Review: Earthquake at Dawn

Earthquake at Dawn by Kristiana Gregory

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



The characters should have been interesting and sympathetic and the plot should have been riveting. Neither was the case. Informative though.



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Review: The Postmistress

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I didn't really take in, when I picked this book up, that I was once again going to be reading a novel set right before America enters WWII, just as in A Separate Peace. It's a fairly fascinating time to look at. The themes of loneliness and access to information were interesting. I found Frankie's story the most interesting - her reporting of the Blitz, but especially the train ride. Emma's character seemed to function largely to illustrate the need to have someone to care about you, to focus their attention on you which made Frankie's realization that she couldn't get the whole story, that families were left without the knowledge of the fates of their loved ones.

This book left me heartbroken, thinking about all those families out there, separated by the confused flight from danger to refuge or through death. This story, though set in the past, has so much to say about the present. All those children out there, lacking that attention focused on them through war, famine, AIDS. It's late and I'm not putting this well, but I think it's worth the read.



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Review: The Day They Came to Arrest the Book

The Day They Came to Arrest the Book by Nat Hentoff

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This is a book meant more to illustrate the various perspectives in a debate on censorship than entertain. And in that sense it does a good job. Unfortunately, though censorship, and in particular the censorship of Huckleberry Finn, is a timeless issue, this book manages to date itself. First there are the rather hilarious references to communism and a fear of the Russians. Then there are the potshots the book takes at feminism. It's not just that the feminist student is an extreme character, because really all of the characters are written to represent extremes, but the little disparaging comment made by a female teacher about gender neutral language and the term Ms.



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Review: A Separate Peace

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It seems impossible not to compare this coming-of-age story set in a boys boarding school with The Catcher in the Rye - and I liked this a lot more. It also vaguely reminded me of Never Let Me Go in the way that the boys live a life safely apart from something "out there" and instead develop their own separate sense of what the world is. I enjoyed the book both as a meditation on how outside forces can come to define and shape our existence and also as a story of adolescent friendship and the tragedy of a moment's meanness. I have Peace Breaks Out, but I think I may give myself a buffer book in between.



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Review: Incendiary

Incendiary by Chris Cleave

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I read the entire first section of Incendiary on the couch in my boyfriend's apartment in South Korea, but when I stopped reading that night I was almost startled not to be in my flat in Edinburgh, in a slowly gentrifying neighborhood where I'd often stop and have a smoke in the close with a ned who lived one floor down. The language and class analysis brought me right into the story. What took me out of it was that like Little Bee the ending was just ridiculous. There were slightly absurd plot points along the way, but I was able to roll with them right up to the scene in Parliament Square. The ending was frustratingly disappointing. That said, some of the book just slayed me. Having the narrator quote her son's age so precisely, so often was incredibly powerful. The attempt to fill the emptiness with sexual relationships. The desperate need to exert control on the things around her. I just wish Cleve would work on his endings.



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Review: Oleanna

Oleanna by David Mamet

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I saw this at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival one year.



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Review: The Humbling

The Humbling by Philip Roth

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I don't entirely know what to think about this slim novel. The main character bored me a lot until he started his relationship with the much younger lesbian. The idea of trying on another kind of life to see if it could fit interests me. And the end was certainly dramatic. But the aging, failing actor was hard to maintain interest in. It's more like 2.5 stars, but since I did feel compelled to read it in one gulp, I'm going to be generous and round up.



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Review: Please Look After Mom

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you ever want to think about how you take your parents for granted, this book will start you off. I really enjoyed it, though the timing of the read was to finish it while I was still in Korea and that turned out to be unimportant. The Korea of this book is not my Korea. Mom would only be twelve years older than my own parents and thus the narrators not too much older than myself, but the world they describe seems almost impossible to relate to the place I live now. It makes me marvel once again at how amazing those generations of Koreans are to have gone from the devetations of the wars to the Seoul I have lived in over the past 6.5 years.



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A PAGE OF THE NIGHT-BOOK by TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER

I stepped ashore one May night
in the cool moonshine
where grass and flowers were grey
but the scent green.

I glided up the slope
in the colour-blind night
while white stones
signalled to the moon.

A period of time
a few minutes long
fifty-eight years wide.

And behind me
beyond the lead-shimmering waters
was the other shore
and those who ruled.

People with a future
instead of a face.

Review: Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Love. So much love. Okay, it was odd reading about the porn awards on my subway ride to teach small Korean children at a church-run English academy, but it was also hilarious. And I'd read the last essay on talk radio before, in a compilation, but it was sufficiently awesome that I decided to read it again today while sitting in Korean immigration. The piece on McCain was fascinating, even a decade later, and I really liked how he looked at the ethics of cooking lobster. I really should get to Infinite Jest asap. What that really means in real time, I have no idea!



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Review: All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire

All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



That was a one-day read. As vamp porn goes, it was pretty good.



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Review: Sins of the Night

Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Meh. Read it on one day's subway commute though.



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Review: Digging to America

Digging to America by Anne Tyler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was more of a 3.5 stars. I thought I'd like the Korea angle, but what I ended up enjoying was the meditation on what it's like to spend a lot of time living in a foreign country.



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Review: Night's Cold Kiss

Night's Cold Kiss by Tracey O'Hara

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



For a book I picked up solely to occupy myself with while waiting for a sandwich, this turned out to be fairly entertaining, if you ignore the alien bit.



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Thanks by W. S. Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

Review: The Song Before it is Sung

The Song Before it is Sung by Justin Cartwright

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I can't recall who left the country and passed this on to me, but it was fantastic. It looks at what it means to live according to your principles and with courage by examining the strain caused between two Oxford friends, one a German and the other an English Jew, by WWII. Equally interesting is watching the narrator, a sort-of journalist in a disintegrating marriage use this research project to find his own path.



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Thirty Books Everyone Should Read Before They’re Thirty

By: Marc and Angel Hack Life
The Web is grand. With its fame for hosting informative, easy-to-skim textual snippets and collaborative written works, people are spending more and more time reading online. Nevertheless, the Web cannot replace the authoritative transmissions from certain classic books that have delivered (or will deliver) profound ideas around the globe for generations.

The thirty books listed here are of unparalleled prose, packed with wisdom capable of igniting a new understanding of the world. Everyone should read these books before their thirtieth birthday.

1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.

2. 1984 by George Orwell
1984 still holds chief significance nearly sixty years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an all-knowing government, which uses pervasive, twenty-four/seven surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl. It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.

4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess own it
A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent. This novel will blow you away … leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.

5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.

6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy have started it twice
This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel. The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha … and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.

7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine excerpts
Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy.

8. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau excerpts
A famous quote from the book states that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” This accurately summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of individual human rights within society.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
This novel does not have a plot in the conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural history.

10. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin own it
Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.

11. The Wisdom of the Desert by Thomas Merton
A collection of thoughts, meditations and reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.

12. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”

13. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
Arguably one of the best children’s books ever written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life. It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.

14. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
One of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of general strategy and business tactics.

15. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien have read The Fellowship
One of the greatest fictional stories ever told, and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in twentieth-century literature. Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read them all.

16. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life. Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”

17. Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
Probably the wisest poetic prose of modern times. It was written during World War II, and is still entirely relevant today … here’s an excerpt: “The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre–/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire.”

18. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller own it
This book coined the self-titled term “catch-22” that is widely used in modern-day dialogue. As for the story, its message is clear: What’s commonly held to be good, may be bad … what is sensible, is nonsense. Its one of the greatest literary works of the twentieth century. Read it.

19. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Set in the Jazz Age of the roaring 20s, this book unravels a cautionary tale of the American dream. Specifically, the reader learns that a few good friends are far more important that a zillion acquaintances, and the drive created from the desire to have something is more valuable than actually having it.

20. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
This novel firmly stands as an icon for accurately representing the ups and downs of teen angst, defiance and rebellion. If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of the unpredictable teenage mindset.

21. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
A smooth-flowing, captivating novel of a young man living in poverty who criminally succumbs to the desire for money, and the hefty psychological impact this has on him and the people closest to him.

22. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
This book does a great job at describing situations of power and statesmanship. From political and corporate power struggles to attaining advancement, influence, and authority over others, Machiavelli’s observations apply.

23. Walden by Henry David Thoreau excerpts
Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days writing this book in a secluded cabin near the banks of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. This is a story about being truly free from the pressures of society. The book can speak for itself: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

24. The Republic by Plato excerpts
A gripping and enduring work of philosophy on how life should be lived, justice should be served, and leaders should lead. It also gives the reader a fundamental understanding of western political theory.

25. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov own it
This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption … and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each. The story is as devious as it is beautiful.

26. Getting Things Done by David Allen
The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done. Nuff said.

27. How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
This is the granddaddy of all self-improvement books. It is a comprehensive, easy to read guide for winning people over to your way of thinking in both business and personal relationships.

28. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
A powerful and alarming look at the possibilities for savagery in a lawless environment, where compassionate human reasoning is replaced by anarchistic, animal instinct.

29. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck’s deeply touching tale about the survival of displaced families desperately searching for work in a nation stuck by depression will never cease to be relevant.

30. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov own it
This anticommunist masterpiece is a multifaceted novel about the clash between good and evil. It dives head first into the topics of greed, corruption and deception as they relate to human nature.

31. BONUS: How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook everything you could ever dream of eating. Pretty much the greatest cookbook ever written. Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll be a master chef by the time you’re thirty.

32. BONUS: Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner
Franz Wisner had it all … a great job and a beautiful fiancée. Life was good. But then his fiancée dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss basically fired him. So he dragged his younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and they never turned back … around the world they went for two full years. This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and self-discovery.

Review: The Woman Who Loved Airports: Stories and Narratives

The Woman Who Loved Airports: Stories and Narratives by Marusya Bociurkiw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book made me feel a sense of homesickness - it wasn't just the Canadian references (Street Legal! Preston Manning! Toronto and Vancouver street names!), but also a kind of person I once thought I would likely be. I enjoyed that sense of seeing parts of me represented in print in a way I haven't seen in real life lately.



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Yonder See The Morning Blink by A.E. Housman

XI
Yonder see the morning blink:
The sun is up, and up must I,
To wash and dress and eat and drink
And look at things and talk and think
And work, and God knows why.

Oh often have I washed and dressed
And what's to show for all my pain?
Let me lie abed and rest:
Ten thousand times I've done my best
And all's to do again.


(From "Last Poems")

Review: High Risk

High Risk by Amy Scholder

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



If there were half stars, this would be a 1.5. I liked the non-fiction essays better than the short stories - the chapters by John Preston, William S. Burroughs, and Dorothy Allison were the best, and I was surprised to really enjoy the poetry by Essex Hemphill. I didn't much like The Story of O, so I think this confirms that I don't much enjoy reading about S&M, and since I really didn't like Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective and the Burning Bombing of America by Kathy Acker, I guess I'm not surprised that I still don't like her writing. Most of all, this book leaves me wondering if homosexuality and S&M are the only two kinky things out there.



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Goal for 2012

There's nothing like traveling and doing a race. It may not make for speedy times or easy recoveries, but it does something else. It brings passion to my journeys. And there's no better souvenir than one you have earned by running 26.2 miles.

Rachel Toor, Race Travel, Running Times - March 2011

Hot Ginger Alert!

And the movie's good too!

Goodbye 2011

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?

I ran my first half-marathon. I also ran my first Beer Mile. There were some less cheerful firsts, but let's ignore those, shall we?

2010 - Completed the Couch to 5K program and ran my first ever 10K race. It was amazing.

2009 -I went to Africa! And started hashing back in February. I also bought purple underwear.

2008 - got divorced for real, barehanded ice fishing, thought I flushed my own keys down the toilet, went paint balling, ate beondegi (yuck!), flew a plane.

2007 - Hahahaha. I've already been asked this one. The Hong Kong incident. Got divorced (I think, anyway!) Taught kindergarten.

2006 - went on holiday with my sister, bought a red bra

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Yes and no. I mean, I was all set to read 250 books, and have one of them be War & Peace. That didn't happen at all. But I did go and run that half marathon, so there's always that.

2010 - I've kept a few, but not most. I will make more. Soon. Really. Plus, I'll need to make a new 101 in 1001 list at some point this year...

2009 -I'm still working on the 101 in 1001 List and I've rejigged a couple of them. I'd like to finish off those goals before I start any more. The biggest fail was the book ban (reinstated, let's hope I prove to have more willpower now.)

2008 - the 101 in 1001 List, maybe a couple more

2007- No and Yes. It's not the keeping of the resolutions that is necessarily important, I think, but the making of them. The taking stock.

2006 - I didn't make any last year. I will be making some this year, though. I like thinking about my goals and where I am and where I want to be. I was too depressed to want to think about my life last January.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Lots of people seem to be having babies lately.

2010 - While there are lots of baby pics floating around my FB feed, no.
2009 - My high school friend Vanessa and Andrea & David. Congratulations!
2008 - If they did, it's escaping me, but it's also very late at night.
2006 - My childhood friend, Shannon. My brother's girlfriend. A couple of other people I don't know as well.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My Nana died on Christmas morning. That was rough.

2010 - Yes, unfortunately.
2009 - No.
2008 - No.
2006 - No.

4. What countries did you visit?

England - Scotland - Germany - France (for dinner)

2010 - Korea, Toronto, Korea. Not very exciting at all.
2009 - Kojedo, Jeonju, Rome, Ghana, Togo, Toronto, Vancouver
2008 - Boracay, Taiwan, Bamboo/Tea Plantation trip, Canada, Japan, Dokdo, North Korea
2007 - Thailand, Hong Kong, Canada, North Korea, The Philippines.
2006 - Scotland, Canada, Korea, Thailand. Only Thailand was for the first time.

5. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

Less drama, more health. The guts to run a marathon.

2010 - The same as last year, I guess.
2009 - A zero balance credit card, the ability to run hashes, a plan to leave Korea.
2008 - This one is going to remain secret, but there is something I'd like.
2007 - More of all the good things, less of all the bad, I guess.
2006 - I don't think there was much that I lacked entirely over the course of the whole year. There were lots of things I lacked during different parts of the year though. I guess I just want more of the good things, more often.

6. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Two particular dates in March. October 10th - 13.1.

March 2nd - first day of my new job
September 23 - 38PH3 - for the hashing, and for something else, which we will leave off the internet.

2009 - Fourth Saturday in February - My first hash, the PMS MENstrual Run
August 22 - I started vacation!
October 5 - The day I started back at work.

2008 - January 3rd - finally divorced!
Friday, August 8th - the Ferraro Rocher countdown ended on my last day of work at Poly

2007 - April 10th - I left Heritage, thank fuck!
May 18th - Surprise arrival back in Canada.
August 10th - Back in Korea once more.
December 14th - All my loose ends were finally tied up!

2006 - February 14th, when I finally, really knew that I had to leave Alan. April 10th, when I flew into Seoul.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

13.1 miles.

2010 - My 10K medal, for sure.
2009 - Going on vacation? I didn't really have any big achievements this year.
2008 - Well, I collected the entire set of Hello Kitty magnets. And found my own place in HBC.
2007 - Tying up those loose ends, perhaps.
2006 - Getting over the embarrassment of leaving someone only 5 months into marriage and doing it anyway because I needed to do it. Rebuilding my entire life all over again, in Korea.

8. What was your biggest failure?

I suppose similar to last year. I could have been a better friend, and a better granddaughter. I have some regrets about going out and having fun, without thinking about the consequences.


2010 - This year, my failures seem to have been legion. I failed as a friend, I suppose. I trusted the wrong person. It's been a rough year.
2009 - Financial.
2008 - Also will remain a secret. But it's related to the other one.
2007 - Perhaps being so stressed by the Korea/Hong Kong decision.
2006 - Not listening to my instincts and the warnings of other people.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Bwahahahahaha. The least of my problems this year involved getting the cotton on a q-tip stuck in my ear. Then there was the hilarious ankle injury caused by deciding to wear heels to a drinking trail in Songtan on a winter's night. Oh, and I think I fucked up my back muscles for no reason for the first time - I'm getting old, clearly.

2010 - The rib. The suspected shin splints and other assorted aches that came with learning to run.

2009 - The mystery illness in Ghana & Togo - but Immodium cured that. Very nasty Yellow Dust cold. My toenail slowly growing back.

2008 - possibly I discovered I have a malformed eardrum, hairline fracture in my foot after dancing drunk in my apartment, Broken Toe Part I - The Sink, Broken Toe Part II - Martha's Dancing, recent sickness which is no fun, so we won't bother talking about it.

2007 - Nothing terrible. Did a transatlantic flight with a messed up ankle, did some North Korean hiking with pneumonia.

2006 - Yep. Some of the most notable - my first ever hickie and my now completely fucked up ankle. I'm a klutz, though, so there have been a few.

10. What was the best thing you bought?

Vibram Five Fingers. And I was given a Kindle.

2010 - A lot of books. Running shoes and winter running clothes.
2009 - Hair cut and straightening. New computer. Monitor which is also a TV. My students would claim it's my Transformers t-shirt.
2008 - new iPod, G-Whiz, North Korean honey
2007 - It wasn't what Oprah recommended ;) I'm not sure I've bought anything all that fabulous this year.
2006 - my laptop. my plane ticket out of Scotland.

11. Whose behavior merited celebration? Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The Family, April, Samantha and Courtnie. The Pen - he gets both celebrated and appalled. Myself - maybe a bit of both too.

2010 - Samantha and April have become my rocks. Shar and Tim were a tough combo of fucked up to deal with, though Tim was also one of my mainstays.
2009 - Hashers are often pretty awesome and Ortencia was an awesome host. However, the two hashers running CHILD and their ridiculousness were fairly appalling.
2008 - Martha has been a rock star in the last couple of months! The pricks at Phillies being homophobic assholes and everyone who voted for Prop. 8 and like-minded resolutions appall me.
2007 - Many people's merited celebration. I find that sometimes the most surprising people will do fantastic things. Based on some info I recently found out, my ex is on the appalled list.
2006 - my friends and family, who have been very supportive of me. appalled: alan's. my own.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Books and the trip to the UK and Germany.

2010 - The trip to Canada and running clothes.
2009 - New computer, six week vacation, books.
2008 - You got me! I guess the trip to Canada was the biggie, plus the shopping trip that resulted. The iPod.
2007 - Vacations!!! Clothes. Having fun in general.
2006 - into leaving Scotland.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

13.1, baby. German Nash Hash.

2010 - Running, hashing, reading.
2009 - Rome with Jen, Ghana and Togo with Ortencia, home!, and then Vancouver, with the chance to see Andrea & David, Orin, and Martha.
2008 - Seeing my nieces. Going to a city in North Korea. Moving to Haebangchon. Teaching teenagers. Leaving Poly.
2007 - Hiking in North Korea. Seeing my nieces.
2006 - being single again, meeting new people, teaching again, knowing that I made the decision to live my life the way I want to, full of travel and adventure.

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Sexy and I Know It - LMFAO


2010 - I'm on A Boat by The Lonely Island.
2009 - Slung Low, Erin McKeown; I Got a Feeling, Black Eyed Peas (listened to it constantly in Vancouver); and Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back), Eamon and Barbie Girl, Aqua because they played in Togo while I was travelling.
2008 - Whatever You Like, T.I. but in particular, that one the kids made about voting however you like. Made me cry.
2006 - The Mercy of the Fallen, Dar Williams

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?

Happier.


2010 - The same?
2009 - Happier.
2008- happier
2007 - happier or perhaps about the same
2006 - happier

b) thinner or fatter?

Thinner


2010 - thinner
2009 - Maybe a bit fatter.
2008 - same same
2007 - maybe about the same - I'm not sure, to be honest.
2006 - fatter, a bit

c) richer or poorer?

Same same, but different.


2010 - Same same, but different.
2009 - Moderately less poor.
2008 - moderately less poor.
2007 - Hmmmm. Again, perhaps about the same.
2006 - maybe about the same

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Travelling, making it to hashes, training, reading. Time with family.

2010 - Travelling, for sure.
2009 - Saving money. Reading books. Travelling. Hashing. Time with the nieces.
2008 - beach holidays, time at home with the family, coffee with Jenn
2007 - Exercise. Travelling. Decisive getting-stuff-done.
2006 - laughed

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Sleeping in for no reason. Internet escapism.

