Unfortunately I'm still not a fashion expert.
I think with chess as with everything, marketing is the main issue.
I'm more interested in the games than the people.
I honestly don't read that much. Obviously I read chess books - in terms of favorites, Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' is pretty good.
The Nanjing games are homework by Garry Kasparov and me, [...] Today's game was provided by Garry.
I was lucky enough to attend schools where they were understanding about when I needed to go abroad to play chess. Of course, socially it is important to go to school and interact with people your own age.