Thursday, February 7, 2013

Bookspotting and Shipspotting


MV Explorer at Ocean Terminal
The bookspotting was a bit sparse this week as I spent most of my commute with my nose buried in A Memory of Light, the long-awaited final installment in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I've been reading the series since I was 13, and the ending was quite moving. If you spotted me surreptitiously crying into a 909-page hardback book on the train this week, that's what was going on. I did spot a woman carrying an enormous law textbook through Central Station, and I saw a child on the train reading an English middle-grade book. There was also a man walking toward the ferry piers with an English book that had a bright yellow cover.


After work this afternoon I went down to TST to take a peek at the MV Explorer, the cruise vessel that hosts Semester at Sea and is currently carrying a group of entrepreneurs around the world. It is my newest ambition (along with one day being cool enough to speak at a TED event) to go on an Enrichment Voyage like Doug Mack, who was recently the travel-writer-in-residence aboard the Explorer

As some of you know, I am currently writing a book set on a post-apocalyptic cruise ship, so I've been taking every opportunity to go down to Ocean Terminal and spy on the big ships in the name of research (and inspiration). The MV Explorer's Open Ship event today was during my working hours, so I had to make do with the views of the ship from the harbor, terminal, and Star Ferry. I'm planning to do more thorough research aboard the Star Pisces, which does daily overnight cruises from Hong Kong.

2 comments:

  1. Very cool photos! My son Jake has been interested in doing Semester at Sea for years, and hopes to be able to fit in that and a semester in Asia after he starts college several years from now. It would be too cool if you were the writer-in-residence when he's a student on the ship! I've been so bad about bookspotting. I always mean to keep my eye out so I can report back in a comment here, but in my old age I keep forgetting to do so.

    Have a very happy and lovely Year of the Snake!

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  2. Did you get back in time to see the Russian tall ship Sedov, it was quite a sight!

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