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Jonghyuns choice of books always intrigued me. I always wondered what was behind his choices. To me, it seems, that If you find out what a person reads, or music they enjoy, then you get to see inside their world of inner thoughts. Jonghyun was a rare gem, and never ceases to make me wish to delve more…
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Jonghyun…
love isn't like it
is in the books…. I like to love more than to be loved.... |
This is Warhol Hardcover – Illustrated, 28 April 2014 by Catherine Ingram (Author), Andrew Rae (Illustrator). Did he read it…I don’t know….
Andy Warhol, the iconic Pop artist, presented himself as the vacuous, dumb kid, famously saying, 'If you want to know all about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface of my paintings … and there I am. There's nothing behind it.' This book penetrates the surface and explores Warhol’s art from his beginnings as a commercial artist to his apotheosis as a society portrait painter. Vivid illustrations reveal Andy’s worlds: his childhood in Pittsburgh, his chaotic Manhattan mansion and the Silver Factory, where New York’s bright new things hung out and had fun. Series writer Catherine Ingram brings her extensive knowledge to the book, while specially commissioned illustrations by Andrew Rae vividly portray the text.
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Were you a boy who liked to read? Jonghyun: My mum used to give me pocket money whenever I wrote a book report. I read books and wrote many book reports. There were pocket money missions that mum made and the task with the highest amount of pocket money I could receive was writing a book report. I think it was 2000 won or 3000 won. I couldn’t receive the pocket money if I didn’t write book reports properly even if I did finish reading the book. Did you enjoy writing book reports? Jonghyun: I think it was fun. Regardless of how many books I read within one week, if my mum judged that "this book report was written after reading this book accurately" then she gave me pocket money that corresponds with it so I think it was very fun. And then, I got into a habit of reading books. |
Do you remember the very first book report you wrote?
Jonghyun: If I remember correctly, it was 『Baekgu the Jindo dog that came back』
(laughs). It was when I was really little right? It’s a memorable book. The books I read were similar to friends of my age. I liked the 『Harry Potter』 series, and there was a program called 「Exclamation Mark」 right? The phrase: "book, book, book. Let’s read books" was popular (from that program) and I read a lot of books that were recommended by them later on. I think I was in middle school during then. Also, I read books that my older sister who is two years older than me read too.
Did you receive a lot of influence from your family on reading books?
Jonghyun: There were a lot of books at home because both my mum and dad like to read. So my house smelt like books a lot. My mum ran a kindergarten and she also used to work at a community office before that so I think I must have received some influence. Books are usually read in a private space. So, I think books are very family-like; because only the people within that space can read it. So I think it’s hard for someone to know how much the other person reads. There are far more cases when the books I read don’t overlap with the books that the other person read. Sometimes there are cases when one concludes that the other person doesn’t read much thinking: "oh, that person didn’t read the book that I read?".
Children often peek around adults’ bookshelves after finishing reading their book. Did you do that too?
Jonghyun: I have books like that too. I felt a sense of rawness when I first read 『Blindness』. It was amazing because it felt like a fantasy novel when I was young but it didn’t feel like a fantasy and I could grasp several contexts when I read it after I got older.
Do you read the same book several times?
Jonghyun: I read, read, read and read again. I read the books I like over again.
What is the book that you read the most number of times?
Jonghyun: Kafka’s 『The Metamorphosis』. This book is somewhat, "outrageous" to express it in modern terms. So I liked it since I was young. I first read this book when I was in primary or middle school and I thought: "they recommend this kind of book to children?". I really like short stories too including Edgar Allan Poe’s 「The Black Cat」. I met the person that I want to be and can admire in 『Demian』. It’s the adults who eventually choose recommended book list for adolescents. So I think (the books I read often) it’s mostly books that are good to read when you become an adult rather than during adolescents.
『The Metamorphosis』 is a book known to have the most impressive first sentence, so did it attract you in an extraordinary way too?
Jonghyun: I imagined it. It’s about how the protagonist "metamorphosed" into a bug when he woke up. I shared a room with my older sister back then and I imagined things like if I were to wake up from this bed and be in the shoes of the novel’s protagonist, would the window look like this way, how would the desk going to be or how would I be able to open the drawer. The first 『The Metamorphosis』 that I read was a large book with illustrations. It was a book with a grotesque black and white pictures. I read many different versions of 『The Metamorphosis』 but I think the book of a large size that I first owned had the greatest feeling.