2010 - Wandering about on the internet.
2009 - Lazing around. Staying up too late. Social smoking. Negative self-talk.
2008 - overreacting, stress with friends over silly things, dealing with Korean immigration, teaching at Poly.
2007 - I'm not sure I regret too much from the past year. Maybe the odd drunken moment, but nothing in particular.
2006 - beating myself up for things I couldn't change and things that weren't exactly my fault

20. How did you spend Christmas?

I had stayed over in Songtan after the Saturday night hash, so I went for all-you-can-eat Korean meat. Then we wandered over to Bulldog, found some hashers, and went to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian place for dinner. Had a hilariously inappropriate conversation about things like butt licking and then went back to the Bulldog, on to Pulse, over to Weses' and then some other place. Spent my whole evening getting drinks from everyone else - yay, piggybacking! Crashed with Cracka again.

2010 - I slept over at April's on Christmas Eve, popped back home on Christmas morning and then went back to April's for a fantastic Xmas brunch with her, Jeff, Samantha and Moniqa. Then I went over to Laura's for a turkey dinner around 3ish and finally, I went down to Songtan for a hash turkey dinner, a beer pong tournament (and no, I did not play), and stayed over in a hotel. Drove back to Seoul on Boxing Day for a Southside hash.

2009 - After dinner at Brian's on the eve, I ended up in HBC. When the bar closed, the random people still left, two people I knew, and I tried to go norae bang. When everywhere turned out to be closed, I invited everyone back to my place for a random party at about 6 a.m. Christmas dinner at Laura's was fabulous and we played pictionary, hilarious. I walked home with Christie and Lorraine, singing "White Christmas" as it flurried. Then I napped before calling home at 2 a.m. and chatting with the family. After, because of the nap, I stayed up to watch some episodes of The Big Bang Theory. On Boxing Day, the hashers had the "Santa's Sloppy Seconds" dinner and sat around singing to things WHAM DJed for us.

2008 - Eggs Benedict with Liz and Martha, Geckos with Brian, Cleo, Martha, Melissa, Rebekah, then Seoul Pub, then a taxi with a TV on the ride home!

2007 - Brian, Samarra and I went to see the Golden Compass, wandered around iPark, went to dinner at Geckos and then had drinks with people at Queen. Oh, and I got to talk to my adorable nieces :)

2006 - A turkey buffet at Geckos with friends and coworkers and later on some phone calls home.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?

Yes.

2010 - Yes.
2009 - No.
2008 - Yes.
2007 - Hahahahaha. No!
2006 - i thought i did, I'm as subject to rebound relationships as anyone, i guess. didn't last long, which was for the best!

22. How many one-night stands?

None, I don't think. Huh. That's sort of surprising.

2010 - I had another one-night stand (or so I thought) that resulted in a lot more.
2009 - More than zero.
2008 - A few. They can be one hell of a lot of fun.
2006 - I don't kiss and tell.

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Blue Mountain State, The Big Bang Theory, The Big C, Homeland, Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, Grey's/Private Practice, Mad Men, Terra Nova, The Walking Dead

2010-Grey's, Private Practice, The Good Wife, Criminal Minds, The West Wing
2009 - Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, NCIS (Don't ask. It's an obssession.), Six Feet Under
2008 - Big Love, My So-Called Life, Grey's and Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Brothers and Sisters
2007 - Grey's Anatomy, I think, though I am now equally into Private Practice. I've been watching the first season of Lost recently and been impressed since about halfway through. Flight of the Conchords is hysterical. Oh, and I finally got around to watching Buffy - it was really good.
2006 - America's Next Top Model in Korea, before that Alias/The L Word/Desperate Housewives

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

No.

2010 - No. But I'm hugely disappointed.
2009 - Nope.
2008 - This year homophobia has upset me more than usual - but I hate the game, not the players. No point in hating the haters.
2007 - No. I don't hate anyone at all right now, though there are certainly those I don't care for.
2006 - perhaps my boss, though hate is far too strong a word. i can't bring myself to hate my ex, though sometimes I think that might actually be kinda a step forward.

25. What was the best book you read?

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski
Intuition, Allegra Goodman

2010 - The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls

2009 - Kathy Reichs and Lynsays Sands books, obsessively
1984 & Lord of the Flies (at work)
Bridge to Teribithia
The Great Influenza
Subject to Debate, Katha Pollit
Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich
Payback, Margaret Atwood
The Pollysyllabic Spree, Nick Hornby
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
Fox Girl, Nora Okia Keller
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The Great Fortune, Olivia Manning
Pyongyang & Persepolis
The Omnivore's Dilemna, Michael Pollan
The Truth About Stories, Thomas King

2008 - S: A Novel About the Balkans, by Slavenka Drakulic
The Little Friend, Donna Tartt
This is Paradise! My North Korean Childhood by Hyok Kang
Dreams of My Father, Barrak Obama
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Maus, Art Spiegleman
Kafka on the Shore, Murakami

2007 - "The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank" by Ellen Feldman. It was maybe the best power read - one of those I-can't-put-it-down novels.
"Eva" by Peter Dickinson was the best children's book and it was a reread from the Poly library.
"Oscar and Lucinda" by Peter Carey for the best I-should-have-known-but-didn't ending.
“The Friar and the Cipher” by Lawrence & Nancy Goldstone for best historical non-fiction.
“Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal” by Christopher Moore was the funniest.
“The Brooklyn Follies” by Paul Auster for introducing me to my newest fav author.
"Lucky" by Alice Sebold for the best sad book.
"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of A Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah for the most gut-wrenching emotional response.
"Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert for personal resonance.

2006 - picking just one is so evil. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Everything is Illuminated, The History of Love and those are just the ones that come to mind...

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

LMFAO, for the incredible pants off, dance offs.

2010 - Florence and the Machine. Mumford and Sons.
2009 - Since I spent most of my year with no functional computer or internet, I've listened mostly to the same 200 songs that were on my iPod before Chester died. I've been downloading like crazy since, though, so I hope to discover new stuff that I love sooner rather than later.
2008 - The Genius button on iTunes.
2007 - Not sure. I love "Smile" by Lily Allen, and the new Alicia Keys album is pretty damn cool. Tons of stuff, really.
2006 - Jack Johnson. I had heard of him before, but never got around to listening until this year when I discovered downloading...

27. What did you want and get? What did you want and not get?

To attend German Nash Hash and run a half marathon. The not get is something that is too personal to write about on the internet.

2010 - A new job - got it. A completed 10K - done. The last thing is still playing itself out.
2009 - I wanted a vacation to a new place and I certainly got that. I also wanted willpower (gym, financial, etc) and that didn't happen.
2008 - I'm not sure, but they are both wrapped up in the same thing.
2007 - I didn't get a job I wanted, though I suspect that worked out for the best, particularly from a financial point of view. I wanted a new wardrobe and I got that.
2006- What did you want and get? a computer, a job in Korea, out of a relationship, a trip to Thailand (I even got two!) What did you want and not get? an easy breakup

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

Ha - I can never remember stuff like this. I can recall watching Contagion and Captain America with The Pen. They were both fine. And I managed to successfully find a movie The Pen hadn't seen and enjoyed, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I watched Grandma's Birthday at Golden Flow's birthday party and Beer Fest on Boxing Day at Sailormoon's. I've also seen a lot of documentaries - most of them interesting. Am watching Flammen & Citronen right now.

