Korea

Korea - The Impossible Country by Daniel Tudor

Most of the books I found about Korea were about the two countries (North and South) as a whole or about North Korea solely. Though South Korea has risen into the global market (via technology and automobile manufacturing) and culture (via pop music and video), very little seems to been written about the country. Korea - The Impossible Country was excellent in its brief overview of the history of the region (including North Korea) and deep focus on modern culture. Tudor discussed everything from religion to economics, politics to popular media in an easily readable language. As Tudor said, the achievements of the country are incredible but it is sad that the psychological well-being of the people seems to have suffered because of it.

Of the other books about Korea, by far my favorite is Pyongyang by Guy Delisle. Really it is a graphic novel travelogue of Delisle's experience while working at a French animation studio in North Korea but it is enough to give a fascinating and disturbing picture of a little known place. And from what he describes I doubt anyone could give an accurate (or fully informed) account of the history or culture, so this is as good as it gets.

Where it all began...

My obsession with South Korea began with watching Korean dramas, specifically Coffee Prince. I own that one now. I think other people should watch it too. Korea television series are different than most American series: there's an end planned into it (kind of like British mini-series). They appear to range from 14 to 18 episodes of about an hour each.
My favorites are: Coffee Prince (obviously), Queen Inhyon's Man (Queen and I), and Flower Boy Next Door. I watched a LOT more but I don't feel like listing their positives and negatives. However, I will say I am currently watching Answer Me 1997 and it's living up to its hype. Shut Up Flower Boy Band is also supposed to be good.

It all comes down to FOOD.

All of the shows feature scenes with the main characters eating. Real eating. Coffee Prince is awesome because the lead chick shoves enormous quantities of food in her mouth. You just never see that in American television. I loved it. I wanted to eat that food. So I started exploring restaurants and recipes and reading about all the cultural nuances to their meal rituals (and trust me there are a lot of nuances and a lot of rituals). It has all been well worth the ridicule I've endured from my closest friends about my weird obsession! ha ha