The stories behind their books

“I think at least The Attributes of Money / Rich Dad Poor Dad are books really worth reading two or three times.”

“There’s a book I’ve been reading lately. It’s a novel called *Mail from Postbox No. 110*—it’s heart-fluttering and gentle in tone.”

“When I was grappling with questions about life, I drew a lot of strength from Hwang Sok-yong’s The Evening Star.”

“So we bought it together.”

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

“It’s about how she became a star when she was young and what life as an actor was like; it’s a really sad story.”

“I thought this really summed up the book The Contradiction very well.”

““The way it looks at events from a fresh perspective felt refreshing, and it’s an immersive book that allows you to think about the human nature the author intended to portray.””

““I read the Analects and so much of it really resonates with me. I love learning from it. One thing that comes to mind is, ‘The noble person is at ease, while the petty person is always anxious.’ That brings comfort to my heart.””

“Professor Jung Jae-seung’s *Twelve Steps*. It was the first book I read in the military. It made me realize that what I’m worrying about and finding difficult right now is actually perfectly natural. It was a book that guided me so I wouldn’t fall into self-pity.”

“I read when I’m bored. The book I’d recommend is <Castella>. It’s a short story collection by author Park Min-gyu. I really enjoyed reading it. It’s psychedelic, really!? So at first it can be a little disconcerting, but as you keep reading, you can get completely absorbed in it.”

“I regretted not having read your books sooner.”

“Author! I read Human Acts while I was in the military. Sniff, congratulations!”

“I remember crying so much when I read The Giving Tree as a child.”

“The professor explained positively that being sensitive means you’re someone with highly developed senses and someone who can stand out in a particular field, so this is a book that gives me even more comfort.”

“It’s a book called Do It for Myself.”

“I was so immersed in the work that I read it in one sitting despite being busy with activities. I even recommended it directly to the members.”

“How love is being consumed in modern society, and our attitudes toward dating, for example”

“When I was really into novels, I read the Japanese novel *The Age-70 Death Bill Passes*.”

“Knulp is a book I found after reading Demian and becoming curious about Hermann Hesse’s work.”

“And I like poetry collections. I really enjoyed reading the collection The Definition of Love Is a Cat.”

“Even just reading her writing, I thought, “The author’s perspective is so healthy and profound,” and she felt like a “senior in life” to me.”

“I had read it once before, and it was really difficult.”

“I really like it, and <A Certain Secret>.”

“the wings of kirin”

“These days, I’m reading *Reading Schopenhauer at Forty*.”

“It's a book that gives me a sense of security.”

“As soon as you turn the first page of this book, the voices you’ve missed may come tumbling out in a lively chorus.”

“'Contradiction'”

“I heard it was interesting.”

“It’s really good, and...”

“There’s a book by bell hooks called *All About Love*. In English...”

“A book I read while at the TWICE dorm. A book that made me focus on myself. A book that helped me not be consumed by pressure.”

“I watched the film Three Sisters. It left a long-lasting impression on me, so I couldn’t help reading The Story of Three Sisters all the way to the end. I wanted to share it with more people.”

“I read it on the flight to Europe and at the hotel. Even though I was in a good situation, reading that book weighed on my heart.”

“Your writing is so vivid and skillful that I was impressed as I read it.”

“I ended up reading it on a whim because Chanyeol recommended it. When I read essays like this, I feel like I come to understand a wider range of lives a little better, and somehow feel more personally connected. I thought it was the kind of book that draws you into the situations and makes you laugh and cry along with them because they’re so absurd.”

“I think every artist should read it at least once”

“I managed to get to Chapter 3.”

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

“I’ve really liked The White Book for a long time. It’s an easy, relaxing read.”

““I also like the Analects. I didn’t like it before, but after reading it, a lot of it really resonated with me, and I like learning from it.””

“So I started reading Guillaume Musso's books. As I read love stories such as Save Me and The Paper Girl, I wanted to read other kinds of stories too.”

“Orbital”

““A Thousand Blues,” something like that.”

“Writer! I read Human Acts in the military. Congratulations.”

“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.”

““The person who knows how to love themselves is the greatest person.” (From *315 Proverbs Worth Reading Even a Hundred Years from Now*)”

“Reading this book made me think that I should cherish and love myself more.”

““I was drawn to the line on the first page of this book, ‘You’re crazy because of the person you love,’ so I bought it right away and read it.””

““It’s something like a debate among philosophers about love. It makes you think seriously once again about how love is being consumed in modern society and about our attitudes toward dating.””

“Saying, “Am I a fan or a disciple?”—the book I’ve been working hard to read lately. I wonder if I’m going to stop being a fan and become a disciple now, or if I’ve become more resolute at heart. Because I’ve lived like a fan, I find stories about life in the world really interesting; I’ve thought I was lucky, liked having lots of money, and felt proud when I achieved my goals. But I don’t want to miss it.”

