"The book is... a kind of manifesto and at various points a meditation on the nature of whiteness..."

From an L.A. Times book review: "'The White Road' is an obsessive journey into the world of porcelain." The review, by Geoff Nicholson, begins:

In 1717, Augustus the Strong of Poland, a porcelain devotee associated with the Meissen facility nearby, developed a passionate need to acquire 18 large Chinese porcelain vases owned by Frederick William I of Brandenburg and Prussia. The vases were not for sale, so Augustus suggested a swap. In exchange for the vases, he would supply William with a battalion of 600 dragoon guards. The deal was accepted, the porcelain became known as the Dragoon Vases, and the battalion took the Meissen cipher — two crossed swords — as its banner.

About two and a quarter centuries later, had you been in Berlin or Warsaw, you could have gone into a store belonging to the Allach company and bought a porcelain cupid or candlestick or storm trooper, and on the underside of the base would have been the Allach mark, which Edmund de Waal tells us, "is the double lightning Sig of the SS. Cleverly, it is also the Meissen mark of the two crossed swords." The company's catalog proclaimed that white porcelain was the embodiment of the German soul. The company's factory — perhaps you're suspecting something unpleasant by now — was in Dachau....

[T]he history of porcelain, as told in "The White Road," is a constantly surprising, sometimes absolutely staggering, coming together of art, craft and commerce, politics and religion, national identity, larger-than-life characters and wild, sometimes ruinous obsession. Who knew?

You can buy "The White Road: Journey into an Obsession" here. And here's a book by Geoff Nicholson: "The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, and Literature of Pedestrianism."

I found that review after searching the word "obsessive," after somebody called me "obsessive," here. Was that obsessive of me? Here are "6 Weird Signs You Might Have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder." I don't have any of those weird signs, but maybe I have some unweird signs... or weird signs of my own. Must blog first thing in the morning. Thinks words may open doors to journeys of meaning. Must open doors....