The stories behind their books

“My all-time favorite comic book from my school days was Comic MapleStory. I don’t know if you know it, but it was really fun. I think people from the first generation will relate.”

“I used to read a lot. If I become interested in a movie, I look for the original work. The one I remember most is Pride and Prejudice. To be honest, the story was a little difficult, but I found the process of understanding it interesting.”

“Oh, I did like that. I did like that classic. That was was a good book,”

“After reading this book, my image of The Great Library changed a little.”

“The way it unfolds is so unique and captivating that I read the whole thing in one sitting. I had been caught up in a hectic routine amid my busy schedule, but throughout the book, its gripping storytelling gave me a very new feeling.”

“Seongju speaks English so naturally. It’s not as if he learned it; it’s more like he’s always been good at it. And the fact that he kindly shares all his secrets like this—there’s no reason not to try following his example!”

“The Devotion of Suspect X.”

“One of the books is the novel *To Where the Sun Sets* by author Choi Jin-young. I thought that book was written so, so beautifully...”

“God, this is not an illusion but a true, faithful answer from You. From now on, I will live not as Kwon Gi-beom of the world, but as a holy child of God!”

“The 8 Rules of Love, by Jay Shetty.”

“It’s an era for people like him.”

“The book I recently enjoyed reading was Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist.”

““A book Choi Ja recommended to me; it was written based on research on aging.””

“Ah, recently, for the first time in my life, I closed a book while reading and cried. I sobbed.”

“So I really, really recommend reading it.”

“It felt new to imagine the personalities and ways of speaking of the characters in the book.”

“A Thousand Years of Love, Father.”

““When I first read Blindness, I had a primal feeling.””

“If your memories were slowly fading, who would you least want to forget?”

“Two people, each with their own wounds, meet and make each other's everyday lives feel okay. To me, you're that kind of friend.”

“I started reading *Darkness at Noon* the day before yesterday.”

“I wanted to watch the movie Even If This Love Disappears from the World Tonight, but I didn’t get to. Then I happened to find the original novel at a bookstore and started reading it. I thought the novel was interesting too, so I’ve been reading a few books.”

“I liked Raymond Carver’s distinctive dry style more than the content. His writing was understated yet conveyed emotion, and never felt excessive—that approach really stood out to me. Maybe it caught my eye even more because it resembled the style I wanted to write in when I was young.”

“I’ve been reading a lot of books lately. I read Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, and I also read One Night When Little Things Became Big Things.”

“All I could bring was a book and two pairs of AirPods.”

“I’ll definitely finish reading Eragon!!”

“[Next is 'Hunger'] And 'Hunger' is”

“a love story”

“But it's an extremely tragic and sad love story”

“What struck me the most was…”

“After Gu dies, Dam becomes determined to eat him”

“But as I was reading…”

“I knew what the plot was about before I started reading”

“By the time I finished reading, I was kind of convinced It felt like that”

“There were so many lines that resonated with me”

“But that book is really polarizing”

“There are a lot of graphic descriptions too”

“But the people who like it will really like it”

“I personally loved it!”

“I did well in January The book for January was 'Hunger'”

“If there were no music in our lives, it seems the whole world would look black and white. Even after 23 years as a musician, classical music had always felt unfamiliar to me, but I was able to feel close to it through this book. The lively chronicles of the great classical music masters of the world, so vivid they felt like watching a drama, were truly captivating. If you’re looking for the easiest and most enjoyable book about classical music, I recommend this one without hesitation. Discover the birth of world-famous masterpieces in an enjoyable, accessible way.”

“I brought a book, an iPad, and headphones with me, you know? Once I finish eating, I’m going to read a book. I’m going to read while listening to music.”

“I recalled my solo trip, which moved between excitement and apprehension, anxiety and comfort.”

“Thank you, poet #NaTaejoo”

““As I was working on my book, I read Jeong You-jeong’s *The Origin of Species* and Shim Eun-hee’s *The Wind Blew in Ireland. Waves Rose in My Heart*.””

“Through “Professional Lyric Writing,” I’m also learning a lot about writing lyrics that comfort people’s hearts.”

