Once in a while I scan the Net for news about my book, to see if anybody out there is actually reading it, and today I was happy to find it listed as a "page turner."  This isn't the first time I've heard such news.  In the past few months since the book came out, a few people have approached me to say that they'd read it cover to cover.  These people aren't academics.  Then again, academics never read anything cover to cover.  They only read the index and poach what they need to write their own pieces.  Mea Culpa.  Anyhow, it's good to know that all the work I put into the book over the years wasn't entirely in vain.  It's funny though, the woman who wrote this piece seems to think that I began my career as a bartender in the Far East and then decided to write a book about nightlife.  No mention of a PhD in Chinese history or anything like that.  Still, I'm not complaining, and she's not entirely off the mark.  I did do a lot of bartending early on in my life as a grad student, including a stint at a hostess bar in Sapporo.  Someday maybe I'll have time to write a memoir about that experience...