2010 - Shawn of the Dead
2009 - Amazing Grace, Hallam Foe, Milk, Frost/Nixon, Transformers (1&2)
2008 - Juno, Children of Men, Kung Fu Panda were the best, but nothing really moved me.
2007 - The Golden Compass, I think. I don't actually see many films, in the cinema or out of it.
2006 - Everything is Illuminated, Tsotsi, The Constant Gardener, Hotel Rwanda

31.What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Having all the people I loved in one damn place! Especially more runs with Coop.

2010 - No Shar thing. No Tim thing. And a beach vacation at Christmas.
2009 - No debt.
2008 - A longer trip home.
2007 - A year long trip around Asia, with the magic ability to pop back in on the family for a couple of days at will.
2006 - if Alan had stayed in Scotland. if i had left him earlier.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

33 - spent it with Cooper and had dinner with April. Very low key.

2010 - I spent my 32nd birthday at a galbi restaurant and then at the Phillies Quiz with a great group of people - Nami, Gus and Gabby, Shar, Samantha, Tim, Ben. Ben got into an argument with Gus about those fish in the Amazon that swim up your penis.
2009 - 31. On the day of, nothing special. But I went out for dinner and dancing with friends the weekend before.
2008 - 30! I drank shots out of a porcelain penis. Then I skipped out on the big Saturday night extravaganza.
2007 - 29 in Hong Kong, went drinking and dancing.
2006 - I was 28. I went to TinPans and drank too much tequila, I went to Stompers and don't even remember being there, I met a cute boy.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

Kilts - both my hashing Sports Kilt and my OBH3 one, that makes me look like an American cheerleader. A filled up Happi coat. Lots of things that will be thrown out before the move. One awesome dress, that I really need to find occasion to wear.

2010 -A lot of pants that ended up being too big, a lot of hash shirts and hoodies, lots of new fancy running clothes.
2009 - Before vacation, I usually maintained a big divide between work clothes and home clothes. Since I've returned, I've been a jeans girl at work as well as at play. I have some cool panya purses and a skirt from my trip.
2008 - Many t-shirts, but I will have to wear something Martha hasn't stolen!
2006 - a concept implies I was thinking about this in some sort of orderly way. The same 7 or so outfits to work (with flip flops in summer and black shoes in winter), the same 7 or so low cut tops to bars, and my fave comfy socks whenever I'm home.

33. What kept you sane?

Running. Cooper. Vacation.

2010 - Samantha and April. Chocolate ice cream.
2009 - Blogging.
2008 - Martha and other friends. Pure stubbornness.
2007 - Who says I managed to stay sane? My coworkers, perhaps, when I was back in my old job. My friends. Lots of navel gazing.
2006 - a combination of good friends and too much booze.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

The doctor on the first season of The Big C is the only person who really comes to mind.

2009 - Katee Sackhoff (Captain Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace, Battlestar Galactica), Sasha Alexander (Agent Caitlin Todd in NCIS)
2008 - Hillary Clinton. Jennifer Beals.
2006 - i don't really fancy celebrities.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Kim Jong Il's death hit the closest to home. It was interesting following the Occupy protests from afar.

2009 - The Democratic primaries in the States and gay marriage. You know, back when I was saying that Obama wasn't very lefty and I prefered Clinton, everyone told me that he was progressive. But I'd read his books and I knew he wasn't as progressive as people thought and now it turns out that indeed, he isn't.
2008 - Prop. 8, the Democratic Leadership Race, proroguement
2006 - i have been too busy navel gazing to really pay too much attention. Perhaps the possible nuclear weapons test by North Korea.

36. Who did you miss?

Samantha, April, Cooper.

2009 - Once again, everybody not here in Seoul, but especially the nieces. Oddly, lately also my dog.
2008 - everybody, but especially Sarah, Emily and Chloe.
2006 - Most people. I live overseas!

37. Who was the best new person you met?

The Pen

2009 - All the hashers!
2008 - Martha
2006 - All the new people I've met have mostly been amazing, though in totally different ways.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011?

If you finish all the training, it's really possible.

2009 - Just keep following the trail marks and you'll make it to the goal.
2008 - Be stubborn. Love.
2007 - When travelling, follow the noise.
2006 - No one will judge me as much as I will judge myself. Trust your gut. People you don't expect to will do little things that will make you believe in goodness again.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Run This Town, Jay-Z

Feel it comin' in the air
hear the screams from everywhere
I'm addicted to the thrill
It's a dangerous love affair
Can't be scared when it goes down
Got a problem, tell me now
Only thing that's on my mind
Is who's gonna run this town tonight...
Is who's gonna run this town tonight...
We gonna run this town

Life's a game but it's not fair
I break the rules so I don't care
So I keep doin' my own thing
Walkin' tall against the rain
Victory's within the mile
Almost there, don't give up now
Only thing that's on my mind
Is who's gonna run this town tonight
Heeeey-hey-hey-hey-hey-heyyy
Hey-heyyy-hey-hey-heyy
Heeeey-hey-hey-hey-hey-heyyy
(Is who's gonna run this town tonight)
Hey-hey-hey-heyyy


2009 - Slung Lo, Erin MCKeown
I was slung-lo and
So gung-ho
For anything to get me to start
I had my rock
I had my roll
But I couldn't find my spark

2008 - 9 to 5, Lady Sovereign
Ok yo....
I wake up late every morning
managers calling I'm still yawning
Get up wake up hair and makeups
Waiting for you don't be sawing
This performance is important
I don't think I can put my all in
Hold on I was drunk last night
Now its all kicking in and I don't feel right
Gave my number to a breh who wasn't my type
Now my phones on silent I'm being polite
Now private callers get no love from me
Just let me be...

Oh my gosh my days are getting longer
There's no turning back cuz I'm working da 9 to 5
To keep my contract did I say 9 was getting of 1:30
I'm no early birdy I'm lazy dats all dat I can say
So make sure you heard me
And deres no turning back cuz I'm working a 9 to 5

2006 - The Mercy Of The Fallen
Dar Williams

"Oh my fair North Star
I have held to you dearly
I had asked you to steer me
'Til one cloud-scattered night

I got lost in my travels
I met Leo the lion
Met a king and met a giant
With their errant light

There's the wind and the rain
And the mercy of the fallen
Who say they have no claim to know what's right

There's the weak and the strong
And the bets that have no answer
And that's where I may rest my head tonight"

XVIII Oh Who Is That Young Sinner by A.E. Housman

His poem, "Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?", written after the trial of Oscar Wilde, addressed more general social injustice towards homosexuality. In the poem the prisoner is suffering "for the colour of his hair", a naturally given attribute which, in a clearly coded reference to homosexuality, is reviled as "nameless and abominable" (recalling the legal phrase peccatum horribile, inter christianos non nominandum, "the horrible sin, not to be named amongst Christians").


