So my friend Mike was in town this weekend, and after he arrived (and I arrived at CoEx Mall pathetically late), our first stop (after food) was the Seoul International Book Fair. From the website, I thought it might be a little more trade/professional than it was, but we had a good time wandering, chatting with people occasionally, and checking out some of the art and books that were on display. I got some posters by a photographer named Choi Young Jin — stupid me, I should have gotten him to sign them — and Mike had a good chat …
Tag: books
Worth Reading, March ’09
I don’t link online fiction enough, but I found a few links at The World SF News Blog, which I mentioned in an earlier post. Here’s a great story at Strange Horizons by Shweta Narayan. Here’s a very interesting essay about SF (or its relative lack thereof) in the Arabic world, by Achmed A. W. Khammas. It’s particularly interesting in relation to relatively (though not exactly) comparable status in Korea, and its pinpointing of cultural and historical causes for the scarcity.
Gnome!
Usually you’d expect any mention of Gnome here to be related to the version of Ubuntu Linux I use, but this is a Gnome of a different color. Today an enthusiast of the Gnome Press — the company that published a ton of formative SF, like Asimov’s most famous books — discovered my blog and linked me from his own, which is called The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey. He’s got a pretty interesting blog there with personal stuff and stuff about the Gnome Press books that he collects. Yet another SF fan in Korea bubbles up out of …
Reading Now, Reading Then
These days, I’ve made a holiday project of finishing all the books I started prior to 2012, or at least trying to finish them — though I am also trying to get better about setting aside a book when I truly don’t like it after 100 pages or so. Discussing my reading beyond that is a slightly uncomfortable subject, for a few reasons. One of them is that I am not a reviewer, and don’t find it particularly politic to slam stories I don’t like in public. I am all for praising the ones I did like, but that also …
PiFan Book Fair: SF/Fantasy/Horror/Thriller novels and Magazines… in Korean!
Well, I was told I could pick up my tickets at the ticket booth today, but of course, I couldn’t. Somehow, though, I ended up at City Hall and noticed a huge display of books and magazines near the ticket booth. It turned out to be the biggest collection of Korean SF, thriller, suspense, and horror novels I’ve ever seen. I had already picked up some of the books, but I still managed to grab the following titles (in translation) for Lime: I, Robot by Isaac Asimov 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (in hardback) Odd John by …
Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind by Gerald Graff
This is, basically, an excellent book. Make a gift of it to those you know who are decision makers in departments. Read it if you want to help make things better for your students. More for those who want details, as well as my reflections on a few of the things I learned reading it, but for most of you who are teaching in departments (in Korea) where students actually have enough English to learn, you know, academic stuff, or for those teaching in the mother tongue of their students: trust me! Order it! Go! Now! University EFL teachers in …
From Paris to New York… by Land?!?!?
I was browsing Manybooks.net’s new additions, and I happened upon this: Many who read the following account of our long land journey will not unnaturally ask: “What was the object of this stupendous voyage, or the reward to be gained by this apparently unnecessary risk of life and endurance of hardships?” I would reply that my primary purpose was to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a railway to connect the chief cities of France and America, Paris and New York. — From Paris to New York by Land, by Harry de Windt (1903) Eh? A transatlantic railway? Oh, no, they …
Three Mountain Ghosts & Currently Reading
That’s a working title, but there it is. I’m hurling myself over the gate in the Write-a-thon, here. That is, I’m working on “Fovea” with one collaboratron, and another story (with lycanthropic gangsters, with another collaboratron whose identity is now probably obvious to half my readers). For my third trick, the one on which I put in a thousand words today, I’m pulling together a triptych of ghost stories — somewhat linked, sort of, but also separated by time — set on mountains in Korea.
To All SF Geeks in Korea With [Patient or Interested] Korean Other Halves
Lime posts here about, “His Books, My Books.” For the relatively Korean impaired — for whom that page will be less than useful — here’s the image from the post: You can see I got her some Debussy, because Debussy rocks, and you can’t have too much Debussy in your life. This is the guy who was asked, once, by which theoretical principles he organized his music, and, I was told by one of my professors, he replied, “My taste, of course.” Make it sound good. And make it new, I’m sure Pound would add — and make it new …
Fleeting Update
Let’s see: Personal Stuff Lime got a job today! Short term (till mid-September), but she wanted that, while she studies for the Neverending Huge Giant Evil Big-Boss (for you arcade game fans out there) Exam. For two months she’ll be working part-time in a hospital near our home. We’re going to Hong Kong next week. Just for a few days, because Lime won’t be able to travel the rest of the summer. I’m bringing my computer and writing on the plane, and for at least an hour a day. But travel is still travel, right? Theere’s a Korean expression I …