The stories behind their books

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

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

“Swings hyung recommended it to me, and this was the book that came to mind when I felt I needed a change in my life. It felt like getting crayons when all I had was paper.”

““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.””

“A book that comes to me when I make time to read, even for just five minutes, because I want to clear my mind and feel happy.”

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

“It’s a book written for artists, and I felt like it really opened up my perspective.”

“In The Hedgehog’s Wish, when none of his friends come to visit, the hedgehog gathers his courage and decides to invite the animals, but in the end, he can’t bring himself to do it.”

“I looked it up, and apparently one of them is water residue.”

““The Temperature of Language” is a book I always keep close and read whenever I’m having a hard time. The title itself felt warm and drew me in. So I read it whenever I have a moment. It gives me a sense of stability whenever I feel worn out.”

““I’ll recommend a book for the first time!! It’s a novel I’ve been reading casually whenever I have a little time: [My Don Quixote — Kim Ho-yeon].””

“Honestly, I’m not that amazing a person, but in the book I seem like such an amazing and wonderful person. (Laughs) It made me think I should treat myself a little better. It also gave me the confidence that I can do even better going forward.”

“I wanted to build my own stage with “Ruby.””

“At the time, I really liked the great insight I gained from the story of the Indians in writer Park Min-gyu’s book *Pavane for a Dead Princess*.”

“These days, I’ve been copying passages by hand from a book called *The Buddha’s Words, Reinterpreted*. Regardless of religion, I chose this book because I personally found a lot to learn from the sentences in it.”

“Then I remembered that I had read Musso’s earlier book, Call from an Angel, some time ago…”

“I didn’t know much about “The Rabbit’s Trial.” I think it’ll be more fun to listen to it in Jiae’s voice. I’m looking forward to it.”

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

“I went to a bookstore, bought the book, and read it. It was written by an 89-year-old, and says not to put too much emphasis on whether someone is old or young.”

“Wouldn’t it be good to do something like “So What”? With something like this, it doesn’t have to be about this subject; it could be about something else too.”

“So, if it hadn’t been this cover…”

“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!”

“I think this is a perfect novel.”

“Since I’m not a children’s book author, it was difficult to create new characters. I thought it might be a good idea to use Tori and Seoa, the dogs who actually live with us at home.”

“I've read Tell Me with Flowers several times.”

“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.”

“I read a novel called Horrorstör.”

“I first read it in middle school at a church student council book club, and when I picked it up again recently, I ended up sobbing all over again.”

“I love it so much that I’ve even memorized the page.”

“In books, you can see all the thoughts the protagonist has before taking action, and that’s so interesting.”

“It was a book called The Success of Self-Control.”

“I also liked *The Little Prince* and *Harry Potter*, among others.”

“It contains ways for creators to express how they communicate with the public and inspire empathy, as well as methods for finding inspiration.”

“It also makes me think about those kinds of things, so I zone out a lot while reading. That’s why I think it’s a book that takes a while to get through. I recommend it.”

“When I was in sixth grade, I loved Harry Potter so much that I even personally opened the internet cafe “Dumbledore’s Army.” I uploaded spells.”

“I love the story, too,”

“I sympathize with the fox, waiting for the Little Prince [to express his desire for friendship.] When it comes to relationships, I usually take time to observe and wait for the other person [to express their feelings] first.”

“Living in a different environment [is] like living on a different planet,”

“I have a larger heart in understanding the difference between others than I had before.”

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

“SODA’s first Photobook: Candid🍬”

“Book: The Little Prince”

“In particular, the poetry collection *Love as if You Have Never Been Hurt* left a deep impression on me.”

““I read it when I was young, too, but it seems to mean something different each time I read it. As I get older, and at each stage of my life, my interpretation changes. There are lots of plays on words in the book, and it’s a world of make-believe, isn’t it? They stimulate my imagination, and it’s fun to picture a Wonderland in my mind. And above all, I think the book’s strength is that it doesn’t force a lesson on you.””

“To recommend books I enjoyed reading, first, “Ordinary Words (Kim Eana).” Even though I’d only read it, I thought, “The author’s thoughts are so healthy and profound,” and the author felt like a “senior in life” to me. And then, “On My 29th Birthday, I Decided to Die a Year Later (Amari Hayama).””

“I brought a book”

“The motif for those lyrics came from the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, which I saw when I was a child.”

“Be sure to read it, everyone.”

“I bought a book called Jeolchang, and it seems interesting!!”

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

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

“There was nothing to do at the training camp, so I read books. I also kept a diary, and I cried twice.”

“A time when I looked back on my own capacity for empathy, wondering whether I had been viewing socially disadvantaged people through a biased lens all this time.”

“My attitude seems to have changed, so I recommend reading the short story called *Ahopsu Gawi*.”

“the wings of kirin”

“I found some time to relax on this trip.”

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

“Last fall, an artist senior to me whom I’ve been close to for a long time recommended this book, and that’s how I learned about it. I’ve always trusted their recommendations, so I naturally became interested and opened the book to find inspiration while working on a project. I’ve read about half of it so far.”

“It opened my mind to the thought that anyone can live creatively in their own way. I was impressed by the idea that creativity isn’t something only special people have.”

“Creating something often comes with profound loneliness, and this passage helped me learn how to manage myself. After reading it, I felt more mature.”

“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 Devotion of Suspect X.”

“There are times when I feel that way too, but it made me think I should pull myself together again and work hard at living.”

“This is really interesting. You absolutely have to read it. People who create things absolutely have to read this. It’s a book called Sparks of Genius.”

“I have read the manga since I was little, so its characters have influenced me.”

“Teacher, you taught us that the world is full of sounds, and when those sounds come together, they become music. You loved music and people until your final moments. May you have a peaceful journey on your long, long journey.”