Which book would you choose if you could jump into the world of a novel for very once?
Jonghyun: There is a part of introducing books in the radio that I host and this was the question that I asked to the guests. I didn’t give an answer as I was the DJ. I quickly played a song because I thought this question would be hard to answer (laughs). I really, really like fantasy genre so I instantly had a thought of going into the books of Bernard Werber’s. I hope I am one of the useless characters, not the protagonist. For example, like a dog that eats brains. It comes out in Bernard’s 『The Ultimate Secret』. I think being in that world is enough even if I wasn’t the protagonist.
Are you also enthusiastic in owning books too?
Jonghyun: Not really. I believe that it’s good to read books carelessly, I actually lose things very easily too.
Then do you leave the books that you took during oversea stages at your hotel room without lingering attachment too?
Jonghyun: If I read it all. I told you that I read the same book several times, right? So, if I want to read the book again I buy a new one every time. And I lose it again.
You’re an excellent reader! (laughs) Then, is the book reading time a rest to you?
Jonghyun: Rest is when I stay absent-mindedly. I think it’s more like a time to agonize than rest. I don’t think reading books, watching movies or listening to music is a rest in a perfect sense. It’s more like a preparation period for a creative activity. I receive a lot of inspiration from the works of other genres like literature.
You’re a musician who writes lyrics and songs. Some poets complimented on the lyrics of "View".
Jonghyun: It was a topic that I really wanted to write about for a long time; coloured hearing phenomenon. It’s a phenomenon where sounds can be seen like colours. It is lyrics about collecting the multisensory imageries of the senses and sixth sense that people have and materializing it.
Your lyrics tickles curiosity, like "Orgel" or "A Gloomy Clock". It feels like the story begins with a certain clue and a certain story keeps going even now.
Jonghyun: Perhaps I have a bad taste but I have put in a lot of wicked stories within the lyrics that seem beautiful in the eyes of others. The lyrics of "Orgel" was written after watching 「House of Wax」. I am interested in things like a character that has lost his mind due to the obsession with love. I have a lot of lyrics that was written after watching movies and books about that kind of thriller or horror. I wanted to create a spooky atmosphere in the lyrics of "Orgel" with a male protagonist as the narrator who keeps restraining the person he loves. I wrote the lyrics for "Obsession" after reading 『Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe』 and that was also about the side of a bad love. I wrote "A Gloomy Clock" when I was gloomy. It was during when I used to always say: "I'm gloomy, I'm gloomy" for anything I did. I think I wanted to give a despicable consolation of "you’re not the only one who’s gloomy".
What does it mean to write lyrics?
Jonghyun: There are many restrictions in the genre of music itself because you have to convey a certain story very well within a short time frame. It’s attractive because of that but it’s also difficult because of that too. The character of the person who sings gives a greater influence as it is short. The hardest thing is writing lyrics to the melody that I didn’t write. There are cases when I have to integrate and take out bits in order to write even when I have a large amount of story that I would like to tell. It’s like when there are only about twenty syllables in a melody and I have more than 50 letters that I want to write. It means I have to catch only the important things.
It’s similar to the process of revising?
Jonghyun: After going through several process of picking out, sometimes the lyrics possesses an impact. In some cases, I end up getting rejected after repeating the work of adding it to here and adding it to there. I have been continuously writing lyrics with this concept and I think there are melodies that can express well than others in the end. Writing lyrics is a peculiar work as that.
You named your first book as 『Skeleton Flower』, and it is also your song too. What was the driving force in releasing your book?
Jonghyun: I think releasing the book was solely for my personal desire. I have a habit of delving into a word and I was into the word "belongingness" that time. Literature and movies explain introduction, development, turn and conclusion of a story; the before and after of a story. But music doesn’t have that. It’s very free. So when I was writing, I wanted my imagination and writing to belong to my music. I wrote wishing that the story of this book influences this music and the story of this music influences this book… I was able to write and release my book not only through the power of the book but also because of the music and the lyrics that I have been writing. So it feels more like collecting the lyrics rather than writing a book.
