I am a Mathlete, But am I a Book Nerd?

Michelle, who has an awesome blog, and Ashley, who also has an awesome blog, both did the BBC's 100 must read books. I decided to see how many I read. Here it goes:

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions: Copy this. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt. Tag other book nerds. Tag me as well so I can see your responses!

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible - Too Many Cooks
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk 
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky 
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck 
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen 
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden 
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood 
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X 
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt 
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding 
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce 
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare 
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

As you can see, I read a lot, but still not all 100; just 47/100. Some of these books I've read before, but I don't even remember what the plot was all about. Because they were lame. And as you can also see, there is a theme of books, besides the Bible, that I like to read: 1) depressing (Thomas Hardy is the best!) or 2) children's book. The rest can just suck it! =)

Where to Shop In Korea

I am no expert, but since I've lived in Korea, and more importantly, my *parents* live in Korea, I feel like I have a unique perspective on where to go, what to buy.

I see a lot of tourists go to the same old same old: Dongdaemun, for the young and hip and Namdaemun, for the rest. I think these places are great starting points, but there are a lot of other hidden gems in Korea. I am going to talk about Seoul, because that is what I'm familiar with, but obviously, other cities have great places to shop as well.

Districts:

Insadong: Whilst this is also become more and more of a tourist trap, there are definitely some awesome shops that sell great jewelry. Insadong is well known as an artistic district, and you can definitely feel that when you enter this district. What I recommend is to walk around, go into any shop or store that looks interesting.

What to buy: Jewelry! There are some interesting shoes and clothes, but I find jewelry is the way to go. I was going to buy Mr. T some interesting cufflinks that were only 35 USD, and there is this one huge place that basically are individual boutiques that sell all different kinds of amasing things.

One thing I bought at Insadong

Myongdong: A young and hip district in north Seoul. And yes, this is also becoming touristy. (Seriously, it seems everyone is in the know! Booo)Totally recommend. Go into all the little alleyways and look at the shops that aren't name brands, i.e. Gap, etc. The only store I say you should go that is a chain is, you guess it, Uniqlo.

What to Buy: Clothes, accessories, street food. Walk around; there are stores that sell earrings for a dollar, and there are also boutiques that sell clothes for a very good price. And the best thing is that the street food is delish! OMG I'm getting hungry. Eating and shopping: what more could you ask for???

I got this for a buck at one of those cheapie stores in Myongdong!

Dongdaemun: Generally, there are two places that people go to: Doota or Migliore. My take? You get what you pay for. The clothes here are generally really cheap, but they also *are* cheaply made. You really have to look. Also, go late; it's a great place to go late at night because they open late and close in the AM. It's a lot of fun and once again, the food is awesome!!! (If you haven't noticed, Koreans really do it best: eat and shop, then eat and shop some more.)

Caveat: There is a secret place, where not a lot of people know about, but *that*place has the BEST stuff for a good price. I've never gone there, so when I do, I'll let you know exactly *where* it is. =)

What to Buy: Clothes, Accessories. I recommend before you buy, LOOK at the clothes. I got some amasing leather pants there for 100 bux, (Yay!) and I also got some crappy clothes that I just used and threw away. So really, FEEL the clothes, look at the stitching.

Note: It's required you haggle here. Unlike Insadong or Myongdong, where it's not as prevalent, no haggling here means you're going to be paying more than you should.

Namdaemun: Go early, because the shops open early and close by 4PM. To me, Namdaemun is really hit or miss. If you are looking for clothes, this might not be the best place to go, but in terms of diversity, there is a lot of things. What I really enjoy is the Dokkaebi Market, i.e. the Black Market, only because I like to see what they have. I never buy anything, but it's fun to go.

What to Buy: Accessories, especially for the hair. They have some really cute stuff. And also, earrings, shoes and bags. But most importantly, the food. Seriously. It's that good.

One of the hair accessories I bought!

Jongro-gu: There is an alleyway that sells second-hand jewelry. It's kind of sketchy, but you could get a great deal. My mom and I went and I bought a cocktail ring for 60 USD. It's gold, with black and white. It's beautiful and I know I couldn't get it for that price anywhere.

What to Buy: Jewelry! There are cocktail rings with beautiful gems that you can get for the fraction of the price. If you can find this alleyway, you can get a great deal. It's hidden and only people in the know go there. One thing: you need to speak Korean or you will be shafted. Big time. It's really sketchy. But awesome!

Apgujung: Want to go to the ritziest area of Seoul, shopping wise? Go here. Think of it as a Korean version of Rodeo Drive. My friend, A, and I met up there and the same kimbap that costs 1 USD elsewhere is 3 USD here. My friend grumbled and wondered aloud whether there were gold flakes in the food.

What to Buy: Unless you have tons of money to blow, nothing. But definitely go here to go clubbing or go to the cafes; you will definitely see a Korean movie star or two. I promise. =)

Itaewon: Itaewon has never been my fav, as many ex-pats, and more importantly, ignorant soldiers, go there to drink and act like a foreign ass. Not a fan. BUT, there *are* some goodies if you go there during the day. Go to the alleyway and you will see some really cute clothes for a good price. Also, if you go inside the building where Suji's is housed, there are a bunch of stalls that sell cute clothes. I bought this dress there for 30 USD. No foreigners ever go there, so you know it's a Korean secret. ^^

Itaewon has a vast amount of foreign-ish food. I say "foreign-ish" because it's the Korean interpretation of Western food. It's delish, and I recommend trying as many restaurants as you can. It's a different feel of Korea.

Whilst eating, I also recommend, during the day, walking around and looking at the outdoor vendors. What I've noticed is that many of them sell clothes that are "knock-offs" of brands such as Polo, Abercrombie, and by "knock-offs," I mean they are basically the same thing, but because of some defect or because they made too much, they sell it at Itaewon. Also, there are some funny shirts that I want to buy, but some are really NSFW.

What to Buy: Clothes and maybe a fake bag and watch or two if you are so inclined.

NOTE if you're a foreigner, they will be very aggressive in trying to get you to buy fake bags. If you want to, go for it, but I generally try to stay away. They scare me.

COEX: Above are offices and below is the mall. This is *the* destination for all Korean young couples. There is an Aquarium in one area and shops galore. There are also two hotels that anchor the mall, as well as a huge movie theatre. And it's all indoors.

I love this place because there is everything. They have boutiques and brands. The COEX has Zara, Roem, Uniqlo, and little boutiques that sell unique and different clothes.

What to Buy: Clothes and accessories. Walk around and look! Generally a lot of the boutiques have these "enticers," i.e. clothes in the front they are selling for 10 USD. It's fun to look and sometimes there are some hidden gems.

Here are some of the things I bought:

I got that top for 10 USD in one of those "enticers" and I got the skirt from Zuma, the best store, ever!

In my next post, I will post about some stores and venues to look for cute things in Korea. Until then, hope you enjoy this!