The stories behind their books

“I’ve seen that cover. I really enjoyed it.”

“I read this book twice. Actually, the first time I read it, I put it down before I’d even gotten halfway through. Then, after some time had passed and I’d read more classics, I read it again and found it enjoyable.”

“I also liked Hideo Okuda’s The Aerial Trapeze. Each short story features unusual patients who receive counseling and suggested treatments. I wanted to get counseling from Ibura, the doctor in the novel, too.”

“The Little Prince!”

“Because I'm an introvert.”

“Reading it at the same age, I found another point of interest. I wondered whether, when I was that age, I could do serialized labor like that, and whether I could put my story out there so starkly for the world to see. I guess I’m not there yet.”

“This book was written by my uncle, you know?”

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

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

“I think it’s this very moment. I’m looking at “You Have to Look at It for a Long Time to Find It Lovely” right now. It’s a book I’ve been reading lately, and at some point while reading it, I just felt something romantic. I tend to find romance even in the smallest things.”

“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…”

“Should I read the book When I Don't Know What I Want? Should I not read it? Should I read it? Hmm, hmm, this is a dilemma.”

“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.”

“After finding the answer in the Bible, I became able to answer without hesitation when asked, “Why do you live?” That answer became the anchor of my life and the source of my passion. (Omitted) I earnestly hope this book can give a clear reason to live to someone who feels empty, lonely, isolated, anxious, afraid, or depressed—and, above all, to someone who is thinking of giving up on life (p. 10).”

“I’m not saying this because I’m an emotional person, but give this book a read. It’s the kind that will annoy you… A person’s life is supposed to have a mix of happy and sad days, but they keep giving this person a hard time in life… Sigh… It made me think, “Wow, the author is cruel,” but it is fun to read.”

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

“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.”

“SODA’s first Photobook: Candid🍬”

“What is the most important book you have read?”

“I asked a friend: “Hey, I want to read! Do you have any books to recommend?” And he got really excited and recommended books by Han Kang and Keigo Higashino. So, that was literally everything I read. There was also a book called “Eleven Steps.” It was kind of a book about philo…”

“I was deeply impressed by Michael Ende's *The Neverending Story*, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's *The Little Prince*, and Ralph Isau's *The Secret Library*.”

“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.”

“Most recently, I read a book called Almond that a friend gave me.”

“As someone who has read the Slam Dunk manga thoroughly more than 100 times”

“Although many stories I didn’t want to make public became known, I had never properly told my own story. As I kept those things bottled up, they began to fester.”

“One of my all-time favorite classic books is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I love the descriptions of nature.”

“My favorite comic when I was young was Dragon Ball; I must have read it ten times.”

“I’m reading Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving.”

“In conclusion… I recommend reading it at least once.”

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

“When I go to a bookstore, I sit down, pile up a ton of books, and read. I like bookstores because people there don’t pay attention to others. I brought home a whole stack recently, too: “Children of Gaeng-i-buri Village,” “The Little Prince,” “Confession,” “March Is a Red Ravine,” and “Norwegian Wood.” I also have a poetry collection by poet Lee Byeong-ryul. I get a lot of book recommendations, really often.”

“I also want to reread the Sherlock Holmes series, haha.”

“Ah, yes. Among the members, I like reading, so I often seek out books. I haven’t been able to read lately, but during the <Mansae> promotions, I’ve been reading <Sherlock Holmes>. I really like detective novels, especially the Holmes series; it really suits my taste.”

“I really like it.”

“Was it The Hound of the Baskervilles?”

“I learned about it through the novels and watched the English drama, too.”

“I like the Sherlock Holmes series.”

“Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles”

“Sherlock Holmes, haha.”

“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.”

“This is also a book I really did order from Yes24 recently, you know? It arrived really quickly (laughs). I bought volumes 1 and 2; I’ve finished volume 1, and have about half of volume 2 left.”

“I think being a singer or entertainer is a profession where you’re only recognized if you achieve something big. You always have to come in first, set records, and win the grand prize at award ceremonies. People who are used to focusing only on major achievements—which can seem futile in a way—need to learn, as this book suggests, to appreciate the small joys of everyday life, or I don’t think they’ll avoid depression.”

““Thrillers are the best airplane reads and this one is an all-time fave when I need a little escape from reality. I am personally addicted to stories about people who will go wild lengths to get what they want.””

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

“I also like Sapiens, which I’ve been reading recently, in a similar vein.”

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

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

“Shoko's Smile is so much fun, too. Honestly, there were a few episodes I didn't quite understand, but it was still a novel that moved me deeply.”

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

“A book I’ve enjoyed reading this year is *Goo’s Proof*.”

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

“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.”

“I found it interesting while reading Small Things Like These, so I finished Foster and am having coffee now.”

“It is a good book. Give it a read. It is an easy read, and I recommend it. I hope people of all ages will read it.”

“I define a singer as “someone who conveys.” Elements like pitch and performance are certainly important, but in the end, the most important thing is conveying a song and its meaning to someone.”

“Recently, before watching the film Pavane, I read the original novel, “Pavane for a Dead Princess.””

“I brought it along to read on the plane or during waiting time while filming in Japan, and I finished it there.”

“When a film based on a book comes out, I tend to read the book first.”

“A film clearly shows you a particular image, whereas with a book, I can imagine things in my own mind as I read, and I like being able to immerse myself in it in my own way.”

“In a book, you can see everything the protagonist is thinking before they act, and that’s so much fun.”

“I'm also continuing to read it, curious to see whether I'll make it to the end. Since it's a book that's received so much praise, I want to make sure I read it all the way through, if only out of curiosity.”

“To briefly explain the story, a pilot who crash-lands in the desert is one of the protagonists, and a little prince who suddenly appears before him asks him to draw a sheep. The two then build a friendship and get to know each other; it’s that kind of enjoyable novel.”

“I tend to have a lot on my mind, especially before album promotions. I recently picked up again a book I read when I need to find my center.”

“I first read Siddhartha in November 2025. My family is Buddhist, and that summer we all went to see a monk we had been close to for a long time. He gave it to me as a gift, saying, ‘It’s a book I truly cherish and have read over and over, and one that helped me a lot in not losing myself.’”

“Before, whenever things got too hard, I would turn away from the situation and hide behind a mask. That was how I got through life. But I recently realized that someday I would have no choice but to face the weaker side of myself. I also came to understand that when that time comes, I can meet my true self, and the path forward becomes clearer. While I was thinking about those things, I came across Siddhartha, and its sentences came to me as if by fate.”

“That’s right. I remember a childhood moment when I saw my younger sister playing guitar and asked her to teach me too. After that, I taught myself guitar by watching YouTube and started writing songs. It was a turning point that made me who I am today.”

“I think that’s the central message this book is trying to convey. I, too, am constantly changing like a river, but at the same time, I was able to firmly inscribe in my life the wisdom that I am the river, and that my existence as me does not change.”

“The first manga I saw when I was seven was a slightly older manga, so I was like, “What is this? Glass Mask, Glass Mask.””

“So I said I read about the scaly thrush’s call in The Rapids.”

“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 actually read it in English. You have to read it as a book.”

“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.”

“Rather than self-help books that offer comfort, just something intuitive…”

“That's why it has become a truly unforgettable novel of my life, even to this day.”

“A book? It’s one I got as a birthday present last time.”

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

“Kim Do-hoon is truly a hit songwriter. This book does not simply focus on explaining theory; it also explains the know-how of a popular music composer, so I believe it will be a great help to aspiring composers.”