You named your first book as a novel collection, why did you decide to pick a form of a novel?
Jonghyun: It was easy to express the "belongingness of imagination" that I told about through a form of a novel. The reason why is because there are many ways of expression within the genre of a novel itself. So there are a form of interviews, stories and even letters in the novel that I wrote. I chose novel because I had a personal desire of trying to write these things all at once. But I regretted later on thinking: "ah, it's hard". I regretted thinking I am not a person who could write these kinds of things (laughs). Hemingway once said it. All drafts are rubbish. (laughs) People say music is something great but I know it isn’t something that great as I do music. But arts in the form of writing still remain as an object of huge admiration and fantasy to me. So I hope that writing could be something like music to me too. Fantasies are shattered once we conquer it. I hope this fantasy breaks one day.
Do you listen to music when you read books?
Jonghyun: No, never. I have to read the book only if I want to read it and listen to music only if I want to listen to it.
Do you have a book you’re newly working on?
Jonghyun: I do but I think it’s going to take a very long time. I think it’s really important to leave as time flows by. If I have a bowl of this size, that means I have a work I can publish until I fill up that bowl. If there’s something lacking in the things that filled up that bowl, then I believe I can only be able to publish the work with the bowl that’s filled up only that much. I have been doing so many activities to the extent that I feel like I have used up all the things, even the outside shells, that was in my bowl last year and the year before. It feels like I have even used up the scent that was seeped in that outside shell…. I am waiting for it to be filled up again.
Jonghyun: If I remember correctly, it was 『Baekgu the Jindo dog that came back』
(laughs). It was when I was really little right? It’s a memorable book. The books I read were similar to friends of my age. I liked the 『Harry Potter』 series, and there was a program called 「Exclamation Mark」 right? The phrase: "book, book, book. Let’s read books" was popular (from that program) and I read a lot of books that were recommended by them later on. I think I was in middle school during then. Also, I read books that my older sister who is two years older than me read too.
Did you receive a lot of influence from your family on reading books?
Jonghyun: There were a lot of books at home because both my mum and dad like to read. So my house smelt like books a lot. My mum ran a kindergarten and she also used to work at a community office before that so I think I must have received some influence. Books are usually read in a private space. So, I think books are very family-like; because only the people within that space can read it. So I think it’s hard for someone to know how much the other person reads. There are far more cases when the books I read don’t overlap with the books that the other person read. Sometimes there are cases when one concludes that the other person doesn’t read much thinking: "oh, that person didn’t read the book that I read?".
Children often peek around adults’ bookshelves after finishing reading their book. Did you do that too?
Jonghyun: I have books like that too. I felt a sense of rawness when I first read 『Blindness』. It was amazing because it felt like a fantasy novel when I was young but it didn’t feel like a fantasy and I could grasp several contexts when I read it after I got older.
Do you read the same book several times?
Jonghyun: I read, read, read and read again. I read the books I like over again.
What is the book that you read the most number of times?
Jonghyun: Kafka’s 『The Metamorphosis』. This book is somewhat, "outrageous" to express it in modern terms. So I liked it since I was young. I first read this book when I was in primary or middle school and I thought: "they recommend this kind of book to children?". I really like short stories too including Edgar Allan Poe’s 「The Black Cat」. I met the person that I want to be and can admire in 『Demian』. It’s the adults who eventually choose recommended book list for adolescents. So I think (the books I read often) it’s mostly books that are good to read when you become an adult rather than during adolescents.
『The Metamorphosis』 is a book known to have the most impressive first sentence, so did it attract you in an extraordinary way too?
Jonghyun: I imagined it. It’s about how the protagonist "metamorphosed" into a bug when he woke up. I shared a room with my older sister back then and I imagined things like if I were to wake up from this bed and be in the shoes of the novel’s protagonist, would the window look like this way, how would the desk going to be or how would I be able to open the drawer. The first 『The Metamorphosis』 that I read was a large book with illustrations. It was a book with a grotesque black and white pictures. I read many different versions of 『The Metamorphosis』 but I think the book of a large size that I first owned had the greatest feeling.
Which book would you choose if you could jump into the world of a novel for very once?
