books that we’ve loved throughout the years

There are books that we just love unconditionally for various reasons: the author, the character(s), the story, or even the period 

I take uncommon delight in detective/murder mysteries/suspense stories that were written by various authors in the early half up to the middle part of the 20th century (roughly 1920 to 1960). They're usually one of the reasons why I frequent second-hand bookstores. 

Maybe it's because I feel nostalgic about this particular period. (I have the same reaction to some films that were produced during this era — which is usually referred to as Hollywood's golden age). Even now, books penned by Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Mignon Eberhardt, Mary Stewart, Helen MacInnes, Mickey Spillane still have the power to evoke in me a feeling of languorous excitement that reminds me of the iconic celebrities of the day — Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, Lauren Bacall, etc. — back when stars were grade A Celebrities, rather than just Actors.
 
Well… back to books.
 
My bookcases are lined up with weather-beaten copies of such books, and I don't intend to throw them out just yet. I like to think of their disreputable condition as part of their charm. They're an anachronistic keepsake in the age of the Internet. You know. Like old mementos you can't bear to part with.
 
Occasionally I take them out to renew my acquaintance with such stalwarts as the distinctively odd but formidable M. Hercule Poirot, and the harmless-looking but shrewd Ms. Marple. And oh, who can forget about super-lawyer Perry Mason and his girl friday Della Street? Or the resourceful Susan Dare and tough guy Mike Hammer? *sigh* I miss those guys.
 
Another character that I sorely miss is Sherlock Holmes, who made his first appearance in late Victorian England in 1887 (thanks to Arthur Conan Doyle). Holmes, with his sidekick Col. Hastings, continued to strike fear in fear in the hearts of fictional criminals and wrongdoers until his final case in 1914.

a favorite poem

 here's another favorite poem. i fell in love with this since i first read its whimsical and touching lines while i was still in high school. actually, i incorporated this poem into one of our group projects. it has always remained as a personal favorite, even as i grew older and my taste changed in several aspects…

"High Flight" was written by Pilot Officer John Gillespie MacGee (RCAF), a WWII pilot who was only 19 years old when he died (just 3 months after he wrote this poem).

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

architecture and society

Architecture is a reflection of the society that fostered and refined it

Architecture is an art form. And yet, appreciation of architecture goes beyond beauty and concept, because it deals directly with life, or specifically on how human beings evolved from the basic concept of building crude structures for shelter until they eventually learned to harness it as an expression of their dreams and aspirations.

It is essentially an auspicious symbol of man's progress, an overall gauge of the level that a specific civilization has attained. Nowadays, it has become easy to identify what point of history you're dealing with, simply by looking at the buildings and monuments, and analyzing their characteristics, as well as the style that their builders had adopted or the materials they used.

It is a graceful merging of form and function, and a convergence of the artistic, cultural, economic technological and political factors that define a specific age or race. In short, it is a reflection of a society that built it — how its citizens lived, worshipped, played, worked, schooled its young, and entertained, and how they conceived and measured beauty.
 
How does architecture define an age or a culture? Simple. Think of the ancient Greeks with their passion for symmetry and balance, and the Parthenon, with its fine Doric pillars, immediately comes to mind. The Romans derived amusement from gladiatorial combats in venues like the Colosseum. Egyptian pharaohs glorified their rule with soaring structures such as pyramids (Great Pyramid of Giza) and temples. The Baroque (Les Invalides, France), Byzantine (Hagia Irene, Turkey), and Gothic (Notre-Dame Cathedral, France) periods are well delineated by buildings built during these times. Traditional Chinese architecture, with its emphasis on the horizontal axis and the visual impact of the width of buildings (Forbidden City, China), is just as distinctive and representative of China's deep cultural past