The stories behind their books

“It’s basketball too, something fans of it really love, but it has a different flavor from Slam Dunk. Here, the protagonist can kind of erase his presence, you could say? So during a game, people can’t see him.”

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

“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.”

“And the poetry collection I’ve read until only its cover is worn out—my favorite poetry collection—is…”

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

“I started reading books because of internet novels. There’s a book by Baekmyo called *Cinderella and the Four Knights*. It’s a romance novel, and it was made into a book. I think that’s what got me started on reading physical books properly.”

““I have lived 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 that the two works released this time were written in such excellent English. I think the level is higher than the English I use. (Laughs.)””

“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.”

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

“It’s a work that allowed me to get absorbed in the story and completely focus. It’s also good for killing time. It was made into a movie, too, but I recommend reading it as a book.”

“If we're talking about books that have stayed with me, I think I've read these three books many times: The Lighthouse Keeper, You Too Are a Daylily, and Yeontan-gil.”

“Even the small, uneventful days without any big events must be one of countless foreshadowings in the movie of life.”

“This is a book I would recommend to everyone who is interested in art.”

“I read *The Art of Wandering*.”

“I read a book called “Courage To Be Disliked” which something you read in life, it really helped when I was stressed, it also helped me to become more mature.”

“A Thousand Years of Love, Father.”

“These two passages describe my life.”

“Amid a busy schedule, I picked up a book that deeply moved me. The book I really want to recommend to others is The Five-Percent Miracle by my senior Lee Dong-woo, the comedian formerly of Tintin Five.”

“So I lowered the level a bit and set myself the goal of reading all of Minumsa’s World Literature Collection before I die.”

“After reading Anne of Avonlea thoroughly, I felt a strong pull…”

“I did buy it when I was just thinking, among the people around me, “Why is everyone so weird?””

“La Divina Commedia Written by Dante Alighieri 1308-1320 (The Divine Comedy written by La Divina)”

“I want to return to my childhood and reread Jules Verne’s classic science-fiction novels, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Around the World in Eighty Days, which I read long ago. These days, my inner child helps me relax.”

“The book gave me time to think about the wounds of the victims and their families, the perpetrators and their families, and the people around them.”

“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.”

“Sometimes my self-esteem hits rock bottom and I feel my sense of self wavering. People around me say you need a hobby to relieve stress, but I still haven’t found one. So whenever I’m having a hard time, I read books like “Look at This Poem” and “Even So, I Love You.” I’m not very good at reading long texts, so I mainly read books with lots of pictures and the words I want to hear.”

“I enjoyed reading Han Kang’s Love of Yeosu and The Vegetarian, Yang Gwi-ja’s Contradiction, and Jung Dae-geon’s Torrent, among others.”

“I did my reading with those.”

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

“As I read this, I was able to learn a little about the CEO’s life before I joined the company, since I first got to know the CEO after I started working there. It was also a chance to spend that kind of time.”

“A book that made me realize that everyone has mistakes in the past they wish they could fix, but even those mistakes are what made me who I am today.”

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

“I recently read Harry Potter.”

“It was a book in which the author beautifully captured work, life, and some of the shining moments in her life as it is now.”

““This book contains stories that are hard to encounter in textbooks. If you enjoy history, I recommend that you read it at least once.””

“I've been reading Norwegian Wood lately. I've almost finished it.”

“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.”

“I stopped watching The Ravages of Time partway through.”

“I was really burdened by it. When I heard they were making a musical about Big Bang’s story, like *Shout to the World!*, I was scared at first. And since this was only my second musical, I also wondered whether it was too soon to perform our songs. There were a lot of things I felt cautious about.”

“I cried a lot, especially at the parts about parents.”

““I also read a book called ‘Shoko’s Smile.’””

“So I really, really recommend reading it.”

“If I were good at English too, I would have read it that way.”

“A piece that once again reminds us how precious and radiant it is, in the midst of life, to ask one another how we are.”

“I like the title ‘Knowledge and Love’ better than ‘Narcissus and Goldmund.’”

“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.”

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

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

“I even recommended If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light on Weverse.”

“#Coloring”

“I usually don’t like rereading books because I want to hold on to my initial impression of them. I happened to find this book while tidying my room and read it again, and it was fun because it felt different from when I first read it.”

