(no subject)

I think I'm going to have to take a break from both Half of a Yellow Sun and The Brothers' War: Biafra and Nigeria. Don't get me wrong, both the novel and the history book are extremely well written, but I've been flitting back and forth between them, depending on whether I'm in a mood for fiction or non-fiction on a given day, and both books have reached very depressing points.

How on earth could a conflict as bloody as the Nigerian Civil War be something I had known absolutely nothing about until a few weeks ago? I am embarrassed at my own lack of knowledge. Still have Chinua Achebe's Nigerian Civil War memoir to start, and it's already bought, so I can't just go, "Oh, this subject is too depressing. I'm not going to read any more about it."

Speaking of my lack of knowledge of the world, a co-worker mentioned they'd be gone on holiday for several weeks in January. So naturally I asked where they were going. Turns out they're spending a week in Beirut visiting family, and a week at a ski resort elsewhere in Lebanon. I had no idea they had ski resorts in Lebanon. I had no idea they had SNOW in Lebanon. I really and truly know nothing about anything.