“It’s Hwang Sok-yong’s The Evening Star. I first read this book in my second year of high school. By chance, I picked just one book from the many in the library, and it was The Evening Star. I was thinking a lot about my future at the time, so the main character, Yu Jun, felt just like me.”

“[Recently Read Book #2] This is The Path of the Dinosaur's Movement by KIM HWA JIN.”

“On my day off, I went to Kyobo Book Centre with my sister.”

“I just wanted to spend a day browsing books and stuff… [A literary girl's day].”

“So I went with my sister, browsed around, and bought this book.”

“[The reason she picked this book] When I got to Kyobo Book Centre, there were so many books—well, it is a bookstore—so I felt overwhelmed.”

“I wanted to buy a good one, something fun that I’d really enjoy reading. I wanted to pick the perfect book.”

“So, inside Kyobo Book Centre, I looked up book descriptions on my phone and tried to see which book caught my eye.”

“[The title alone sounds fun] I saw the title The Path of the Dinosaur's Movement.”

“[GAWON is a famous dinosaur lover] I love dinosaurs, right?”

“I thought, “I’m not sure about it, but let’s just go for it.””

“It’s also a novel, which I love. There was a line that really got to me.”

“Before I buy a book, I read the whole blurb.”

“[GAWON later found it and sent it] There was a line in the blurb that really resonated with me.”

“This book has a strong slice-of-life vibe, and the perspective changes in every section.”

“[The story of four friends] You can read each person’s perspective on the process of losing a cherished friend and the emotions they experience as they go through it.”

“I enjoyed reading that, too. There were lots of cute and relatable lines.”

““I wrote to hold, to leave behind, and to remember.” “So I wouldn’t forget.” “To record it before I forget.” “To keep it by recording it.””

““I still can’t tell apart the moments when lies and truth are stuck together. A lie is nothing else but the act of deceiving oneself—truly believing that what I’m saying right now is sincere. Lies come from sincerity.””

“Lines like these come up throughout the book.”

“So even within this kind of everyday story, thoughts you usually keep to yourself pop up from time to time, which made it a fun book to read.”

“The book for February was supposed to be this one, [the book in question] The Path of the Dinosaur's Movement, but I couldn’t finish it, so I finished it in early March.”

“It really feels like a book tailored just for Lily.”

“Oh, I started reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, but then I stopped, remember? It was so hard.”

“I found ‘The Buddha’s Words, Newly Translated’ an impressive read.”

“The book *The Power of Being Alone* was a comfort to me. I read it when I was consumed by self-reproach, wondering if there was something wrong with me.”

“Guillaume Musso's *Will You Be There?* is a book I read in middle school. I liked it so much that I read it several times.”

“So, if I were to recommend one, there’s a book called Snowball. It’s really dynamic and fun, so I think it would be nice to read it together.”

“Cool, cool. #LifeBalancer”

“I read Ernest Hemingway’s *The Old Man and the Sea*, and it was so much fun. It’s quite short, but I finished it in about two hours.”

“It was a book my older brother had received as a gift and that was at home. When I read it, it was so good. It’s a book I take out and read whenever I’m having a hard time.”

“I underlined it because I really related to this description. When I have some kind of realization or feel really happy, I feel the same way: “Ah, this is what it feels like.””

“The book I'd like to recommend is [Eleven at Night] by author Hwang Kyung-shin.”

“I immediately bought this author’s Brunch Award-winning book, “An Uncloying Essay Collection.””

“He is such an ardent fan of Park Saeroyi that he read the entire Itaewon Class webtoon in just one full day.”

“So, it was a fun book to read.”

“The book we'll read together this time is The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman, the second book in the Thursday Murder Club series we read last time! You're curious about how the story continues, right?! Me too! I want to read it together… It was so much fun reading the first book together!”

“Jeolchang is really fun.”

““The noble-minded are open and at ease; the petty-minded are always troubled.””

“These days, I'm reading a book called *Such Clumsy People* for about the fifth time...”

“I think I first saw this in the bestseller section [Actor Park Jeong-min’s PICK, “The Real Thing”]. I also understood that actor Park Jeong-min had recommended it, and hearing that made me even more curious about the novel.”

“[I like long novels] I tend to like long novels, but since The Real Thing is a short-story collection, it reads really easily and quickly × 2, you know? So [Gaeul’s Book Club reading journal / Recommended for people who find reading difficult] I think it would be a really good book for people who find books difficult and want to challenge themselves.”

