Cork Boat is a great book, and was a fantastic book to start out the read-a-thon. Although I’m not quite finished yet, I thought I should post again. I thought I would be doing more posting, but I’m reading slowly and milling around a bit, plus I’ve been enjoying a lot of other people’s blogs.
There were several jokes in the book about the front of the boat looking inadvertently like someone flipping the bird.
Cork Boat is about following through with an amazingly difficult project against huge obstacles. I can’t believe how much work went into it’s construction, how much dedication Pollack and his friend Garth showed, and how many people really pooled around their project to help them. It’s really an inspiring story, but you really feel the grit of how many things really got in their way. Part of the frustration from Pollack’s point of view that really shows through is his strained relationship with his architect and parter on the project Garth.
At first I was a little bit put off by the potential environmental impact of their project, especially after they decided that used corks were going to take way too long to collect and decided to accept a donation of new corks from a cork manufacturer. But Pollack does a lot of research and teaches us in the beginning of the book that trees aren’t actually cut down to make corks. The outer layer of bark is stripped off and then corks are punched out of it, with the average cork tree living to be at least 200 years old.
Currently reading: Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built
Pages read in current book: 198
Pages read total: 198
Filed under: Books, Dewey's Read-a-thon, Peace | Tags: Child Upliftment Cetner, Cork Boat, Dewey's Read-a-thon, John Pollack, Nepal orphans
So my reading has gotten off to an incredibly slow start as I received two lengthy phone calls, and have been distracted by other people’s blogs since I started almost two hours ago. So far in Cork Boat, we learn about the author’s obsession with building things, particularly things that float, his sailing adventures in college, and his job as a Washington speech writer for the folks in the Clinton administration. At some point around the time of Clinton’s impeachment, Pollack becomes so disillusioned with politics that he decides to quit. Not just find a new job. Quit.
So far this is my favorite quote: “Worse yet were the press conferences that members held in the Radio and TV Gallery, standing in front of the shelves filled with fake books, just to lend some gravitas to their empty rhetoric.” Fake books! What! For how much money that is spent in Washington, they can’t go down the local thrift store and find some real books to put on those shelves. Who knows, some of those people might even start seeing titles that catch their eye, and slyly slip one into their briefcase and get a little dose of perspective. If you could pick a book to send to a Rep. or Senator to read what would it be?
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself, but on the official read-a-thon page many people are trying to raise donations for charities. I have recently taken on the task of becoming the international fund-raiser of a charity that is very close to me, as it is run by a couple of really good friends I met while living in Nepal.
It is a small non-profit orphanage that was started by a group of karate instructors and students to help out 20 kids that they knew who had become homeless and sometimes parent-less due to inter-caste violence, and from the civil war with the Moaists that has been happening in Nepal for about ten years. They rented a house and run the orphanage all from their own funds and some small local donations. Their bills have become higher than what they can raise locally, and they have asked me to help them find some new funding so they can keep the orphanage open.
Besides just providing housing, they also pay for all the food, clothing, and school supplies (public school in Nepal requires kids to pay for their own books and uniforms), so that the kids can lead as normal a life as possible.
Child Upliftment Center website.
I managed to get a paypal account set up for them to make it easier for people to make donations. No amount is too small, as even $5 goes a really long way in Nepal. The average yearly income is only about $250 US per person, and they are still at only about a 40% literacy rate for women.
Currently reading: Cork Boat: A True Story of the Unlikeliest Boat Ever Built
Pages read in current book: 28
Pages read total: 28
Filed under: Books, Dewey's Read-a-thon | Tags: Cork Boat, Dewey's Read-a-thon, John Pollack
Cork Boat
So begins 24 hours of leisurely reading, tea, and enjoying being in my apartment with no expectation to be anywhere that requires a three hour subway ride, a backpack with “things.” I love Seoul’s public transportation, but I don’t feel the need to always be on it. Unfortunately, I went out with coworkers to the local foreigner’s bar last night, and feel about as bad as I’ve ever felt, so my participation in the read-a-thon may be even more leisurely than I had planned.
My first choice, as I finish up getting prepared to sit down and dig in, is Cork Boat, by John Pollack. It looks light, fun, inspiring, and fairly short. “A spirited and charming tale of a man who throws all away to fulfil a boyhood dream of building a boat made of wine corks.” Of course he had a lot volunteers and friends help him, and he had the money to not work for a period of time. It makes me wonder, how many interesting and fulfilling things people would get done if they didn’t have to work their lives away? I have been really fortunate in getting to incorporate lots of travel (my life goal), and great experiences with being able to pay basic bills as both an archaeology tech and an English as a foreign language teacher. I wish everyone the same, and happy reading!
First sentence: “My first boat sank.”
Pollack was featured on a special about people following their happiniess. The piece on the cork boat starts at 3:40, and shows them using the actual boat a little further in.
Next weekend I’m going to join in on my first 24-hour Readathon hosted by Dewey.
My friend Bybee has done it a couple times, and she got me super excited about it. Actually she only mentioned it, I got excited about it on my own. So I have at least one cheerleader, and one friend, who I will refer to as JG who is threatening to be a heckler.
The books on the left are books I have to read for various obligations on Bookobsessed and Bookmooch, and the books on the right are books I just really want to read right now. I’m going to try to tackle all the shortest most enticing books, and hopefully get a few of my obligations out of the way. It’s not really about reading, it’s about the obsession….