“I decided to publish a book to share the happiness of cooking for myself.”

“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.”

“It’s okay not to read it all at once. Keep it on your bookshelf and take it out whenever you need it or feel curious.”

“After Blonote, I think this book is going to become my all-time favorite.”

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

“In a few passages, it does feel like things are simply being forced to fit, but overall it seems plausible, so I was able to enjoy reading it. It was so enjoyable that I savored it.”

“A book called Iroseok, on the topic of… Looking at this book, I thought the keyword “god” was just right for you, experiencing life for the first time, to whom everything in the world is unfamiliar and difficult. So I bought this book too, and since I declared it and lay down…”

“My favorite is the knit outfit I wore while roller-skating. It’s sexy, sporty, and cute. I think I was able to show different sides of myself.”

“There’s also a book I recently bought after it was recommended to me, which I’m planning to read: The Laws of the Mind by Volker Kitz and Manuel Tusch. My acting mentor, Min Jun-ho, head of the theater company Ganda, recommended it, and I’m planning to read it soon.”

“After reading No Longer Human, I sought out and read The Setting Sun as well.”

“Still, I’ve read three of this author’s books, and From the Shore is number one. I was reading it at a bookstore, then bought it right away and kept it.”

“I read a memoir recently called Everything I Know About Love where the author pursues romantic love her whole life, only to realize something profound in the end: She had always been surrounded by amazing friends, and always been loved, and always gave love—that she’d been experiencing it all along, and that love had always been there by her side. When I read that, I kept thinking about the other members of the group. When I think about the future together with them, I feel like I could end up thinking something similar to the author. Being with them has made me learn to appreciate friendship even more.”

“And maybe that’s essentially what love is—learning to be kind through friendship, then practicing and showing it, like the book says.”

“I recently bought this book. It’s called *8 Rules of Love* by Jay Shetty. Um, it’s a cute title, right? It feels a little cheesy. So normally, I don’t think I would have picked it up at a bookstore.”

“Recently, I read José Saramago's *Blindness* and *Seeing*.”

““I’m really often hurt by words, and when that reached its peak, I needed kind words. When I thought I should soothe my heart with a book, I came across a book called The Temperature of Language. The title felt warm from the start, so I was drawn to it. Since then, I keep reading it whenever I have time. It gives me a sense of calm whenever I’m tired. I often feel the depth of words and the power of words with a ‘warm temperature.’””

“Since it was recommended in many places as a classic masterpiece, I trusted those recommendations and read it. There’s a reason a book is a proven classic.”

“It shocked me a lot, and it was a book that gave me many realizations and resonated deeply with me.”

“I think it would be good to read it with a light, relaxed mind.”

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

“I had to appear on a broadcast and comment, and I referred to *The Temperature of Language* at the time.”

“A few days ago, I took that book out and read it again. It’s still on my desk.”

““I also read the slice-of-life novel The Uncanny Convenience Store,””

“The command of language is so impressive, and it really draws you in. Right, it has that immersive quality.”

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

“Whereas my previous book told, almost in diary form, various stories about life that a woman in her twenties learns while living with a cat, with Sweet Remedy I wanted to use as few words as possible and, alongside the flow of the photographs, give readers the feeling that we are traveling “together.””

““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.””

“After that, the first book by Annie Ernaux I bought was *Writing Like a Knife*. It’s an interview-style essay that leaves out Ernaux’s more unconventional side, and it’s the kind of book that gives you an idea of the mindset she brings to writing.”

“I bought the book! I'll enjoy reading it.”

“This book and the “Gen Z Bookshelf” interview sparked my interest in reading.”

“The scenes where Tsuchida, a bookstore clerk, delivers monologues about impressions he has formed while watching customers, family members, and others are striking.”

“Perhaps the process of experiencing contradictions firsthand and making choices ultimately enriches a person’s life. I, too, want to live while gradually expanding the breadth of my life.”

“I started writing and reading books again, as I did when I was young. I recently read Life Lessons by psychiatrist and writer Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and what I’m reading now is About Her by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.”

“I think I can take one step closer to becoming that kind of person only if I’m happy first and receive energy.”