Being illiterate

I love bookstores. I could spend hours at them. That is if the majority of the books were in English.

Today, I felt suddenly handicapped as I wandered through a bookstore. All the books were in Korean. I can read some Korean, but very slowly. My reading comprehension of the Korean language is fairly elementary. I'm definitely not fluent when it comes to reading in Korean.

Walking through the bookstore, I saw various sections of interest, such as art or sociology; however, I could not read any of them. Two floors filled with books and information and imagination and I could only barely tap into any of it.

I searched for the English section and found two tables of books. My pickings were very limited, but at least I could understand the text inside the covers.

In any case, I realize that not being able to read feels like I'm locked out. I do love books, but when I realized I couldn't access the information within all those books that surrounded me, I felt a little saddened.

I missed hanging out at a local Borders or Barnes & Nobles back in the States. That's when I felt like I have a trove of treasure chests at my finger tips; all I had to do to get to the gold was open a book and turn the pages.

On a completely different note, I saw "Up" in the movie theater today and it was wonderful. I highly recommend it.