Jonghyun: There is a part of introducing books in the radio that I host and this was the question that I asked to the guests. I didn’t give an answer as I was the DJ. I quickly played a song because I thought this question would be hard to answer (laughs). I really, really like fantasy genre so I instantly had a thought of going into the books of Bernard Werber’s. I hope I am one of the useless characters, not the protagonist. For example, like a dog that eats brains. It comes out in Bernard’s 『The Ultimate Secret』. I think being in that world is enough even if I wasn’t the protagonist.
Are you also enthusiastic in owning books too?
Jonghyun: Not really. I believe that it’s good to read books carelessly, I actually lose things very easily too.
Then do you leave the books that you took during oversea stages at your hotel room without lingering attachment too?
Jonghyun: If I read it all. I told you that I read the same book several times, right? So, if I want to read the book again I buy a new one every time. And I lose it again.
You’re an excellent reader! (laughs) Then, is the book reading time a rest to you?
Jonghyun: Rest is when I stay absent-mindedly. I think it’s more like a time to agonize than rest. I don’t think reading books, watching movies or listening to music is a rest in a perfect sense. It’s more like a preparation period for a creative activity. I receive a lot of inspiration from the works of other genres like literature.
You’re a musician who writes lyrics and songs. Some poets complimented on the lyrics of "View".
Jonghyun: It was a topic that I really wanted to write about for a long time; coloured hearing phenomenon. It’s a phenomenon where sounds can be seen like colours. It is lyrics about collecting the multisensory imageries of the senses and sixth sense that people have and materializing it.
Your lyrics tickles curiosity, like "Orgel" or "A Gloomy Clock". It feels like the story begins with a certain clue and a certain story keeps going even now.
Jonghyun: Perhaps I have a bad taste but I have put in a lot of wicked stories within the lyrics that seem beautiful in the eyes of others. The lyrics of "Orgel" was written after watching 「House of Wax」. I am interested in things like a character that has lost his mind due to the obsession with love. I have a lot of lyrics that was written after watching movies and books about that kind of thriller or horror. I wanted to create a spooky atmosphere in the lyrics of "Orgel" with a male protagonist as the narrator who keeps restraining the person he loves. I wrote the lyrics for "Obsession" after reading 『Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe』 and that was also about the side of a bad love. I wrote "A Gloomy Clock" when I was gloomy. It was during when I used to always say: "I'm gloomy, I'm gloomy" for anything I did. I think I wanted to give a despicable consolation of "you’re not the only one who’s gloomy".
What does it mean to write lyrics?
Jonghyun: There are many restrictions in the genre of music itself because you have to convey a certain story very well within a short time frame. It’s attractive because of that but it’s also difficult because of that too. The character of the person who sings gives a greater influence as it is short. The hardest thing is writing lyrics to the melody that I didn’t write. There are cases when I have to integrate and take out bits in order to write even when I have a large amount of story that I would like to tell. It’s like when there are only about twenty syllables in a melody and I have more than 50 letters that I want to write. It means I have to catch only the important things.
It’s similar to the process of revising?
Jonghyun: After going through several process of picking out, sometimes the lyrics possesses an impact. In some cases, I end up getting rejected after repeating the work of adding it to here and adding it to there. I have been continuously writing lyrics with this concept and I think there are melodies that can express well than others in the end. Writing lyrics is a peculiar work as that.
You named your first book as 『Skeleton Flower』, and it is also your song too. What was the driving force in releasing your book?
Jonghyun: I think releasing the book was solely for my personal desire. I have a habit of delving into a word and I was into the word "belongingness" that time. Literature and movies explain introduction, development, turn and conclusion of a story; the before and after of a story. But music doesn’t have that. It’s very free. So when I was writing, I wanted my imagination and writing to belong to my music. I wrote wishing that the story of this book influences this music and the story of this music influences this book… I was able to write and release my book not only through the power of the book but also because of the music and the lyrics that I have been writing. So it feels more like collecting the lyrics rather than writing a book.
You named your first book as a novel collection, why did you decide to pick a form of a novel?