XVIII
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;
In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;
Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair
For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pains he's taken and a pretty price he's paid
To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;
But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,
And they're haling him to justice for the colour of his hair.

Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet
And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,
And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare
He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.

(from “Additional Poems”)

501 Must-Read Books

List taken from Emma Beare's 501 Must-Read Books. Because I have too much time on my hands.

Chapter 1: Children's Fiction
Chapter 2: Classic Fiction
Chapter 3: History
Chapter 4: Memoirs
Chapter 5: Modern Fiction
Chapter 6: Science Fiction
Chapter 7: Thrillers
Chapter 8: Travel Writing

Children's Fiction

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
The Complete Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen
Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi (Lorenzini)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Children's and Household Tales, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon
Emil and the Detectives, Erich Kastner
Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
The Complete Nonsense Books, Edward Lear
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren
Dr. Dolittle, Hugh Lofting
At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald
Nobody's Boy, Hector Malot
Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Five Children and It, E. Nesbit
Tom's Midnight Garden, Philippa Pearce
The War of the Buttons, Louis Pergaud
Fairy Tales, Charles Perrault
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter
The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), Philip Pullman
Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, Mordecai Richler
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
The King of the Golden River, John Ruskin
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
The Misfortunes of Sophie, Comtesse de Ségur
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, Dr. Seuss
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
The Golem, Isaac Bashevis Singer
Heidi, Johanna Spyri
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien (the first one)
Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde

Classic Fiction

The Epic of Gilgamesh, Anonymous
The Thousand and One Nights, Anonymous
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
Old Goriot, Honoré de Balzac
Vathek, William Beckford
Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
The Collected Stories, Anton Chekhov
The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Coxcomb, John Cleland
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
The Christmas Books, Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Middlemarch, George Eliot
Tom Jones, Henry Fielding
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Howard's End, E.M. Forster
North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
The Sorrows of Young Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
King Solomon's Mines, H. Rider Haggard
Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy
The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James
The Iliad, Homer
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome
Kim, Rudyard Kipling
Bliss and Other Stories, Katherine Mansfield
Utopia, Sir Thomas More
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, Edgar Allan Poe
In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
A Sicilian Romance, Anne Radcliffe
Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady, Samuel Richardson
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott
Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley
The Red and the Black, Stendahl
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
Dracula, Bram Stoker
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy (started - twice!)
Barchester Towers, Anthony Trollope
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Candide, or Optimism, Voltaire
The Castle of Otranto, Horace Walpole
The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
La Bête humaine, Émile Zola

History

London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, John Lee Anderson
The Hour of Our Death, Philippe Ariès
The Fall of Berlin, 1945, Anthony Beevor
The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Fernand Braudel
The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century, John Brewer
Frozen Desire: An Enquiry Into the Meaning of Money, James Buchan
Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, Alan Bullock
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Jacob Burckhardt
Daily Life in Ancient Rome, Jerome Carcopino
The Accursed Kings, Maurice Druon
The Age of Cathedrals, Georges Duby
The Stripping of the Altars, Eamon Duffy
The Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age, Modris Eksteins
The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire, Niall Ferguson
Millennium, Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Pagans and Christians, Robin Lane Fox
The End of History and the Last Man, Francis Fukuyama
The Naked Heart, Peter Gay
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, Martin Gilbert
The Cheese and the Worms, Carlo Ginzburg
God's First Love, Friedrich Heer
The Histories, Herodotus
Hiroshima, John Hersey
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding, Robert Hughes
Pandaemonium, Humphrey Jennings
A History of Warfare, John Keegan
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, Bartolomé de Las Casas
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T.E. Lawrence
Islam in History, Bernard Lewis
Chinese Shadows, Simon Leys
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes, Amin Maalouf
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Garrett Mattingly
The Story of English, Robert McCrum
The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews, and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, Maria Rosa Menocal
The Women's History of the World, Rosalind Miles
Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire, Jan & James Morris
Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade, Henri Pirenne
Parallel Lives, Plutarch
Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul, Roy Porter
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama
Leviathan and the Air-Pump, Steven Shapin & Simon Schaffer
The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler
The Trial of Socrates, Isador Stone
The Annals of Imperial Rome, Tacitus
The Origins of the Second World War, A.J.P. Taylor
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Barbara W. Tuchman
A People's History of the United States, 1492 to Present, Howard Zinn


Memoirs

Paula, Isabel Allende
Journal Intime, Henri Frédéric Amiel
Brief Lives, John Aubrey
Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir
My Left Foot, Christy Brown
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Benvenuto Cellini
The Unquiet Grave: A Word Cycle by Palinurus, Cyril Connolly
Boy: Tales of Childhood, Roald Dahl
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
An Angel at My Table, Janet Frame
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
The Journals of Andre Gide, 1889-1949, Andre Gide
Poetry and Truth: From My Own Life, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments, Edmund Gosse
Ways of Escape, Graham Greene
Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
Pentimento, Lillian Hellman
Childhood, Youth and Exile, Alexander Herzen
The Diary of Alice James, Alice James
Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Gustav Jung
The Diaries of Franz Kafka, Franz Kafka
The Story of My Life, Helen Keller
The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe
I Will Bear Witness, 1933-1941: A Diary of the Nazi Years, Victor Klemperer
In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming
A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
The Towers of Trebizond, Rose Macaulay
Journal, Katherine Mansfield
The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, Paul Monette
My Place, Sally Morgan
Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited, Vladimir Nabokov
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books, Azar Nafisi
Memoirs, Pablo Neruda
Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, Nigel Nicolson
Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje
Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell
Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Samuel Pepys
Letters, Pliny the Younger
Confessions, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Words, Jean-Paul Sartre
Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton
Walden, or Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau
De Profundis, Oscar Wilde
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeannette Winterson
Autobiographies, W.B. Yeats

