normal
  • [45] Henry James: The Wings of the Dove
  • [46] Jose Saramago: Blindness
  • [47] Umberto Eco: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
  • [48] Dan Brown: Da Vinci Code
  • [49] Kazuo Ishiguro: Never Let Me Go
  • [50] Ken Follett: The Pillars of Earth
  • [51] Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace
  • [52] Michael Thomas Ford: Alec Baldwin Doesn't Like Me
  • [53] Jonathan Franzen: How To Be Alone
  • [54] Jonathan Lethem: The Fortress of Solitude
  • [55] Matthew Pearl: The Dante Club
  • [56] Zadie Smith: White Teeth
  • [57] Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Double
  • [58] Jose Saramago: The Double
  • [59] Andrew Holleran: Dancer from the Dance
  • [60] Heinrich von Kleist: The Marquise of O & Other Stories
  • [61] Andrew Holleran: In September, the Light Changes
  • [62] Tom Perrotta: Little Children
  • December 25, 2006

     

    Merry Christmas!

    Wishing all of you and your family, loved ones peace, joy, and happiness during this holiday seasons, and a very prosperous new year. The picture, which has remained one of my favorite of any Christmas trees, was taken at the Festive Walk in Hong Kong a couple years ago. It might be somewhat difficult to see but the trimmings were all crystals.

    I had to do some last-minute Christmas shopping but I managed to had a mahjong game, which I know has absolutely nothing to do with Jesus and Christmas (but hey it's a holiday...) with my cousins last night.

    Not only that this Christmas is the first one in 6 years that I celebrate in San Francisco, it also marks some very special time for myself and my friends. I'm very thankful for all the people in my life. Despite some of the disheartening episodes, has marked some special brushes in life. On Thursday night, Ken and I had our Christmas dinner at Slow Club. He has enriched my life since he made the entrance back in October, right before I left for Asia. We have slowly got to know each other and I can only look forward to the future.

    I'm grateful for Bill D, who is now spending Christmas with his family in Ohio. He has been more than a friend--a mentor, someone who watches over my academic well-being, who listens to my struggle, who mitigates my relationship woes and who always comes into succor with sound advice. We don't get to see each other much but have maintained that inexplicable bond bewteen friends who have stuck out through thick and thin.

    My best friend Fernando: I'm so excited that you and Maria have a second baby--Julian. Thank you for always being so supportive to what I do. You surely have pruned me, through your eyes to the world, your own experience, which is completely distant to my own background, and made me a better person.

    My college buddy and rommmate Weizhu: Thank you for always letting me to tag along and being the third wheel to you and Patty. I'm so excited you finally tied the knot this year. I'm lookinf forward to spending time with you guys.

    My very good friend Estrella: Thank you for always being so thoughtful and kind to me. I appreciate your creativity and your helping to reconstruct some of my clothing. I wish you, Deniis, and your family peace, happiness, and joy in this holiday season. We need to hang out and go eat until the stomach bursts okay? Neecha or Slow Club, you pick!

    My partner in crime and good friend Tony L (who doesn't really read my blog no more): We have really come a long way. Thank you for always being there listening to me whine and gibberish.

    My good friend Stepehn, who should be on the way somewhere at 35,000 feet to Bangkok: Thank you for all always cooking for me--all the delicious pastas, grilled chicken and salads. You've always been a mentor to me in both my writing and in coping with life.

    Thank you all the bloggers who have stuffed my mailbox with holiday greetings. Thank you Robert for being so thoughtful in sending a Christmas CD. It's been a pleasure to have met all of you, especially Greg, Danielle (who inspires a lot of my current reading), Iliana, Jef, Kalvin (one with some of the most thought-provoking posts), Tony (glad I brush shoulder with his brushstrokes), and our very own, local Matty (thanks for your Christmas e-mail), and all the hunks at Gay Men Rule, especially Joshua, you rule!

    I know there is no way I can list everybody--but to all of you, wherever you are, be well and be safe. Happy Holidays!

    8 Comments:

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Matt!

    Happy Christmas!

    Just work up and wanted to drop you a line! Hope
    you're enjoy the day and have fun at your family's
    later today/tonight.

    Just wanted to wish you a very happy Christmas!

    love,
    matty

    (B and Ing are "building" a grande bkfast and then,
    later an even more grande dinner --- I am assigned to
    cleaning and moral support, but I slipped away to send
    you a quick note!)

    SF Gay Men's Chorus show rocked last night! Much fun!

    12/25/2006 11:56 AM  
    Blogger Cipriano said...

    Have a great San Fran Christmas, Matt.
    All the best to you.
    -- Cip

    12/25/2006 2:31 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Merry Christmas my friend! Are you gonna stop by the party at Cafe Flore? I think it starts at 6.

    12/25/2006 4:48 PM  
    Blogger Joshua said...

    Merry Christmas, Matt :)

    12/25/2006 9:09 PM  
    Blogger Unknown said...

    Happy Holidays!! The best to you and yours...

    12/26/2006 5:58 AM  
    Blogger Tony said...

    Hey Matt, I sure hope you had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you. He was to me. Woohoo! I miss my Christmas in the Bay Area but at least I had my entire family make it down here to SoCal this year for the holidays. It's been great to see all the new nephews as well as the older nieces and nephews.

    Thank you for being one of my many blogger buddies.

    12/26/2006 9:46 AM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Hope you had a great holidays...we've got Christmas all over with and now there's New Year. My stomach is busy!

    12/26/2006 5:21 PM  
    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I'm going to SF Symphony waltzes to Broadway on New Year's Eve...I'll see you around.

    12/29/2006 3:12 PM  

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