Reading List Updated

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga - Amazing, much preferred the second offering of Adiga and now plan on sourcing 'The Last Man in the Tower'.. currently been lent to a friend to devour
A House in Bali by Colin McPhee - I'll be honest, this has probably been forever abandoned... maybe
A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare - Amazing, despite the fact I am definitely not, nor will ever be a 'twitcher', the journey itself is the hook.
Women who run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes - Still dipping in/dipping out although yet to have another really good dip!!
The Music Room by William Fiennes - I still prefer Snow Geese, however a beautiful, beautiful book... also been lent out, alongside Snow Geese, to a colleage with a penchant to Fiennes.


Additions


Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss - I picked it up because 'History of Love' was great, I barely remember what it was about I just remember it was beautiful and that I saw hundreds of people reading it on the tube a few months later. Amazing story.
A Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston - This makes me want to move to China and be a warrior.
Holy Cow by Sarah MacDonald - INDIA OMG. I made notes over the entire text and spent half of my reading time googling references. OBSESSED. Baring in mind I thought it would be *trash* it was brilliant. 
Indian Summer by Will Randall - INDIA OMG. India and Teaching and India and Teaching. Why HELLO?! Not as inspirational as MacDonald but more closer to home. (British Teacher goes to India and becomes a voluntary teacher in a slum, as opposed to Australian radio presenter follows News reporting boyfriend)
An Indian Summer by James Cameron - INDIA OMG. Better than I thought and I loved the 70's cover.
Staying On by Paul Scott - INDIA OMG, reminds me of George and Weedon Grossmith's 'Diary of Nobody', a text a studied for my A-Levels, but India style. Weird, not my usual cup of chai (haha) but yet I read on... for another 100 pages. (And a booker winner!!)
An Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai - First take-out from the school library. Cried through most of it, makes me want to go to India even more. (And it also won a booker!!!)
Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morall. Brilliant yet utterly predictable by the time you get to the end.


A while ago I posted my 'reading list', i have to admit i'm on a bit of a 'power read' at the moment and have literally been gorging myself on literature; it's now been updated and added too. On my bedside table I have


A Passage to India by EM Forster
Troubles by JG Farrell
The Siege of Krishnapur by JG Farrell
Disgrace by JM Coetzee
Down Under by Bill Bryson


I'll give you one guess to what country I want to be right now. 


PS It's not the UK.

Dreaming

My feet are currebntly absurdly 'itchy', most likely because my least loved season has truly set in. I despise the cold. It sallows my soul and turns me into a different person completely.

So I do as I normally do as soon as it becomes dark by 4.30 and I find myself both leaving for and returning from work in the darkness, I plan. I plan obsessively new journeys, new trips and new experiences. And I plan how I'm going to achieve them by becoming frugal and attempting to suppress the materialistic streak that devastates my bank account. But now my dreams are getting out of hand...

What started as a potential minimum of two months in India and six in Australia is getting far beyond that point... and China, mainly thanks to Maxine Hong Kingston's beautiful text 'The Woman Warrior' is firmly within my radar. But how? Financially I can not afford to spend a year or my life a la Kerouac, although I think that Christopher McCandless was a man with aspirations similar to my own, I am not brave enough or free enough to abandon everything and risk a slow and painful death in an abandoned bus. Instead I'm trying to be, forcing myself to be practical. I need to earn abroad... so Australia and fruit picking, why the hell not. Right now I think it's just what the doctor ordered and hopefully I can also blag myself a 6 month teaching contract in China at the same time (Please Brian, Please.....) Anyhow... the more I plan, the more I shall update. Until then this is my reading list (in no particular order)

Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga (I lie, this is the first I'm already 100 pages in)
A House in Bali by Colin McPhee
A Single Swallow by Horatio Clare
Women who run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Music Room by William Fiennes

Kyobo

So the other week we decided to end wasting our Sunday's in Munsan and head into Seoul. Our first (and only) hit was Kyobo bookstore. An international bookstore in the basement of the Kyobo building. After receiving directions form the Holy Grail (Lisa Teacher) we headed off excited about the possibility of an proper bookshop. Essentially Kyobo is amazing, if a little pricey i stopped myself from buying British Vogue (it was 27000 won, around £14) which was a good thing as I found another place which sells it cheaper they just don't have the new issue, the red one with Georgia Jagger on the cover, in stock yet. I did managed to pick up New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight set and scored myself a membership card. The area Kyobo is set in was also really interesting and managed to get some random snaps... just random things that caught my eye. I will definitely be heading back to Kyobo come pay day, it was like a little slice of heaven...

Foreword

I have decided to write this blog in somewhat chaptorial (word??) style. Mainly because i decided it would be fun, and this way it turns in to somewhat of a never ending novel, up until the point it does end! It also means I get to write, and not only do I get to write, on the days I don't feel like it, it will force me to write. So, my name is Jess and I am moving to Munsan, in South Korea for 12 months to teach english.... and this is my story!