Modern Fiction

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Jorge Amado
Le Grand Meaulnes, Alain-Fournier
Take a Girl Like You, Kingsley Amis
Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
Surfacing, Margaret Atwood
The New York Trilogy, Paul Auster
Tales of Odessa, Isaak Babel
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin
The Sweet Hereafter, Russell Banks
The Regeneration Trilogy, Pat Barker
Herzog, Saul Bellow
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
Nadja, André Breton
The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
Possession, A.S. Byatt
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino
The Stranger, Albert Camus
Auto-da-Fé, Elias Canetti
Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
The Kingdom of This World, Alejo Carpentier
The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter
What We Talk about When We Talk about Love, Raymond Carver
The Horse's Mouth, Joyce Cary
Journey to the End of Night, Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Soldiers of Salamis, Javier Cercas
The Stories of John Cheever, John Cheever
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee
Chéri, Colette
Victory, Joseph Conrad
A House and Its Head, Ivy Compton-Burnett
Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernières
Underworld, Don DeLillo
Seven Gothic Tales, Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin
Once Were Warriors, Alan Duff
Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
The Lover, Marguerite Duras
The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
The Wars, Timothy Findley
The Good Soldier, Ford Maddox Ford
Independence Day, Richard Ford
A Passage to India, E.M. Forster
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
The Blue Flower, Penelope Fitzgerald
From the Fifteen District, Mavis Gallant
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
Our Lady of the Flowers, Jean Genet
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
July's People, Nadine Gordimer
FerdyDurke, Witold Gombrowicz
The Tin Drum, Günter Grass
Hunger, Knut Hamsun
The Blind Owl, Sadegh Hedayat
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse
Lost Horizon, James Hilton
A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes
The World According to Garp, John Irving
The Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Ulysses, James Joyce
The File on H, Ismail Kadare
The Trial, Franz Kafka
It, Stephen King
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
The Leopard, Giuseppe di Lampedusa
The Diviners, Margaret Laurence
Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
Changing Places, David Lodge
Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, Machado de Assis
The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk; Palace of Desire; Sugar Street, Naguib Mahfouz
The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer
God's Grace, Bernard Malamud
An Imaginary Life, David Malouf
The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
Embers, Sándor Márai
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
The Group, Mary McCarthy
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
Enduring Love, Ian McEwan
The Sea of Fertility, Yukio Mishima
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
Cold Heaven, Brian Moore
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Progress of Love, Alice Munro
The Sea, the Sea, Iris Murdoch
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
The Third Policeman, Flann O'Brian
A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje
Where the Jackals Howl, Amos Oz
The Messiah of Stockholm, Cynthia Ozick
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
Mr. Weston's Good Wine, T.F. Powys
The Nephew, James Purdy
Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
Barney's Version, Mordecai Richler
Hadrian the Seventh, Frederick Rolfe
The Radetzky March, Joseph Roth
The Human Stain, Philip Roth
The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo
Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan
The Complete Short Stories, Saki
Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Staying On, Paul Scott
Austerlitz, W.G. Sebald
Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby, Jr.
Unless, Carol Shields
The Magician of Lublin, Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Engineer of Human Souls, Josef Škvorecký
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Sophie's Choice, William Styron
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
The Confession of Zeno, Italo Svevo
Pereira Declares, Antonio Tabucchi
The White Hotel, D.M. Thomas
The Master, Colm Tóibín
Felicia's Journey, William Trevor
The Palm-Wine Drinkard, Amos Tutuola
The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
Couples, John Updike
The Time of the Hero, Mario Vargas Llosa
In Praise of Older Women: The Amorous Recollections of A. V., Stephen Vizinczey
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Voss, Patrick White
Memoirs of Hadrian, Marguerite Yourcenar

Science Fiction

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Hothouse, Brian Aldiss
Brain Wave, Poul Anderson
I, Robot, Isaac Asimov
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Crystal World, J.G. Ballard
The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
Who Goes There, John W. Campbell
The Invention of Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares
Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
The Sheep Look Up, John Brunner
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
Erewhon, Samuel Butler
Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino
2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke
A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, James De Mille
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Philip K. Dick
To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip José Farmer
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heilein
Dune, Frank Herbert
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Two Planets, Kurd Lasswitz
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
Shikasta, Doris Lessing
The Stepford Wives, Ira Levin
Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Dwellers in the Mirage, Abraham Merritt
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller, Jr.
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Time Traders, Andre Norton
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Edgar Allan Poe
The Inverted World, Christopher Priest
City, Clifford D. Simak
Donovan's Brain, Curt Siodmak
Lest Darkness Fall, L. Sprague de Camp
Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon
More than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
Slan, A.E. van Vogt
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Jules Verne
Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade, Kurt Vonnegut
The Island of Dr. Moreau, H.G. Wells
Islandia, Austin Tappan Wright
The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham

Thrillers

More Work for the Undertaker, Margery Allingham
Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly, John Franklin Bardin
Trent's Last Case, E.C. Bentley
Trial and Error, Anthony Berkeley
The Poisoned Chocolates Case, Anthony Berkeley
The Beast Must Die, Nicholas Blake
Psycho, Robert Bloch
Double Indemnity, James M. Cain
Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell
Farewell, My Lovely, Raymond Chandler
No Orchids for Miss Blandish, James Hadley Chase
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
Unnatural Exposure, Patricia Cornwell
The Moving Toyshop, Edmund Crispin
In the Last Analysis, Amanda Cross
Rose at Ten, Marco Denevi
Vendetta, Michael Dibdin
The Glass-Sided Ants' Nest, Peter Dickinson
He Who Whispers, John Dickson Carr
The Big Clock, Kenneth Fearing
Blood Sport, Dick Francis
Quiet as a Nun, Lady Antonia Fraser
The Sunday Woman, Carlo Fruttero
Death in the Wrong Room, Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson)
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
Suicide Excepted, Cyril Hare
Bones and Silence, Reginald Hill
A Rage in Harlem, Chester Himes
Smilla's Sense of Snow, Peter Høeg
Malice Aforethought, Francis Iles
Hamlet, Revenge!, Michael Innes
The Murder Room, P.D. James
The Sleeping-Car Murders, Sébastien Japrisot
Death of My Aunt, C.H.B. Kitchin
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, John le Carré
The Mystery of the Yellow Room, Gaston Leroux
The Last Detective, Peter Lovesey
Final Curtain, Ngaio Marsh
An Oxford Tragedy, J.C. Masterman
The Steam Pig, James McClure
The Seven Per Cent Solution, Nicholas Meyer
How Like an Angel, Margaret Millar
The Red House Mystery, A.A. Milne
A Red Death, Walter Mosley
Deadlock, Sara Paretsky
Dover One, Joyce Porter
The Chinese Orange Mystery, Ellery Queen
The Man in the Net, Patrick Quentin
A Judgement in Stone, Ruth Rendell
Gaudy Night, Dorothy L. Sayers
The Engagement, Georges Simenon
The Laughing Policeman, Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö
The Red Box, Rex Stout
The Man Who Killed Himself, Julian Symons
A Pin to See the Peepshow, F. Tennyson Jesse
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
Above the Dark Circus, Sir Hugh Walpole
Born Victim, Hillary Waugh
The Bride Wore Black, Cornell Woolrich