“[Munsu: left behind by Granny Jangsu, a shaman with no god] And since the subject itself is shamanism, [Granny Jangsu / Sin-aegi: Granny Jangsu, who left Munsu and became the tutelary deity of a spirit-afflicted person] it feels very fresh, but also has that eeriness. And I didn’t know this, but when I looked it up, [honmono: real / nisemono: fake] I found that “honmono” means “real.” So, between me (Munsu), who goes mad and devotes myself to it like that, and Sin-aegi, who received the spirit initiation, which one is the real one? At the end, the two of them perform a gut ritual like mad [Spoiler warning]. That scene was, as expected, the most memorable. [A book that made me think a lot about “what does ‘real’ actually mean?”] It was a book that made me think a lot about what it means to be real.”

“[Author Sung Hae-na, born in 1994] So I understand that this author is young, and our generation really is one that grew up watching videos rather than reading books, right? I heard that when the author writes, she writes in a way that makes it play out like a video, and I felt that too. I was impressed, thinking, “So a picture can form in my mind just from imagining it.” But I think it would be fun if this came out as a drama or a movie. I think that would be even more fun, because a gut ritual has such strong imagery.”

“I recently started reading a book called I Want to Go Home Even Though I’m at Home.”

“I received a lot of comfort and empathy.”

“I had only just read the cover.”

“It’s really fascinating: by coincidence, I always end up reading a book connected to our next album. After ‘EASY’ wrapped up and before we started promoting ‘CRAZY,’ I read a book called *The Madman* by Lee Hyuk-jin. The protagonist was literally a real madman. (Laughs.) So I read it thinking, ‘CRAZY—this person is really CRAZY.’ It was a book about how you can go that far when you become obsessed with something. So this book came to mind when we were promoting ‘CRAZY’ and then ‘HOT.’”

“I remember reading this book while crying. I hardly ever cry when I’m reading. The protagonist has a terminal illness.”

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

“Its implications were particularly distinctive, which left a strong impression.”

“Hahaha, if my mom sees what I read, she might say something, but these are the books I picked up from January through March at the beginning of this year while talking about things like “the energy of the universe.” I think The Nature of Money and Rich Dad Poor Dad are really books worth reading two or three times, and the other books left me with a lesson along the lines of “use your heart for good.” People shouldn’t live narrow-mindedly, you know.”

“I sought out and read Pachinko because I suddenly wanted to get a feel for Korea’s modern history.”

“Narin had recommended me a book called No Longer Human...”

“I found that fun too.”

“That author had a lot of books listed as bestsellers in Korea, including one called *Save Me*, and”

““I enjoyed 'Animal Farm,' so I’ve been exploring more of his works. These days, I often talk about books with IVE member Ahn Yujin.””

“Writer! I read *Human Acts* in the military.”

“I read To Kill a Mockingbird back in school, and...”

“That is so true. I’m in such a good mood today. Even if something bad happens while I’m feeling happy, I feel like I have the leeway to just laugh it off.”

“If I had read The Stranger earlier, I wouldn’t have chosen my original name, Rap Monster.”

“Books are difficult. I didn’t understand it, so I closed it around halfway through.”

“I received a book called The Creative Act as a gift. I don’t often read self-help books, but this one made a strong impression because I related to it and found a lot to learn from it.”

“I’m really enjoying it.”

“Have you read <A Person Harmless to Me>?”

“Not long ago, I read The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which tells the story of four men and women who are very different from one another. It seems to me that people are born as light as feathers and gradually take on weight as they go through life. Personally, I thought Sabina’s life was wonderful.”

“So, if it hadn’t been this cover…”

“I read 'The Vegetarian' (2007) while serving in the military. Congratulations,”

“This is the first book I’ve ever read while crying.”

“I was surprised while reading because things I usually thought about were expressed so well in words.”

“I think I was tempted by that blurb and read it. But it was such a predictable story... I read it in the bookstore and left it there.”

“The protagonist, Jun, resembles me in his habit of not judging anything hastily and thinking things over again and again.”

“The books I’m reading these days are The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Contradiction…”

“I can now carry the collection of poems by Han Kang, which I received as a gift, in my bag.”

“A book I'm reading these days. I'm still in the early part, so it's too soon to say what I think of it.”

“Because *Memoir of a Murderer* was the book that introduced me to the world of books, and”

“This is documenting us, so I want to talk about everything.”

“I bought volumes 1 and 2. I’ve finished volume 1, and I have about half of volume 2 left.”

“It’s something like a debate among philosophers about love, and, well, it lets us seriously think once again about how love is being consumed in modern society, and about our attitudes toward dating and things like that.”

“As I read the book, I found myself agreeing and thinking, “Oh, that’s right, I was born in the ’90s too.” I think it could help people born in the ’70s and ’80s understand those born in the ’90s. As time goes by, we could become “old fogeys” too. People born in the 2000s might find us really hard to understand. In that sense, I think it would be good for people born in the 2000s to read it as well.”

“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.”

“But I apparently read it.”

“It's really fun.”

“When I get stuck writing lyrics on my own, I find myself wondering, “How would Aunt Ina work it out?” As someone who does that, I’m genuinely glad this book exists.”