We do love a good bookstore and Holland’s Selexyz Dominicanen is our kind of store. The store is housed in a 13th century Dominican monastery. It kind of reminds us a bit of that Umberto Eco novel The Name of the Rose.
Foreign relations expert Mark Leonard raises an interesting point about rising power China.

We are used to China’s growing influence on the world economy—but could it also reshape our ideas about politics and power? This story of China’s intellectual awakening is less well documented. We closely follow the twists and turns in America’s intellectual life, but how many of us can name a contemporary Chinese writer or thinker?

His article gives us an introduction to the massive world of the Chinese intelligentsia.
Click on this next link only if you’ve got a lot of time. Nerve.com and IFC pick the 50 greatest comedy sketches (complete with links!)