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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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 Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:17 am Post subject: |
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How about favorite authors?
James Clavell (Shogun, Tai-pan, King Rat, ...) is truly a genius; especially living in Asia
John Irving (Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp, The Fourth Hand, 158-pound Marriage, A Prayer For Owen Meany, ...) is a great read.
William Sutcliffe (New Boy, Are You Experienced) is excellentlt funny for the traveller.
Bill Bryson (All of 'em) for some reality and a few laughs.
Joseph Heller's Catch 22 is a classic.
Something-or-other (David?) Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked) is cool for a smirk and easy reading.
And the guy that wrote The Beach has another great book called The Tesseract (set in Manila), this guy is an up-and-comer.
That book by Michael Breen (The Koreans) is an interesting read. I found myself nodding along in agreement. Breen's sociological comparison of politics and the way people in those countries drive is a winner!]
By the way, am I the only one who couldn't stand reading The Alchemist? What a terrible book! Ditto for Sidharttha, urgh! |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:39 am Post subject: |
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I read the Alchemist and with every turn of the page said- "My god! what crap!" It was like a car wreck though, I had to keep reading to see how awful it could get.  |
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Hanson
Joined: 20 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:41 am Post subject: |
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| Thank you! Really. |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:06 am Post subject: |
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| chiaa wrote: |
Some of my favorite reads (killing time, not thinking books):
Life of Pi
Anything by Haruki Murakami
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Wow Chiaa, I'm going to have to pay your shop a visit. I read "Life of Pi" just before I came to Korea last year, and I've been absolutely mesmorized by that book. If I was forced to pick a favourite book that I've read within the last 3-4 years, I would pick that.
Just after I arrived in Korea, I picked up "The Elephant Vanishes" on a whim (at the time not knowing anything about Marukami), and I've developed an almost-obsession with his stuff, and have read most of it by now. I know that most Murakami fans enjoy his "Norwegian Wood"-ish material, but myself, I love his short story collections. My particular favourite is "The Elephant Vanishes", but I really enjoyed "After the Quake", too. If someone is interested in Marukami, I reccomend the short stories, because they're quick easy reads, and a good introduction to his style. |
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fondasoape
Joined: 02 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:12 am Post subject: |
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| Novel.... humbug. :vomit: |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| I read the Alchemist and with every turn of the page said- "My god! what crap!" It was like a car wreck though, I had to keep reading to see how awful it could get. |
I think the Alchemist is one of those books that you either like or you don't. For me, it was definitely no life-changing mantra, and it would take some convincing to get me to read another Coehlo.
When I was in Thailand, an article in Farang magazine had a list of the top-ten overrated backpacking books. Two books that I've read were on it: "The Alchemist" and "Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: The Darker Side of Guns, Girls, and Ganja". Personally, I reccomend neither. |
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kangnam mafioso
Joined: 27 Jan 2003
Location: Teheranno
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| Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2004 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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some good asian "experience" books:
standard deviations, karl taro greenfield
atlas, william vollman
speed tribes, greenfield |
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kylehawkins2000
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| I read the Alchemist just as I was about to finish University and head out for a year in Europe. The Mantra of the book caught me at that moment. I can see how other people in different positions would not find the book impressive. There are some neat sub-plots that I didn't recognize til after I had studied a bit of Christian history and the Old Testament. I think it's a good book, but I can see how it would be easy to write off for some. |
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gypsyfish
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:27 am Post subject: |
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Last Car to Elysian Fields by James Lee Burke
any of the Sharpe's books by Bernard Cornwall
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy
A Sense of Place by Michael Shapiro (Interviews with some famous travel writers about their craft)
Any Steinbeck, especially East of Eden |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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One of the nice things about being in Korea is you have lots of time to read, especially if you ride the subway a lot. And not having access to the sum total of all english books written via a mega bookstore, you have to bend your tastes and try books you might not normally read. And then you end up finding authors/books you would not normally have enjoyed.
I would have given Life of Pi a big pass because the blurb on the back made the book sound totally gay. I got the image of some man in a boat spending all his day talking about god to some D&D Monster Manual style Rakshasa tiger wearing a dressing gown and smoking a pipe.
Who knew it was actually about a guy on a big life boat with a real tiger and how you might actually survive that. |
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kylehawkins2000
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 5:33 am Post subject: |
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| I think the story was an allegory. He was not really on a boat with a tiger. He basically lays out who each of the characters really were in the end with the exception of the actual tiger. I assume that the tiger represented God. |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 5:35 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
| I read the Alchemist and with every turn of the page said- "My god! what crap!" It was like a car wreck though, I had to keep reading to see how awful it could get. |
Yup.
I kept expecting the next page to have pictures for me to use my crayons. |
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harixseldon
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
Location: Anseong
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| "The Great Shark Hunt" by Hunter S. Thompson is one of my all-time favorites and I just finished "Diary" by Chuck Palahniuk which I couldn't put down. Though I like most anything Palahniuk. |
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J u l i e
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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Angels & Demons
The DaVinci Code
-anything Dan Brown's a good read
The Samurai's Garden
Memoirs of a Geisha
Five People you Meet in Heaven |
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tommynomad
Joined: 24 Jul 2004
Location: on the move
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| Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 5:40 pm Post subject: |
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| the_beaver wrote: |
| peppermint wrote: |
| I read the Alchemist and with every turn of the page said- "My god! what crap!" It was like a car wreck though, I had to keep reading to see how awful it could get. |
Yup.
I kept expecting the next page to have pictures for me to use my crayons. |
The infantile impression is bang-on. I read The Alchemist assuming a children's fairy tale and enjoyed it immensely. It took me five minutes with another of his books to realise I'd had all the Coelho I need, though.
Authors to enjoy:
Vikram Seth, Colin Bateman, Dan Simmons (a real SF writer--whoever said "Isaac Asimov" is nuts: there's a reason his main audience is 13-year-old boys), Nadine Gordimer, John Milton, Irving Layton, Jeanette Winterson, Bill Bryson, Ian Fleming, Frederick Lenz (a cultist freak, but Surfing the Himalayas was wonderful), Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard |
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