Weekend Reading List

I've not been reading or blogging much; I've not even been talking to my mother. I've been, instead, captivated by my first Korean drama serial, the hit Sungkyungkwan Scandal. It's a guilty pleasure, but disruptive, and quite exhausting - and I'm glad it's done, and normal life can resume. I shan't go into the details (is it the costumes?) - you can go Google it; All I need to say is that it's definitive eye candy, and I've discovered for beautiful Korean actors.
I'm (still!) reading the January 3 issue of The New Yorker, and I must say it's full of very interesting stories, and I'm reading it cover to cover, literarily, including the movie (Black Swan, Burlesque, The King's Speech, The Leopard) and theatre reviews (Romeo and Juliet, King Lear), a profile of Tomas Maier, a story about desserts (by Adam Gopnik); There's even an appreciation of Joan Crawford. Quite a lot of stuff for such a slim volume, you must admit. Wandering around Takashimaya in a haze one day after a round of client meetings, I bought an issue of Men's Nono, which I haven't bought since my teens (I used to buy this religiously decades ago, accumulating a mountain of these). I've been flipping its glossy pages desultorily since - I can't see that it's that much different from the last time I looked at it: they've been reproducing the same magazine for 20 years. I'm also flipping the Southeast Asia Travel+Leisure's January issue which lists "500 of the World's Best Hotels". I very much doubt the value of these lists - their moment is really over, and I pity the editors who labour over them; It can't be anything but a thankless, blinding task. If I'm going to waste my eyesight, I'd rather be rivetted on a sugary sweet Korean period drama in the dark of my bedroom with the duvet up to my chin.

Tonight, I shall (finally) start on Eileen Chang's semi autobiographical novel Fall of the Pagoda (1963), a novel in English. PH gave it to me weeks ago, and I remember when I looked at it, thinking about my friend, the blogger E A Max. I'm quite sure he would have read this, and have formed quite an opinion.