Travel Writing

The Travels of Ibn Battutah, Ibn Battutah
The Scorpion-Fish, Nicholas Bouvier
The Road to Oxiana, Robert Byron
In Patagonia, Bruce Chatwin
The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin
My Journey to Lhasa: The Classic Story of the Only Western Woman Who Succeeded in Entering the Forbidden City, Alexandra David-Neel
On the Narrow Road to the Deep North: A Journey into Lost Japan, Lesley Downer
The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands, Patrick Leigh Fermor
Seven Years in Tibet, Heinrich Harrer
Kon Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft, Thor Heyerdahl
The Purple Land, W.H. Hudson
The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole, Roland Huntford
Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East, Pico Iyer
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, Samuel Johnson & James Boswell
Eothen: Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East, A.W. Kinglake
The Seasick Whale, Emphraim Kishon
A Rose for Winter, Laurie Lee
Golden Earth: Travels in Burma, Norman Lewis
The Cruise of the Snark, Jack London
Arctic Dreams, Barry Lopez
Danube: A Sentimental Journey from the Source to the Black Sea, Claudio Magris
The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen
Destinations: Essays from Rolling Stone, Jan Morris
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey, V.S. Naipaul
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Eric Newby
Roads to Santiago: A Modern-Day Pilgrimage Through Spain, Cees Nooteboom
La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, Francis Parkman
Into the Heart of Borneo, Raymond O'Hanlon
The Travels, Marco Polo
Dead Man's Chest: Travels after Robert Louis Stevenson, Nicholas Rankin
Sailing Alone Around the World, Joshua Slocum
Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, J.H. Speke
Travels with Charley: In Search of America, John Steinbeck
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Valley of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels, Freya Stark
The Great Railway Bazaar, Paul Theroux
Tschiffely's Ride: Southern Cross to Pole Star, A.F. Tschiffely
A Tramp Abroad, Mark Twain
On Fiji Islands, Ronald Wright

Hanguel Holidays

Oops

I got off work early today, 2.5 hours early. I had plans to run three errands and go down to Songtan for Mismanagement, and all I accomplished was to run an errand that it turns out I didn't need to run and to fall asleep while reading the introduction to Frankenstein. Welcome to November. All I want to do is to make it to Christmas vacation.

Postcard from Ciddy Cent!

Running Schedule - No Time for Sleep!

I Want To Reread This Book

Rite of Passage by Alexi Panshin

Nike Plus Run Like You've Never Run Before

Believe in the Run

Very Amusing

So, Courtnie and I went down to OBH3 yesterday, but it's a long weekend and there was construction and we were uber-late. I called Little Leaguer when we hit the bus station and she told me they'd just gotten on the subway to Sema Station and I should head straight there and try to catch up. I took a cab over but was at a minimum two trains behind the pack. Miraculously, I caught up to the runners and was about the fourth person in at the end. I'm absurdly proud of myself. Great circle, since there was a large contingent of visitors from the Mother Hash in Malaysia, and then surprisingly enjoyable evening in Songtan, very low key, with about 10 Steves (new OBH3 tradition - any NNer is a Steve now, because clearly we are all too lazy to remember their names. Makes for confusing conversations, but is amusing) and Thumper Humper and ToT, but the rest of the girls had all gone up to Seoul, which was actually probably why it was such a great night. Had very little sleep and made it back to Seoul just in time to "host" a barbeque on my roof - Gus and Gabby and Ally actually did all the work of getting meat and a bbq and cooking, so really all I did was provide the location, the hookah, and a bag of Cheetos. It was a great night but I am now ridiculously tired. Thank god tomorrow is a holiday. Taking April's aunt up Seoul Tower and then hopefully doing the hash at 2.

Big fail though - have possibly killed my phone with excessive boob sweat. Sigh. Am attempting to get it to dry out, but I'm not optimistic. I'll give it a few days, if it doesn't start working again I guess I'll buy a new one.

Lace Up!

Leonard Cohen

Anthem

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again,
I heard them say;
Don't swell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.

The wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again;
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed,
the marriage spent;
the widowhood
of every government -
signs for all to see.

Can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned up
a thundercloud
They're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum.
Every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.

- from Stranger Music by Leonard Cohen

"homage to my hips"

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

(Lucille Clifton)

The Door

The door swings open,
you look in.
It's dark in there,
most likely spiders:
nothing you want.
You feel scared.
The door swings closed.

The full moon shines,
it's full of delicious juice;
you buy a purse,
the dance is nice.
The door opens
and swings closed so quickly
you don't notice.

The sun comes out,
you have swift breakfasts
with your husband, who is still thin;
you wash the dishes,
you love your children,
you read a book,
you go to the movies.
It rains moderately.

The door swings open,
you look in:
why does this keep happening now?
Is there a secret?
The door swings closed.

The snow falls,
you clear the walk while breathing heavily;
it's not as easy as once.
Your children telephone sometimes.
The roof needs fixing.
You keep yourself busy.
The spring arrives.

The door swings open:
it's dark in there,
with many steps going down.
But what is that shining?
Is it water?
The door swings closed.

The dog has died.
This happened before.
You got another;
not this time though.
Where is your husband?
You gave up the garden.
It became too much.
At night there are blankets;
nontheless you are wakeful.

The door swings open:
O god of hinges,
god of long voyages,
you have kept faith.
It's dark in there.
You confide yourself to the darkness.
You step in.
The door swings closed.

- from "The Door" by Margaret Atwood

Carnation Pens

Every year for Teacher's Day, I score at least half a dozen pens that have a felt carnation on the top and are wrapped in ribbon. They are sort of annoying to write with, so I've been regifting these things all over the place. It's a good thing I'm thinking this is my last year in Korea because I don't think there's anyone left to send one of these things to.

I also get a lot of socks and candy/chocolate, but those are considerably more useful.

One Day by David Nicholls

"He had mentioned it in passing, but only as a distraction and alibi. It seemed that as he ambled through his late teens his possibilities had slowly begun to narrow. Certain cool-sounding jobs - heart surgeon, architect - were permanently closed to him now and journalism seemed about to go the same way." Derek

"But at the best of times she feels like a character in a Muriel Spark novel - independent, bookish, sharp-minded, secretly romantic." Emma

The part of this book I liked best was that tiny bits of it were set in Edinburgh and I could totally picture Rankeillor Street (I lived just down the road from there) and Arthur's Seat is somewhere I went hiking up both drunk and hungover (and even sober) and I shopped at the grocery store on Nicolson Street that is mentioned for two straight years. I also liked the British slang - good job you, wahey, etc. But, it's not really enough that a book reminds you that your ex used to say wahey a lot or that it amuses you that Em and Dex sounds a lot like Ant and Dec (annoying TV presenters much like Dexter was in the novel). I didn't like Dexter at all as a character, so it was hard to care much about what happened to him. I did like Emma and occasionally identified with her life quite a bit. All in all, it was okay but would have been a much better read on a beach when I wasn't looking for much in the way of depth.

"These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through." Derek

"'Live every day as if ti's your last', that was the conventional advice, but really, who had the energy for that? What if it rained or you felt a bit glandy? It just wasn't practical. Better by far to simply try and be good and courageous and bold and to make a difference. Not change the world exactly, but the bit around you. Go out there with your passion and your electric typewriter and work hard at... something. Change lives through art maybe. Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance."

Emma