Jay Pridmore, Shanghai: The Architecture of China's Great Urban Center, Abrams, 2008

Why I've just started to look into Shanghai's built environment after spending a month there... Maybe if I had spent less time buying garlic shoots and shoes. I wish it were a more walkable city. Taxis unfortunately barely more than public transit.

Need do-overs!

What an awesome cover photo. Dawn of the dusty skyscrapers! Doesn't it inspire the post-apocalyptic sci-fi-lit-obsessed you in fifth grade? Oh I miss the fifth grade! It was the year that my hair suddenly started to curl. My group of friends had a comic book enterprise. We were the characters. I was "Shenaynay." Yes.

Related: "In Shanghai, Preserving Buildings Takes Work" in the NYT (is that not the dumbest title you've ever read)