“When I feel that my heart is short on kindling, the many thoughts and experiences that came to mind while reading this book rekindle a fire in my heart. A mysterious, time-machine-like book that took me back to happy, passionate moments.”

“For me, this is another bittersweet seize-the-day story about the preciousness and fleetingness of all the beauty around us. And it’s a heart-stopping, heartbreaking romance, rolled into one. I just love the way Jojo Moyes creates such compelling, emotionally layered characters.”

“What I kept close to me all along was the novel the film is based on. I wrote down separately the sentences in the novel that reveal Gye-na’s personality, and always carried them around with me.”

“There was also a book called _Eleven Steps._ It was kind of a philosophy book. But with any of the different books, I found myself putting myself into the text. Like imagining myself as a character in a novel, for example. I was so deep in my imagination at the time. Was it helpful? I’m not sure.”

“A book? Ah, but I haven’t finished reading everything yet... I’m still in the midst of reading it... Guns, Germs, and Steel... It’s sort of like a history book~”

“I became a fan after reading The Fruit of My Woman.”

“But these days, I’ve been reading a book called An Unexpected Season.”

“I really want to recommend the book I’m reading right now to you all. A Man Called Ove. I bought it and started reading it without giving it much thought, just because people said it was fun. As I read, there were times I laughed, I almost cried, and I learned a lot. You should definitely read it 👍”

““I mainly like poetry collections. Poetry seems like the genre that best reveals a poet’s temperament and sensibility. Poets look at things we often see in everyday life from a different perspective and express them in a few words. I think those words often resonate deeply. In this collection, I like the poem ‘Knot.’ In particular, when I read the passage, ‘Do not call it a knot. The hardest part—once, this too was so tender and fragile. It was only that passion went too far, and after a single wound, it could never bloom again,’ I thought that a poet could see a tree’s ‘knot’ in this way, too, and something about it really struck me.””

“I was happy because, while reading that book on the rooftop, I realized for the first time that I was enjoying this moment.”

“I immediately bought and read the translated original novel.”

“and I recommend Summer Hill”

“I spent a long time with him, but knew absolutely nothing about him. In fact, I never really asked. He was someone who laughed a lot, but his laughter didn’t seem particularly genuine. There was a bitter taste to his laughter and words, so I didn’t casually cross his boundaries. I wanted to help him protect himself in his own way, and that was my way of being a friend. I thought it was so like Yoon Seol-ya to put it into writing only now and tell his life story, and I was so glad there was at least this outlet for letting it all out. In a word, he’s such a romantic. I’m honored that one of the songs I wrote was included in it (I was a little surprised by the unexpected song choice)!”

“I think I read it when I was about six, starting around 11 a.m.”

““The part I like best is when the man, who had kept his heart closed off, opens up to the woman and says, ‘Stay with me tonight, Clara.’ Even in the film based on the novel, that scene is the best.””

“I have read the manga since I was little, so its characters have influenced me.”

“Financial security creates creative freedom.”

“I rarely imagine, while reading a novel, “What if I were to play this character?” But I feel like I might want to play Nakahara, the protagonist of this novel. Though it seems difficult.”

“Ah, yes, yes, and then the one with three holes cut in a box, with something inside it, and things like that.”

“The first Korean poetry collection I read when I was first learning Korean was *You Sometimes Think of Me, While I Sometimes Think of Something Else*.”

“My mom bought it for me.”

“When I was in my teens, I was deeply impressed by Bernard Werber’s book *Papillon*, and its story remained in my heart even into my twenties.”

“The Little Prince is, ah, really a song that's kind of like a fairy tale for adults. Um, it's inspired by the original novel, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, uh...”

““I’ve been living in Korea for four years and have read many Korean literary works in English. Each time, I felt, ‘Ah, this is a translation.’ But I was surprised by how excellent the English was in these two works published this time. I think it’s at a higher level than the English I use. (Laughs.)””

“Even now, it feels fresh. It’s as if each chapter contains a message hidden like a secret map.”

“I think it's a book that even people with no interest in philosophy can approach easily, and that gives them a stepping stone toward developing a philosophy of their own.”

“I’m Going to Be Lovely Next Year Too”