by Brother Anthony of Taize and Hong Kyeong-Hee
This book was one of the first books to come out with its intended purpose, and really it remains the only one. Korea as a Tea producing nation often is overlooked in the grand scheme of things quite possibly because their tea production is incredibly minimal compared to the major nations of China, Japan and India. But that being said Korea being located basically right between China and Japan has had its fair share of influence from both nations, and this book shows how Korea's tea culture is a hybrid of both, but still incredibly unique to itself.
This book is an incredibly quick read, and if you are the least bit interested in learning the basics of Korea's tea culture, it will be hard to put down. Not only is it full of amazing information, it also has a wealth of interesting and eye catching photographs.
The only real flaw I have with this book, is the section on the Brief History of Tea in China. The fault is not with the authors' presentation, but rather with the fact that as I have been reading many tea books lately, when ever a book gives a run down of Tea in China they all focus on the same people and their contributions. While I do not doubt the featured figures influence on Chinese tea, I just wish this book hadn't devoted a chapter to Chinese tea, as it is "The Korean Way of Tea." I say that because every book on Chinese tea culture and history will include just as much if not more on those figures.
But as a whole this book is incredibly informative and enjoyable. For days after I read it I would pick it up and sit down and read through a section or two, or just look through the photographs again, simply because I found it that wonderful.
2 comments:
I know what you mean about the chapters in various books duplicating the same material.
I actually find this happens a lot with mathematics books. There are certain topics for which I have 16 different expositions in 16 different books on 16 different main subjects. The most redundant one I find is the basic point-set topology results in analysis texts...
But at any rate, this book you are reviewing does sound very interesting. I know next to nothing about the tea culture in Korea so I may try to get my hands on this.
Alex,
That is a major pet peeve of mine in mathematics books also. While I have no problem with them trying to present that field of mathematics in its entire lense, does every entry level geometry book need to start with Ancient Greeks? Similarly does every Analysis text need to do the incredibly boring chapter on point set topology, like you said?
Granted I have not read a large number of tea books simply because there are few out there that really seem like they are talking about the stuff I want to know. But from a completeness of the books perspective Shen Nong should be in it, but I feel every book talking about him says the exact same thing about him, though perhaps with different words.
In math terms, how many ways do you really need to define the supremum of a set?
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