Some Kind of Plant by William Heath Booksurge, HK$116 Locals won't find much of interest in Some Kind of Plant, a collection of diary-like memories of Hong Kong and Taiwan. William Heath's first 'entry', on January 1, 2003, foretells the tedious tracts to come, including arrival times, meal costs and the names of people who mean nothing to anyone else but the writer. Heath, a marketing lecturer who visited Hong Kong and Taiwan under the auspices of Baruch College, The City University of New York, organises his memoir by date to 2009. Its contents read like travellers' logs written during holidays to keep track of time. There are typos - the MTR becomes the MRT - and, sometimes, a charming naivete: while staying at the Novotel Hong Kong Century in Wan Chai, he receives an early morning phone call asking if he wants a massage. 'A massage at 3.15?' he fumes, not realising what was really being offered. Tourism authorities should take note, however. Heath describes the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence as a 'great place'; the Museum of Art and the Space Museum as 'boring'; the Museum of History as 'good'; and the Law Uk Hakka House in Chai Wan as 'interesting but not worth the trip'.
