The stories behind their books

“A Thousand Years of Love, Father.”

“Even today, when the word “sublime” has been reduced to a tedious and stifling word, it is unavoidably sublime.”

“One thing that really stuck with me from it was the line, “It was possible because I didn’t know it might be impossible.” I tend to think positively, so I always read it believing that anything was possible.”

“This book carefully explains how both cats and their guardians can be happy, accompanied by cute and fun illustrations. When you run into a problem that affection alone cannot solve, I’m sure you’ll be able to find an answer in this book, just as you might ask Teacher Nyaongshin for advice.”

““TWICE’s Nayeon gave me I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki as a birthday present. We used to talk about books from time to time. That book gave me a lot of comfort.””

““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.)””

““Torrent””

“Wow, author Shim Yong-hwan’s new book #365DaysOfKoreanHistoryInOnePage is coming out soon 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻”

“So I really, really recommend reading it.”

“Whenever I’m exhausted from practicing all day or performing overseas, Professor Shim, my spiritual mentor, has always awakened my self-esteem—the sense that I am the protagonist of this world—and given me courage. At last, he has published a book for young people. From now on, I should always carry this book in my travel bag. I sincerely want to recommend it to everyone I know.”

“A writer who portrays a natural attitude toward life with purity and precision. The moment I read her writing, I already belong to happiness. It is a clear and sturdy world that only those who live as themselves can enter.”

“Excuse me Jungkook has bought a copy of Crying in H Mart!!!!!”

“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...”

“It's been quite a while since I bought Douglas Kennedy's The Big Picture, but I've been so busy that I still haven't started it.”

“Almost everything I know about love, I learned from my relationships with my longtime female friends. Love is laughing together so hard you can hardly breathe. It’s walking down the street together on a Saturday night and feeling that the whole city belongs to us.”

“I recently read the memoir Everything I Know About Love. The author talks about what she realized after spending her life pursuing romantic love.”

“I had never taken photos wearing lingerie before. Since this is my first time trying it, I hope everyone will pay close attention to the photos of me wearing lingerie.”

“Actually, there were many more kinds of baby food I fed Seo-a. I recorded them in a notebook or on my phone each time. They said the book shouldn’t be too thick, so I included about 20 recipes and snacks for each stage, making a total of 131 recipes.”

“I was immediately drawn into that book.”

“Among the many books, one is Music Short Story Collection, a book that gathers short stories inspired by music by five novelists.”

“I was able to continue the lingering feeling I had experienced in this novel through that poetry collection as well.”

“The book I’m reading is There Is No Such Thing as Nothing Now. I get a lot of comfort from it, and I’m learning how to think differently.”

“I’m Karon’s mom, Kim Jae-kyung, pleased to greet you as an author.”

““I really like the actor Park Jung-min, and he wrote a book called *A Useful Human*. I first read it in print, then listened to the audiobook once. Hearing it in the actor’s own voice made it resonate with me even more. It was so nice to have him read his own story aloud.””

“I cried so much reading Tablo’s Pieces of You. The very first chapter was so dry. The writing. From the second chapter on, the tears just kept falling, and I was like, “What do I do? I feel sorry.””

“It defines and interprets social issues I haven't experienced from the perspective of justice, and I think there are many questions you have to think through and judge for yourself.”

“Please see it as an honest account of my experiences, not an autobiography.”

“These days, I'm reading Jonas Jonasson's novel *Killer Anders and His Friends*.”

“I really like reading mystery novels, and there’s a book called *The Awakening of Magic* that I started but didn’t finish a while ago. It’s a quiet book, but the ending isn’t quiet; I think I might read it again.”

“I’m not really into scary movies, but I find it so much fun to feel tense while reading a book. I like thrillers and mystery novels.”

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

“Sometimes in life, a single word from someone else can easily bring us down. This book talks about how to protect yourself and love others through “just the right amount of positivity and just the right amount of courage.” I sincerely hope that all of you readers will come away from this book with “just the right amount of positivity and courage.””