Jonghyun: It was easy to express the "belongingness of imagination" that I told about through a form of a novel. The reason why is because there are many ways of expression within the genre of a novel itself. So there are a form of interviews, stories and even letters in the novel that I wrote. I chose novel because I had a personal desire of trying to write these things all at once. But I regretted later on thinking: "ah, it's hard". I regretted thinking I am not a person who could write these kinds of things (laughs). Hemingway once said it. All drafts are rubbish. (laughs) People say music is something great but I know it isn’t something that great as I do music. But arts in the form of writing still remain as an object of huge admiration and fantasy to me. So I hope that writing could be something like music to me too. Fantasies are shattered once we conquer it. I hope this fantasy breaks one day.
Do you listen to music when you read books?
Jonghyun: No, never. I have to read the book only if I want to read it and listen to music only if I want to listen to it.
Do you have a book you’re newly working on?
Jonghyun: I do but I think it’s going to take a very long time. I think it’s really important to leave as time flows by. If I have a bowl of this size, that means I have a work I can publish until I fill up that bowl. If there’s something lacking in the things that filled up that bowl, then I believe I can only be able to publish the work with the bowl that’s filled up only that much. I have been doing so many activities to the extent that I feel like I have used up all the things, even the outside shells, that was in my bowl last year and the year before. It feels like I have even used up the scent that was seeped in that outside shell…. I am waiting for it to be filled up again.
Books he is known to have read...
One of Jonghyuns first books, which made the biggest impression.
I think it is actually, The ‘Tails’ of Two Baekgus’ which I think he named wrong
He should know though, so I will change it as what he recalls. ‘Baekgu the Jindo dog that came back’ as he says. 😁
• poems by bertolt brecht
• A collection of short stories by edgar allen poe ✔️
(* specifically the black cat!)
• demian - herman hesse ✔️
• kafka by the shore - haruki murakami (*) ✔️
• the metamorphosis - franz kafka (*) ✔️
• crime and punishment - fyodor dostoyevsky ✔️
• the elegy of whiteness - han kang ✔️
• malice - keigo higashino ✔️
• the harry potter series by j.k. rowling ✔️
• the little prince - antoine de saint-exupéry ✔️
• blindness - josé saramago ✔️
• the hobbit - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
• lord of the rings trilogy - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
• simarillion - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
. Sky,Wind, Star and Poetry - Yun Dong Ju ✔️
• For Freud - Stefan Zweig ✔️
• The Last Secret - Bernard Webber ✔️
•. Silver Skates - Mary Mei Dodge ✔️
•. All Day Travel - Kim Min Chu ✔️
•. Harry Potter series of books - J.K. Rowling ✔️
•. The Bearer of Eternity - Hirokai Samura (manga) ✔️
• The Elegy of Whiteness - Han Kang. ✔️
I think it is actually, The ‘Tails’ of Two Baekgus’ which I think he named wrong
He should know though, so I will change it as what he recalls. ‘Baekgu the Jindo dog that came back’ as he says. 😁
• poems by bertolt brecht
• A collection of short stories by edgar allen poe ✔️
(* specifically the black cat!)
• demian - herman hesse ✔️
• kafka by the shore - haruki murakami (*) ✔️
• the metamorphosis - franz kafka (*) ✔️
• crime and punishment - fyodor dostoyevsky ✔️
• the elegy of whiteness - han kang ✔️
• malice - keigo higashino ✔️
• the harry potter series by j.k. rowling ✔️
• the little prince - antoine de saint-exupéry ✔️
• blindness - josé saramago ✔️
• the hobbit - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
• lord of the rings trilogy - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
• simarillion - j.r.r. tolkien ✔️
. Sky,Wind, Star and Poetry - Yun Dong Ju ✔️
• For Freud - Stefan Zweig ✔️
• The Last Secret - Bernard Webber ✔️
•. Silver Skates - Mary Mei Dodge ✔️
•. All Day Travel - Kim Min Chu ✔️
•. Harry Potter series of books - J.K. Rowling ✔️
•. The Bearer of Eternity - Hirokai Samura (manga) ✔️
• The Elegy of Whiteness - Han Kang. ✔️
The Little Prince - Novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This to me, is Jonghyun, always searching for that elusive rose….
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The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, The Little Prince makes observations about life, adults and human nature. This i guess reminds me of Jonghyun alot.
