(Seo Kang-jun here with a book pick) I'd recommend this one to
anyone feeling a bit lost
(But..) The chapter I’d recommend the most is...
(I might not remember..) wait, is it this one? I don’t even remember the chapter
I read it, but I forgot everything
I always forget everything when I read books
(Kicking off my book rec at 16:19 in the morning) It's 4:19 PM now,
and my day’s just getting started
Good morning
(K.R; Kang-jun Recommends #2, Book)
My second must-recommend is
a book
(Human Acts, Three Stories sand a Reflection) Since you guys
asked me to recommend
books and movies,
my second pick’s a book
This time,
it’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I mentioned this once before
It's a book I read a long time ago
It remained in my heart, so I brought it up again
It's a work by Milan Kundera
set in Czechoslovakia
It shows the ugly aspects of our lives
and at the same time, beautiful
It’s a work that reveals very detailed aspects
Some people look for
hope, dreams,
something bright that gives them energy
Some people want such hopeful works
But others find comfort in works
that show life just as it is,
the way we all live
In that sense, this work corresponds to the latter
It’s about lightness and heaviness in life
It talks about people who live lightly
and those who live heavily
It really makes you ask
what kind of life you’ll choose,
and which one truly has value for you
In this book, those who live freely
mean endless lightness
while those who live responsibly
live feeling endless heaviness
It’s a book that makes me
reflect on what it really means
for my life
So the people I want to recommend this book to are
rather than those who have many worries
those who have lost their way
If you’re wandering,
thinking nothing’s really wrong with my life
but is this the right way?
Am I okay living like this?
Even in my relationships?
This book will give you
a lot to think about
That’s all for my take on this book
I’m sure many of you
will see things I didn’t notice
(Please leave a review in the fan cafe) Let me know, and I'll learn anew
The next book is
Human Acts
It’s by an author we’re so proud of in Korea,
Han Kang
I read it this year,
(A story about the May 18 Gwangju Uprising) and it’s about the Gwangju Uprising
It's the story of the people who were there at that moment
A story drawn from various perspectives
This work makes your heart feel heavy
It feels like carrying
a heavy stone in your chest
It’s filled with the raw voices
and testimonies of those who suffered
I hope you definitely read it
After reading the book and a few days pass
you actually forget a lot about the book
Oh, I read that, was the plot roughly like this?
The story starts to fade
But this book stayed vividly for a long time
A book whose impact lasted a long time
It’s not rated like a movie,
but for very young readers,
but I wouldn’t recommend it
since it has some violent scenes
But I think high schoolers could handle it and really get a lot from it
Because it's a book that contains our history
And this is a book called, "Three Stories and a Reflection"
The title is a bit unique, right?
It's a book by Patrick Süskind
It's a very humorous book
I’d only read Patrick Süskind’s "Perfume"
So I didn’t know he had a sense of humor
But after this book,
I realized he’s actually pretty playful
I got that feeling
It’s got like three
or four chapters inside
Some chapters are full of social satire
And one even flips how you think about winning and losing
winning and losing
The chapter I’d recommend the most is...
See? I can’t even remember the chapter now
I already forgot
Whenever I read a book, I just forget it all
Doesn’t that happen to you?
But the answer is here
The last chapter’s called “The Amnesia of Literature”
Is it the last chapter?
Yes
(Final chapter: Literary Amnesia) There’s a chapter called “Literary Amnesia”
It’s about how you finish a book
and right after, the plot slips away
A week later, you can’t even remember the main character’s name
Why we, as modern people, should keep reading?
This book contains reflections on that question
It's not about remembering and memorizing the letters in the book,
that gives meaning to reading
Even if the words fade,
the insights and feelings stay
and build up inside you
So when you look back,
you might forget the plot or the characters
But what it left in you stays,
and that’s what makes it valuable
That's what the book is saying
I was actually curious too
I'm not someone who reads a lot of books,
but sometimes when I read a book like this,
I forget everything after a week
After two weeks,
we're all like, 'What was the protagonist's name again?'
Then, is there any meaning in reading this?
I was thinking a lot about that,
but after reading that chapter of the book, I changed my mind
It's a good book, give it a read
It's good for light reading and I recommend it
(Recommended for everyone) I hope everyone, regardless of age or gender, reads it
It's not a book that you have to read with difficulty,
so everyone
should read it
Let me ask a few questions related to the book
(Q. What kind of books do you read most?) Almost every time,
or not even nine times,
(Novel reading) 99% of the time, I read novels
When I used to read novels in the past,
I focused on the content
Is it fun?
Is it thrilling?
Is there a twist?
I used to focus on things like this
Novels let me experience
other people’s lives indirectly
And honestly, they help me a lot with my acting too
In a well-written novel, the narration
lays out the character’s thoughts and emotions so delicately,
just like an actor would feel on stage
For an actor, novels are also like
study material
They’re also a window
into learning about life
Because the more we learn about life,
the better we can
understand the emotions in a script
(For Kang-jun, novels are life’s teacher) To me, novels are like life’s teacher,
so they’re my favorite
(Q. When do you usually read?) I don’t really read late at night
I wake up around noon,
eat, work out,
take a shower
Then around 3 PM,
I read for about two hours
By 5:30 PM, it’s dinner time
(Day starts at 5:30 PM) And that’s when my day really begins
(???)
It's funny even as I say it,
(Everything before that’s just an appetizer...) What I mean is,
for morning people,
the day starts at 6 AM,
with a jog,
breakfast,
maybe even a book
and then start their day, right?
For me, that all starts in the afternoon
So my real day begins around 5:30 PM
(Starting the day early today) Yeah, I’ve been with you guys since the morning
What time did we meet?
Right, 3 o’clock
And now it’s just before my day really starts
4:19 PM right now
My schedule is about to start
Good morning
(Q. Parallel reading vs. one book at a time?) I usually read in parallel
I only read one chapter at a time
you know, just one chapter from each book
I only read one chapter at a time,\
One chapter a day
(Kang-jun’s style: slow and thorough) I read really slowly\
Finishing the book isn’t the goal for me
What matters is what I’m thinking as I read,
and how those thoughts change
That’s why I read super slowly
I can read quickly if I want, but I don't
I read really slowly like this
I go back again
Hmm... and I think again
Ah, this is what it means
Ah, this is what the author wanted to say
Ah, these are the feelings I'm getting
This phrase is so pretty
This sentence is so beautiful
There are books like that
I am a person who reads deeply and slowly
to finish the book
(Q. Do you underline lines like that?) No, I don’t
I just read them over a few times and move on
I don’t really
underline or take photos
Sometimes in novels,
it’s not the story
but the sentences themselves that are beautiful
There are lines that make me go,
“Wow, you can describe it like that?”
I read those a few times, take it in,
then move on
(Q. Any book you’d want to star in if it became a drama?) Honestly, none of the books I recommended
could really be made into a drama
(Novels far from drama)
It's not that kind of content
What could there be?
Ah! Almond
That could possibly be dramatized
But it doesn't match the age range
But with slight adaptation, wouldn't it be possible?
If it were made well,
it’d be a work that keeps giving off a quiet resonance
Yes, everyone!
How was today's highly recommended content?
Were you highly... recommended?
That’s it for today’s content
Next time, I’ll share
some lighter, everyday picks
Today’s picks were on the deeper side
with book and work
Next time, I’ll be back with something lighter
Actually, I’m filming that today,
just showing it to you later
See you in the next video
(Next week: Kang-jun’s recs across different categories...!)
(Kangjun who came with notes full of recommendations)