Bookworm fantasies

There's a Bia Hoi (Vietnamese street pub) right round the corner, but what do I do? I hang out in bookshops in Hanoi!

I was going to write about the wonderful weekend I had with my friends, and how nice it was to catch up with the gang again, especially with the cheebs in town. But I didn't quite have the pics to accompany the post. But I did want to officially record that Dean makes the BEST korma in the village, and sitting round his dining table, eating with my friends, while watching (and bitching about) The Dance Floor, is my idea of a perfect night.

Anyway seeing as I'm pretty much the resident book geek, when ex-classmate S emails me a link to the website of only the coolest, and my most anticipated movie of the year - adaptation of Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" - I'm in bookworm heaven.

There's this amazing quiz which allows you to find out your own daemon (which, in Pullman's universe, is the animal incarnation of your soul and who also happens to be your best friend). Mine turned out to be a racoon called Philotheus. And racoons make up 578 of the over 56,000 people who have taken the online quiz.

So I've provided the link under the poll section. Thing is, daemons can change form and take a while to settle. So seeing as this is how I perceive myself, let me know if you think a racoon is really me by taking the quiz. Then find out what you are yourself.

ps: Though Pullman's opus is pretty scathing of organised religion in general and champions free will, I think any one, regardless of spiritual inclinations, would benefit from reading his trilogy. Although I loved, loved, loved it, it didn't shake my own personal beliefs and it's sad that many Christian conservatives out there are feeling threatened by the books, probably the same ones who think Dan Brown's trashy but oh-so-compelling Da Vinci Code would rock the foundations of the church. If anything, people should not be afraid to question, explore, and to decide for themselves. Isn't that why it's called faith?