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1845)
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These four short stories of murder and mystery tell the tales of terrible people who lead strange lives. 😆
In the story, an unnamed narrator has a strong affection for pets until he perversely turns to abusing them. His favorite, a pet black cat, scratches him one night and the narrator punishes it by cutting its eye out and then hanging it from a tree 'Pluto -- this was the cat's name -- was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.'
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Trivia:
This book, ‘The Black Cat,’ inspired Jonghyun to write the song Obsession.
He revealed that there is a hidden meaning behind his composed lyrics in the song Obsession.On the 27th July,2010, Jonghyun left a hint for fans to decipher the hidden meaning behind Obsession through a phone call with Star Call. During the call this singer revealed, “There is a song in this album where I participated in composing. Called Obsession, I’m curious as to how fans are deciphering the lyrics for this song.”
Jonghyun then continued by giving two hints that is supposed to help in finding the hidden meaning. According to this idol, the first hint is, “The woman left towards a place that could never be seen again,” while the second is, “The man has a dual personality and is suffering from a mental illness.”
The SHINee member also said, “The lyrics of Obsession were written after being inspired by a novel I read, and I think if everyone knew the true meaning behind these lyrics they would be greatly surprised,” emphasizing the fact that the lyrics of this song is not simply about love and break ups.
For those like myself who have no clue as to what the hidden meaning behind Obsession’s lyrics is, be sure to stay tuned until Jonghyun himself reveals it! Source
This book, ‘The Black Cat,’ inspired Jonghyun to write the song Obsession.
He revealed that there is a hidden meaning behind his composed lyrics in the song Obsession.On the 27th July,2010, Jonghyun left a hint for fans to decipher the hidden meaning behind Obsession through a phone call with Star Call. During the call this singer revealed, “There is a song in this album where I participated in composing. Called Obsession, I’m curious as to how fans are deciphering the lyrics for this song.”
Jonghyun then continued by giving two hints that is supposed to help in finding the hidden meaning. According to this idol, the first hint is, “The woman left towards a place that could never be seen again,” while the second is, “The man has a dual personality and is suffering from a mental illness.”
The SHINee member also said, “The lyrics of Obsession were written after being inspired by a novel I read, and I think if everyone knew the true meaning behind these lyrics they would be greatly surprised,” emphasizing the fact that the lyrics of this song is not simply about love and break ups.
For those like myself who have no clue as to what the hidden meaning behind Obsession’s lyrics is, be sure to stay tuned until Jonghyun himself reveals it! Source
in 2015 he was reading..Samguk Sagi: History of the Three Kingdoms
“I am reading a book related to fantasy and mythology. Norse, Greek and Roman mythology, and even <The History of the Three Kingdoms>. In particular, <Samguk Sagi>, where Korea’s history and mythology are harmonized, has many interesting stories that I hadn’t known before.” source
So what has Jjong been seen reading….?
Lee Byung-ryul's - The Wind Blows, I Like You
Another travel prose book by Lee Byung-ryul, who inspired Jonghyun. source
Do you get inspiration and materials from 'books'?
I was also inspired by Lee Byung-ryul's <The Wind Blows, I Like You>. I liked that her photos and paragraphs were structured like an essay, and it was very helpful to show only the color of her emotions vividly. 3 I tend to get a lot of help from not only books, but also visual things like photos, posters, and movie trailers.
I was also inspired by Lee Byung-ryul's <The Wind Blows, I Like You>. I liked that her photos and paragraphs were structured like an essay, and it was very helpful to show only the color of her emotions vividly. 3 I tend to get a lot of help from not only books, but also visual things like photos, posters, and movie trailers.
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Jonghyun leaving Korea seen with the book: April 18, 2015
Lee Byungryul's travel prose book. The main theme of the book is 'people'. The book has no table of contents or page numbers, allowing the readers to travel without a destination, just following the wind in this book. Lee Byungryul's travel prose book. The main theme of the book is 'people'. The book has no table of contents or page numbers, allowing the readers to travel without a destination, just following the wind in this book. 
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Writer Lee Byung-Ryul A Traveler that Sings About Love..
<“The Person by My Side.”> is a book that he probably already read, or would definitely like if he hadn't. A sentence found in his book that could possibly inspire Jonghyun.
