March Books

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March was very strange month for the entire world but reading is one of the best ways to escape this craziness for a few hours. Here are the books I read this March

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

I listened to this short book on audible, and I can say that it immersed me so much into the story as the narrator Weruche Opia did such a wonderful job of inhabiting the different characters. It’s an interesting tale of a woman who knows her sister is a serial killer, and just how far you will go for family. If my sister was a serial killer I don’t think I would be as loyal as Korede.

Counting Stars, Like a Chicken on a Folding Screen and The Human Arachnid by Kye Yong-muk

I read 3 of Kye Yong-muk’s short stories this month all of which are available to read for free thanks to the LTI Korea via Buk.io. These short stories were all written during or just after the Japanese occupation of Korea and as such reflect this troublesome time in the countries history, one of upheaval, political disarray and poverty. These short stories are a part of history, a part of world history that is often unknown to most in the west. And it’s rather powerful stuff, especially when you read The Human Arachnid which is full of censorship as it was written in 1929 about the working conditions that many Koreans found themselves under the tyranny of Empirical Japanese rule.

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

Woolf is one of the most iconic writers of the modern period, her use of stream of consciousness is absolutely iconic at this point. Between the Acts is rife with comedic social commentary and it is also representative of Woolf’s interest in literary history. It’s an interesting read but you have to pay close attention to fully uncover each carefully crafted layer.

Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah

This book is very dreamlike and bizarre. If you love surrealism and fragmented narratives then give this one a read, Bae Suah never disappoints with her beautiful yet strange prose.

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys

This is one of the bleakest and darkest books I’ve ever read, it’s so excruciating to read Rhys’s novel of a woman in despair just before the second world war. This is a uni book that I’m glad to have read but can safely that I will never read it again because it just made me feel so deflated and sad.

Photo Shop Murder by Kim Young-ha

I finally managed to get a hold of this collection of two short stories by Kim Young-ha second hand from AbeBooks. The two stories are ‘Photo Shop Murder’ (which easily feels like it could be a Korean movie with its subversion of expectations) and ‘Whatever Happened to the Guy in the Elevator’ a surreal and almost Kafkaesque exploration of one man’s commute to and from work. I love Kim’s writing and this little book didn’t disappoint.

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My Quarantine Reading List

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These are all the books I’m going to be reading while in Quarantine, some for Uni but many others for the sheer pleasure of reading seeing as I have much more time to do both.

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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 (82년생 김지영) by Cho Nam-joo

Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 became a sensation in Korea when published with it becoming the first million-selling Korean novel since 2009’s Please Look After Mom. It follows Kim Jiyoung as she navigates the trials and tribulations of being a female in a mostly misogynistic world. The book also recently got a film adaptation starring Train to Busan’s Gong Yoo and Jung Yu-mi, which I’m looking forward to watching if and when we get it in the UK.

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

A Uni book, but the book I have been looking forward to the most this year as I have already read Invisible Cities by Calvino which I loved. The Complete Cosmicomics collects all of the Cosmicomic short stories together in one volume; they are bonkers, comically absurd and totally wacky tales of science, family and politics set in space.

Dune by Frank Herbert

A Sci-fi classic that influenced many that wrote after him, Herbert’s Dune has been on my bookshelf for ages, but I will finally get into it while I’m stuck at home for the foreseeable future as I really need to escape reality and be transported to a far off land right now (like most of you too). Also, Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation starring Timothée Chalamet is coming out later this year, so that’s another reason to read it.

Pride and Prejudice & Persuasion by Jane Austen

Two more Uni reads, but everyone loves Austen, and I can’t wait to delve into her world, I’ve seen many a film adaptation of her works such as Autumn De Wilde’s recent lavish and stylish Emma. but I am yet to read her novels! Yes, I am fully aware that it is a literary crime to have got to 26 as a self-proclaimed book worm and to have never read a single Jane Austen novel. Thankfully Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion will put an end to that, and then I really want to read Emma (as I loved the aforementioned movie), and then I’ll probably end up reading the rest of her books.

The Uncanny & Other Essays by Sigmund Freud

I’ve always been fascinated by Freud and his theories, and in my Modern Lit course for Uni he is kind of required reading if you want to get a look into the socio-historical context of modern and post-modern lit. I also read Civilization and Its Discontents recently, and I found that rather interesting and helpful for an essay on Ford Maddox Ford’s The Good Soldier. The Uncanny can also be applied to many other periods and genres of literature, especially the Gothic, which is a genre I absolutely love.

Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

Another uni read, although this one didn’t manage to find itself in the stack of books for the post picture as I have misplaced it in the frightful mess that is my bedroom. But I am really excited to read this book as it’s another piece of translated fiction, and it will be the first translated from Arabic that I will read. Seasons of Migration to the North is the story of how colonialism and orientalism can be extremely destructive to a society as a whole and to the individual’s within it. Being set in Sudan also means that the novel explores the interconnectedness of African and Arabic cultures within the country.

The Three-Body Problem (三体) by Liu Cixin

Liu is China’s master of Hard Science Fiction, I’ve read most of his short story collection The Wandering Earth (the title story is also a Netflix movie!), so I want to get started on his critically acclaimed Remembrance of Earth’s Past (地球往事) Trilogy ASAP. I also have a signed copy of The Supernova Era that I got at Forbidden Planet right after it came out in October last year with all intentions of reading it immediately. Alas, it is still waiting on my bookshelf, perhaps I’ll read that one too…it really depends on how long this Quarantine thing is going to go on for!

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Another Uni book, but again it’s one I’m interested in as I read Weight (a retelling of the myth of Atlas) when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I’m intrigued to read something else by Wintersonson. Also, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a semi-autobiographical Bildungsroman (anyone else just love this word?) aka a coming-of-age novel about a young lesbian growing up in a Pentecostal Community.

The City of Words by Alberto Manguel

Uni required reading. There is a quote somewhere in this work that will be the subject of an essay I have to write so I feel like I should read the whole (or most of) this book to get the gist of the subject and maybe find more parts to quote from. The City of Words was originally a lecture that was turned into a book.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

I recently read Between the Acts for Uni, and I am rather intrigued by Woolf’s writing style, which is famously challenging due to her use of stream of consciousness. Also while studying another text, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s The Turkish Embassy Letters it was claimed that Montagu was part of the inspiration of the main character in Orlando, which is cool and the other part being Woolf’s female lover Vita Sackville-West. Orlando has also been described as ‘the longest and most charming love letter in literature’ by Sackville-West’s son Nigel Nicholson, which sounds absolutely romantic.

I clearly have a lot of reading ahead of me, and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into this eclectic mix of books, reading may just be the only thing to keep me sane in these coming weeks of Quarantine.

Let me know in the comments what books you’ll be reading during Quarantine and whether you have read any of these books.

October Books

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As You Like It - William Shakespeare

I have always been much more of a fan of Shakespeare’s tragedies (with the exception of Much ado about Nothing) and I have to say that I am just not a fan of this pastoral comedy, but watching the play performed made it a lot more bearable than reading it, which I guess is to be expected but I was expecting a little more. The jury is still out on whether I nailed the essay on it though…

Black and White Photographer - Han Yujoo

This short story by Han Yujoo is available to read via Issuu or Buk thanks to the LTI Korean Library (there are also so many more short stories from Korea available on there for free too!)

The Black and White Photographer follows a young boy who is kidnapped and held in a storage room for a week. In this 20 page short story, Yujoo explores how a young mind would try and grapple with such a traumatic and alien experience.

Tale of a Mad Painter - Kim Dong-in

Another Korean short story that I read on Buk, this one also is a little dark and reads kind of like a Grimms Fairytale. The story is a story within a story, a writer is hiking and he decides to make up a story as he admires the view. The story he makes up is about a painter who is unsightly, and as a result he becomes a recluse, one day he meets a blind girl. I won’t tell you the conclusion as it’s well worth a read.

Walden - Henry David Thoreau - Nearly finished/ might not get to the end because it is oh so dull!

Oh dear. I am most definitely not a fan of Walden, in fact I could indeed say that this may just be the most boring book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Thoreau is a self-entitled twit, whose occasional moment of poetical flare or interesting philosophical musing is overshadowed by his irritating egocentric narration. Also not much even happens, a whole chapter is dedicated to the hoeing of a bean field! I had to read this for uni and it’s safe to say I will never read Thoreau ever again!

Early Autumn Book Haul

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The beginning of September is the best time of the year to stock up on books that will get you through the chiller months ahead, as who doesn't love a cosy day in reading snuggled up in blankets with a warm cup of coffee or cocoa.

Books Mentioned:

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan: https://amzn.to/2HPIpYr

The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes: https://amzn.to/2ZYwaPt

The Frolic of the Beasts by Yukio Mishima: https://amzn.to/34x6KvO

Opposite of Always by Justin Reynolds: https://amzn.to/316tjp2

The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino: https://amzn.to/318KDKa

Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell: https://amzn.to/2HUY6xD

The Nine Cloud Dream by Kim Man-jung: https://amzn.to/2ZKApD4