Some of the anecdotes told by O Sukkwon are priceless, which means, timeless. How he went to a medium and his grandfather's spirit chided him for believing in spirits! A man back from duty on Chejudo island describing a cave he peed in, which just happened to be the one where the other's ancestral spirits came from (and the origin of humans according to some). The translation is fine. The introduction good. The mention of Montaigne is fitting for we have a tolerant author, but Lee really should have compared Sukkwon to Aubrey. Even though Lee did edit out many lists, there is still too much straight history/politics for a general reader. If the reader of this review reads old Korean/Chinese and can put together and translate a good collection of the most interesting chapki (雑記)by O Sukkwon and/or others, i will gladly publish it, for it would be the sort of thing nonfiction needs inorder to revive as something more than the history and journalistic crap now called "creative nonfiction."