The stories behind their books

“Actually, while creating the music for this show, I think I drew a lot of inspiration from books and videos I liked when I was young. For example, I worked with books like Peter Pan and Snow White, and videos of myself playing outdoors as a child playing in the background.”

“The 8 Rules of Love, by Jay Shetty.”

“This is a book I really love—ta-da, here it is: Demian.”

“It’s really good, and...”

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

“As a member of the K-pop group tripleS, being able to witness the CEO’s concerns and decisions up close was an experience that taught me a great deal. At every moment of choice, I could feel the CEO’s sincerity and determination to do more than simply establish a company—to usher in a new era of K-pop. That journey is captured in its entirety in this book. I also found it deeply meaningful that I had become part of the CEO’s journey. I think fans will discover the passion and sincerity behind the scenes, while people in the industry will find new inspiration. I hope this book gives you the strength to set out on a new path, too.”

“Thank you, poet #NaTaejoo”

“At first, it was hard because I kept trying to write only grand, impressive words. I completed it by making a great effort to take the force out of my writing.”

“I read Gu Byeong-mo's book *Gills* three times.”

“Even things I had never tried and couldn’t say I liked often turned out to suit me and become things I cared about once I actually experienced them.”

“I also read poet Kim Seung-il’s *Prometheus*. Poet Kim Seung-il’s poems were very difficult, but I was shocked in many ways.”

“Even though I may seem easygoing, I get hurt a lot. The book I read when the hurt caused by those words reached its peak was [The Temperature of Language]. I read whenever I have time. It gives me a sense of stability whenever I’m exhausted. And I feel the depth of words and the power of words with a ‘warm temperature.’”

“So, Dune is a novel that's been around for a long time, and I really like the book. It's very big and thick, but the story is really solid. I've known about it for a long time, so I've read the book and looked into it, but I haven't read it in English. It's something you have to read as a book.”

“The book I wrote, ‘Girl Group Yoga,’ is a book that even beginners can easily follow.”

“Because I'm an introvert.”

“I thought it was art that I, as a Korean Confucian girl, couldn't understand. Maybe it was because some parts were difficult, or because the characters were hard to remember. Let's try reading it again in about six months.”

“I got interested while reading Small Things Like These, so I finished Foster and am drinking coffee now.”

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

“"The Little Prince feels different every time I read it—now, five years from now, or ten years from now."”

“Watching this, I thought, “The mystery novels I’ve read up to now were only fragments. The real roots were here.””

“As I felt changes in my vocal production while taking lessons from Director Lee Yun-seok and reading the book alongside them, I kept thinking that I had understood vocal production in an overly complicated and difficult way all this time. “Use your abdominal muscles,” “sing as if sending the sound backward,” “lift the sound,” and so on—one of the things that confused me most when learning vocal production was these abstract expressions. I was the same way. They are not incorrect expressions, but when you are encountering vocal production for the first time, it seems inevitable that you’ll feel confused and wonder, “What does that mean?” After taking the director’s lessons, what struck me most was singing in the most natural state. Don’t try to embellish your sound too much; make sound as comfortably as possible, without tension. Since everyone’s appearance is different, the sounds and pronunciations that feel comfortable to produce may differ, but ultimately the path the sound takes is the same for everyone, and I think a person’s own color emerges from how they sing along that path. This is the point most emphasized in the book, too, so I hope you’ll remember to make sound in the most comfortable state. This book helped me realize that sound isn’t something I create, but something that comes naturally when I’m most comfortable, and I think it explains that in the simplest way. If your work involves using your voice, I hope you’ll read it at least once and find a more comfortable sound. I hope everyone who reads this book finds a sound that is not the best, but their only one!”

“But this year, I gained a lot of strength from reading the book I Love My Imperfect Self.”

“I’m especially enjoying the webtoon <The Return of the Mount Hua Sect>.”

“I want to share the happiness of cooking for yourself through this book.”

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

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

“First of all, Yamanhagu is, well, truly living up to its reputation.”

“I’m happy to be publishing my first book, and I hope many people will read it with me.”