This was a pretty good month. I’m almost getting back into the swing of things. Lots of travel stories, some book club choices, and the final instalment of Harry Potter.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
I wasn’t sure about this book at first. I wasn’t sure I could keep the characters straight. I thought at first it was going to be stuffy and over-rated. But by the end I was completely won over, even to the point where Guernsey Island, an occupied island during WWII, seems like a place everyone should visit at some point. When I was finished I wanted to start it over again because I’m sure there is stuff I missed in the beginning before I figured out who was who. Read for the Bookleaves bookclub.
Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for Women Who Are Changing the World
I really enjoyed this book, although it was clear it was written to try to fund the Adventure Diva enterprise, which is a multi-media mother-daughter team who travel the world looking to interview women who are true “adventure divas.” They have an interesting website, including (pricey) tours that you can go on with them.
Expat: Women’s True Tales of Life Abroad
A wonderful little collection of really well thought out essays on what it means to live in a country other than your home. One thing I really liked about it is that it was essays by women I’ve never heard of. Sometimes reading essay collections from authors who you already love can get tedious (as I often find the pieces seem like they are throw-aways that didn’t get published elsewhere, but by shear force of the author’s name can still make money).
In the Name of Honor: A Memoir by Mukhtar Mai
A great video depicting the area and Mukhtar’s life, embedding was disabled, but you can view it here.
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
I had never even heard of Ruth Reichl and didn’t know that she is an extremely famous food writer, restaurant critic, and editor of Gourmet magazine. This book was fantastic, funny, interesting, and intrigued me on a subject I’ve never been the least bit interested in. This book in particular deals with her need to create disguises so that she could go into a restaurant and be treated like a regular customer and not as herself. The two experiences proved to be vastly different dining, and gave her chance to see how much of New York is really just for the show.
Burnt Shadows: A Novel
Talking about this book at the Seoul Women’s Bookclub brought teary eyes around the table. I had to remind myself several times that the characters in this book are not real. They almost all could have been people that we’ve met on our travels.
I just found this picture on SquidLit blog. I was having a hard time imagining what the “tattooed” burns looked like, when women in the blast were wearing white kimono that had a dark pattern on it, that got inlayed in their skin.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
“She didn’t know how to behave around these people – the rich and powerful, a number of whom had asked her about the samurai way of life and thought she was being charmingly self-effacing when she said the closest she had come to the warrior world was her days as a worker at the munitions factory. Two years after the war they could accept an ally of Hitler sooner than they could accept someone of a different class, she thought, and wished she had entered India in a manner that would have allowed her into the houses of those that lived in Delhi’s equivalent of Urakami.”
– Burnt Shadows
Actually it was what felt like most of Saturday and Sunday. One of my absolute favorite things about Korea is the subway system that connects the entire northwest quad of the country. But, I feel like I am on the thing all of the time.
Just riding along.
So this is how I looked all weekend. Frazzled hair, huge bag full of books, and standing holding a subway loop. Actually I got to sit, a wonderous luxury, on a large part of the ride to go see Bybee, who lives near Asan. We had a great weekend chatting it up about books, boys…. and riding the subway.
A lot of people read on the subway. I love living in a place where reading is not just for the academics and dorks. They read on the subway so much, there are vending machines for books on the subway platforms.
I actually had enough time to read an entire book on the subway ride down to see her. In the Name of Honor
Bybee’s house was my first experience being inside the ever-present, high-rise, apartment clusters. They are like ant colonies. Dozens of buildings all in one place, exactly the same, 20+ stories high, with hundreds of people living in them. They are very functional, very unattractive, and dominate the Korean landscape.
We ended the day with another, very long subway ride back to Itaewon for the bookswap at The Wolfhound. Plus some only semi-successful cheese shopping at the Foreign Food Mart. It was a good solid weekend, they go by so quick now…
“Why is it that when Robert Redford – cum Denys Finch Hatton flies away in the golden glow out in Africa, he is pursuing his destiny? And when I walk away I’m just a chick who’s scared of commitment and on the run, who’s weird for ignoring Glamour magazine’s prediction of her eggs drying up?”
From Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for Women Who Are Changing the World
Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading.
Unfortunately I forgot to recharge my camera battery before I left the house, so I only got a couple pics of the very modern, very cute, and very well designed Jukjeon area. You can tell this area is a little newer, because even with the huge highrises and standard set of stores, an eye for aesthetics is being taken into consideration while it is being built. We went to a great little walking street lined with restaurants and local coffee shops. No Leaf and Bean and TomandToms here, each store was individual inside and out, and the place we went for the Bookleaves bookclub had a great menu.
Bookleaves Crew - Aren't they nice looking people?
Apples
Typical Korean cityscape.
We read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The 19th Wife by David Ebershoffl
NPR Interview with David Ebershoff
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
This was a great surprise. Addison is an author from North Carolina, and the book shows it with the imagery and dialogue. I’ve read a couple of North Carolina authors and really enjoy the vibe. This book chronicles the breakthrough of a late-twenty something late-bloomer who is trying to get out from under her mother’s control. She hides food in her closet as her form of rebellion, and one day she finds a local woman hiding from her new boyfriend in her closet . This woman ends up changing her life and helping her find her own strength.
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
The Sea of Monsters
Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series.
Ruby Ramblings 