“The 8 Rules of Love, by Jay Shetty.”

“I found myself feeling drawn in by a book I had picked up casually, so I’m writing this.”

“When I read those lines, I felt so comforted that I even had the ridiculous illusion that perhaps all the time I had lived through and experienced was for the sake of reading this poem.”

“I’m not sure yet what kind of thoughts and feelings the poet is speaking to me with.”

“And I, too, as I suddenly began writing down the poet’s poem, am not sure what on earth I’m trying to say to you all.”

“But one thing I can say for certain is that those lines brought me great comfort, and rather than offering you the usual, countless, dazzling pleasantries, I wanted to return that comfort to you by writing down my sincere thoughts, one character at a time.”

“This is exactly the book I want to find. It’s about the number 88 bus.”

““I recommend ‘Laugh Like Haha’s Mom.’””

“Like the picture diary you kept as a child, try drawing your own memories each day, following wherever your heart takes you. Finding little moments of happiness in everyday life is quite a joyful thing.”

“After that, I started seeking out and reading Murakami's major works, such as Dance Dance Dance and Kafka on the Shore.”

“The Little Prince!”

“I really enjoyed reading Anchor Kim Jin’s book.”

“The Giving Tree, but this feels less like it’s a person I am and more like an ideal I want to become.”

“It’s a book called My Pinky Son. I wrote a recommendation for it because of my longstanding connection with Hong Won-gi, who has the rare disease progeria.”

“I hope you’ll love it. You won’t regret it.”

“It isn't a classic itself, but I have a book about classics: 『Classics Answered: On the Life We Ought to Live』.”

“It's a book about how we ought to live this difficult life. Nothing in it feels difficult; it just tells you plainly, point by point. It's very clear.”

“Classics are actually difficult, and you can interpret them in so many different ways. I think that's part of the appeal of reading a book about a classic, too. You get to read that author's distinctive interpretation, and there's the pleasure of thinking, 'I found that classic difficult or it didn't really resonate with me when I read it, but I can read it this way too.' I think it's a really good thing. I think the real answers lie in the classics.”

“Slam Dunk is a manga I revisit regularly; it’s one of my all-time favorites. I’m not much of a crier, but works like Slam Dunk, which make my heart burn with passion, bring me to tears.”

“Eugene’s book is packed with content.”

““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 wrote the book thinking that I hoped it might give someone strength.”

“The book I read recently is *I Almost Lived Diligently*. Because I almost did, too.”

“It explains humanity’s past and future from multiple perspectives.”

“Reading this book helped spur me on in that mindset.”

“#RomanceWillKillMe I met lyricist Seo Ji-eum, who has such a girlish air~ Please show lots of love for writer Ji-eum’s book too~”

“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.”

“책을 통해 피해자와 그 가족, 가해자와 그의 가족, 주변 인물들의 상처에 대해 생각해보는 시간이 됐어요.”

“Publishing a photo book wasn’t something I had planned. Since these were photos I’d taken on my phone in my spare moments, I was hesitant to release them, but thinking of it as leaving a record of everyday life, I’ve made it this far.”

“Watching that, I resolved to make an album the way I wanted.”

““Strangely, with just one cookbook, I feel as though I’ve taken a step closer to my senior colleague, Park Jun-myun. Perhaps it’s because this book resembles the senior colleague I know.””

“This one is a novel. I told you all about it, right?”

“A book that gave me a lot of courage.”

“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.”

“This is a book I came across when I was inexperienced and had many worries about my career, relationships, and everything else as a young person just starting out in society. It was full of stories I desperately needed at the time, and I loved it so much that I underlined almost every page as I read. Meeting this book in my twenties was truly a great stroke of luck. I sincerely recommend it to everyone who wants to live a little better. Now that I’m in my thirties, I plan to open this book again and try to feel once more the excitement I felt then.”

“The first flapping of wings toward freedom”