“Thanks to this book, I learned a lot about what I hadn’t known about everything that goes into an artist coming into being. I felt grateful to everyone who was with me, and is still with me, on the journey to becoming the ‘Baek A-yeon’ I am today. If you’re curious about the idol industry, this book will be a great help.”

““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 wasn’t someone who read novels often. But as I was transitioning into acting, I thought I should read a full-length novel. Then I remembered that I had read Musso’s earlier work *Call from an Angel* some time ago, so I picked up his new book, *A Paris Apartment*.””

“Rather, I think it’s a book that makes me look back on myself, so it has a lot of meaning.”

“It was something that gave me insight and resonated with me.”

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

“I think it’s right now. I can see <You Have to Look at It for a Long Time to Find It Lovely> right in front of me. It’s a book I’ve been reading recently. As I was reading it, I suddenly felt a sense of romance.”

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

“I like writing by people who aren’t professional writers. They didn’t live in order to write; as they lived, their lives became writing.”

“Recently, among the books I’ve read, there’s one called *Schopenhauer at Forty*… People read it at forty, but I wanted to read it at twenty, thinking it might be good to know about it at twenty… So Schopenhauer is quite, kind of… pessimistic…”

“Anyway, I recently bought a book about psychology.”

“Poet Park Jun’s distinctive witty style was moving and touching.”

“It was my first time being photographed wearing lingerie, so please pay attention.”

“I think I've read these three books several times: The Lighthouse Keeper, You Too Are a Sky Lily, and Yeontan-gil.”

“Biases block the path to healing and change. To address the root of the problem, we must begin with affirmation through prevention and education, not law and punishment.”

“I hope that through this book, readers can truly empathize with the dangers of drugs and focus on healing.”

“I am trying to convey a message of prevention and healing through music. I hope this book will also create a peaceful world where you do not doubt yourself at the end of a day, just like after a test.”

“At first, I read it as a print book, and then I tried listening to it as an audiobook too; hearing it in the actor’s voice made it resonate with me more.”

“This book is called “Schopenhau to Read Before Bed.””

“You can see there are so many bookmark tabs.”

“There were so many passages I could relate to and wanted to learn from! [How YVES Reads #2]”

“So I can’t finish this book! lol I have to read it over and over again.”

“So that’s what he said. But on the very next page, he says, “In life, suffering and concerns are necessary.””

“Then I get all confused while reading!”

“I’m like, “But you just said they’re the two enemies!””

“And then again, it’s like, “Suffering and concerns are common in life.””

“Ah, I see.”

“Mmm... I see what you mean.”

“This book is also very realistic, and it’s a great book to read if you want to be comforted and clear your mind of your worries.”

“So I recommend this book too.”

“Dad, you watched over my incredibly demanding training and supported me all along—what a thoughtful dad! I’ll keep the “empty jar theory” you told me so often engraved in my heart, and keep trying to fill it with clear water and fragrant oil. You can do it too, Dad!”

“It’s provocative and captivating. It’s the kind of book that makes you want to turn to the next chapter faster.”

“I changed even more after reading the books The Power of Positive Thinking and The Secret.”

“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.”

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

“I like the scene where the protagonist is standing in first place among the other aliens.”

“And the book I’d like to recommend today is The Tea House at Cape Rainbow. It’s a book I read as I entered my thirties. Lately, I’ve found myself drawn to the author’s descriptions of scenery and flavors. When I encountered abstract and emotional ideas, I felt a deep attraction to the writing, savoring it as I formed my own images from my experiences.”

“It’s a book I really hope you’ll make time to read.”

“Finally 😭 I finished reading it”

“Until now, making music was the only way I knew how to talk about myself. I’m not someone who likes to go on at length to people about myself, so I had only put my voice into music. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to talk about myself through a book, in writing and photographs, I decided that since I was doing it, I might as well be honest.”

“This book shakes readers and ultimately changes them.”

“I did my reading with those.”

“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.”

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

“This time, I bought a book called The Practice of Not Reacting. I wanted to calm my mind. (Laughs)”

“It was the last birthday present my late grandfather gave me. He also wrote me a letter. Because it was a story about a grandfather and his granddaughter, so much of it resonated with me. I’ve read it over and over—two or three times.”