October Books

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!