| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Nemesis
Joined: 29 Jan 2006
Location: Shanghai
|
 Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:41 am Post subject: What the Book in Itaewon |
 |
|
I'm looking for some information about Korea. Especially books written by expats that were published in Korea.
Used to live in Japan, where there are tons of such books. For understanding a foreign culture, I've learned that insights from long-term expats authoritative enough to have gotten published are invaluable.
I see advertisements for What the Book, but they seem to only promote Western paperbacks.
If I'm looking for stuff about Korea, is this place worth a go? I don't live near Itaewon, but if the shop has what I'm looking for, will definately check it out. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
I bought "The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies" by Michael Breen (a Briton who spend many years here as a journalist) from Bandi & Luni's in the COEX.
It was a great book and I really recommend it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
zappadelta
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 4:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
| They are a lot of great books there, and I'm sure they have what you're looking for. Also, you can stop by StarButts for some great food. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
| The owner, chiaa, posts here all the time. Look up one of his posts and PM him. He's always been very helpful to me when I've had questions. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
There are very few books about Korea that are written by expats.
You have:
"Korea Bug" Korean publisher
"Island of Fantasy" Self published I think Seoul Selection still stocks it or you can get it off the idiot's uhhhhh I mean guy's website.
Some book with a cover of a Dutch guy (written by) with the Korean flag being worn as a toga. I can't remember the title but I think we have a used one right now.
"The Koreans" by Michael Breen been living here for a long time. You can get a signed copy at the store. Major US publisher
Korea by Simon Winchester (never lived here but walked from bottom to top). Major US publisher just put it back in print this year. Has been out of print for about 15 years or so.
Faces of Korea by Richard Harris. It's an oral history of expat's stays in Korea from DDD workers to lawyers. We do carry the book and don't have any used right now. Korean publisher.
I'll add more as they come to me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
| You have signed copies? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Captain Corea wrote: |
| You have signed copies? |
Yes. His kid plays with my kid.
Have one more signed copy of Under the Loving Care of Fatherly Leader by Breen's buddy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
Bah, I've got that one already. And there is no way I'm gonna buy another one of thsoe monsters (bloody thick).
Hmmm, might I ask you to reserve the signed "Koreans" one for me m8? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:54 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Captain Corea wrote: |
Bah, I've got that one already. And there is no way I'm gonna buy another one of thsoe monsters (bloody thick).
Hmmm, might I ask you to reserve the signed "Koreans" one for me m8? |
Will do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hyeon Een
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
I really enjoyed The Koreans by Michael Breen, so go buy that from Chiaa.
Anyway, even more than that, my favorite book about Korea, without a doubt is Cho-sun the land of the Morning Calm. It is a travel book written by a British man in about 1895. A hell of a lot of the book rings true today. You can read it free (Sorry What the Book) at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13128/13128-h/13128-h.htm
The author arrives in Busan (spelled Fusan in the book) travels to Incheon (which has its chinese name at the time which I don't remember) and then goes to Seoul. He hangs out with a couple of the kings sons and a bunch of other people. He is a witty writer with a dry sense of humour. Stuff like the guys who lead the Korean horses along the road ignoring all other road users rings true to this day.
When he questions the cleanliness of the sheets in his bed (as we often would like to do in a yogwan in the countryside...):
| Quote: |
| when I proceeded to inspect the bed and remarked on the somewhat doubtful cleanliness of the sheets, "They are quite clean," said the landlord; "only two gentlemen have slept in them before." |
Did you wonder why you can't get an international ATM card to take money out of the country now? Well in the past they didn't have readily available cash, they stopped foreign devils from taking their money out by making it too inconvenient. All coins were made of almost worthless brass, so that you needed 8 slaves carrying your money just to buy a horse. Why was this?
| Quote: |
Great trouble has been and is continually experienced in the kingdom owing to the lack of gold and silver coins; but to the Corean mind to make coins out of gold and to let them go out of the country amounts to the same thing as willingly trying to impoverish the fatherland of the treasures it possesses. |
And was the author a fan of ondol heating? I'll let you judge:
| Quote: |
The Corean process of heating the houses is somewhat original. It is a process used in a great part of Eastern Asia—and, to my mind, it is the only thoroughly barbaric custom which the Corean natives have retained. The flooring of the rooms consists of slabs of stone, under which is a large oven of the same extent as the room overhead, which oven, during the winter, is filled with a burning wood-fire, which is kept up day and night. What happens is generally this:....
The Corean custom is to sleep on the ground in the padded clothes, using a wooden block as a pillow. The better classes, however, use also small, thin mattresses, covered with silk, which they spread out at night, and keep rolled up during the day-time. As the people sleep on the ground, it often happens that the floor gets so hot as to almost roast them, but the easy-going inhabitant of Cho-sen, does not seem to object to this roasting process—on the contrary, he seems almost to revel in it, and when well broiled on one side, he will turn over to the other, so as to level matters. ...Putting my fist through one of the paper windows to get a little air only made matters ten times worse, for half my body continued to undergo the roasting process, while the other half was getting unpleasantly frozen. To this day, it has always been a marvel to me, and an unexplainable fact that, those who use the "Kan" do not "wake up—dead" in the morning!"
|
He does seem to exagerrate the Korean winter though:
| Quote: |
Corea, as everybody knows, is an extremely cold country, the thermometer reaching as low sometimes as seventy or even eighty degrees of frost
|
On either scale, celsius or farenheit, it doesn't get quite that cold in Seoul (the furthest north he was).
Anyway this is a fantastic book, and the best travel book written about Korea that I've read. (I think the only other ones are written by a guy who did a long walk but didn't speak any korean, and "To Dream of Pigs" which was pretty interesting, but definitely not as good). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| chiaa wrote: |
| Some book with a cover of a Dutch guy (written by) with the Korean flag being worn as a toga. I can't remember the title but I think we have a used one right now. |
Author is Maarten Meijer - I used to work with him a few years back. I beleive the title is "Maarten, what's so great about Korea?" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
kermo
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Location: Eating eggs, with a comb, out of a shoe.
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 2:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Props to Whatthebook and all that, but both Kyobo and Youngpoon books have a healthy section of About Korea books. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
periwinkle
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Chiaa can order anything you want, and it will either be cheaper or will match what you pay at Kyobo, etc. Personally, I like patronizing the little guy (speaking figuratively!!) instead of shopping at a giant, over-crowded chain. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
seoulsucker
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Not sure of the author, but Korea:Unmasked was a great read. It's done in comicbook form, but it's throroughly engaging and informative, even hliarious at times. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Yaya
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| cdninkorea wrote: |
I bought "The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies" by Michael Breen (a Briton who spend many years here as a journalist) from Bandi & Luni's in the COEX.
It was a great book and I really recommend it. |
That book sucks, it's a little better than a Lonely Planet guide with hardly any insightful information. I've talked to other journalists who've read the book and they say it's mostly for someone totally clueless about Korea. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