Drinking a drink is like buying me a drink after all. In the end, I think it's not about pouring a drink into my heart. A person who has a desire to write poetry is already more qualified than a poet. Living with uncertainty is probably also death, so I'll say goodbye, goodbye, goodbye a hundred times.
Lee Byung-ryul, from 〈“The Person by My Side.”〉
Photos from poet and best-selling travel writer Lee’s latest book, “The Person By My Side.” Provided by the publisher
Jonghyun holding crime and punishment by fyodor dostroyevsky on 10th February 2017
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Dostoyevsky's great novel of damnation and redemption evokes a world where the lines between innocence and corruption, good and evil, blur. It tells the story of Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, who wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be beyond conventional moral laws. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck.
Jjong was spotted at Gimpo airport on 161104, with a copy of Han kang's (also author of the vegetarian) ‘The Elegy of whiteness.’
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So what is Jonghyun currently reading?
Han kang's (also the author of the vegetarian) The Elegy of Whiteness, which is described as "an experimental novel which stands between a novel and poem, telling the story of teacher" or, according to the author herself: "the whiteness has both life and death in it in the korean cultural context. the elegy of whiteness is about something that cannot be destroyed and tainted like transparency, life and lightness." 
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Yun Dong Ju’s - Sky,Wind, Star and Poetry
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Jonghyun was spotted with a copy of Yun Dong Ju’s - Sky,Wind, Star and Poetry at Gimpo airport on his way to Japan on March 10th,2017.
Born and raised in northern Manchuria during the colonial period of Korea, Yun Dong-ju was a poet of the utmost purity, beauty, and sincerity. His posthumously published collection of poems under the title Sky, wind, stars, and poems is one of the all-time favorites of Korean readers. Wishing not to have so much as a speck of shame toward heaven until the day I die, I suffered, even when the wind stirred the leaves. (From Foreword) In simple diction and straightforward expressions, his poems sing of his love for his people, his compassion for the poor and destitute, and his hopes for freedom and independence. These themes still resonate deep within the hearts of the Korean people. His imprisonment and eventual death in 1945 in a Japanese prison lend great poignancy to his work. |
Freud by Stefan Zweig | Published on October 31, 2016
Jonghyun at Incheon airport enroute to Manila, holding the Korean edition of the book.
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Stefan Zweig was a friend of Freud’s and a great admirer of his work. ‘Freud by Zweig’ is a short account by one great artist of another great artist, an account of a friend by a friend, a warm and accessible introduction and appraisal of - and thanksgiving for - Freud’s monumental contribution to our understanding of people, our civilisation, and our discontents. This kindle edition included Zweig’s touching eulogy for Freud, read at his funeral in Golders Green in1939. The book, a very useful summary of the main tenets – and the thinking behind - of Freud’s work, gives us more than a glimpse into what it all must have meant for Zweig, himself a great novelist whose work, in its turn, made such an impact on Wes Anderson and the world of film …
All-day travel: Copywriter's record of indulging in unfamiliar space? Written by Kim Min-chu
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Note: What I do know is that Jonhyun said when he wrote a diary , he began writing just one, or two sentences. It was this one sentence that would describe how he was feeling. That one sentence would tell all.
For example he said this in October 2015: Jonghyun: i like to write (too). i wrote something like this at night a few days ago: before I slept i wrote: “the night is more dangerous than you are. the night is more dangerous than alcohol”. because i become more emotional at night…, it’s more dangerous because i get to experience more emotions at night. “i thought it was you who was dangerous but i realized it’s the night that was”, something like that. “it was about three or four days ago that i concluded that the night is more dangerous than you are.” (source: cosmicsticks) Do you see what i mean? It was inspired by this book, and how the writer, himself would do this when visiting places. Aside the description. one sentence, or two would sum the day up. Its a interesting idea. |
Copywriter's record of indulging in unfamiliar space
All-day travel: Written by Kim Min-chul, "Where night and day, eyes, and language are reversed, only 'me' remains."
Copywriter's travel method to find 'me' in the midst of a casual life Book Life
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How can I not be happy when I'm here? How dare you doubt happiness.
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"Remember this sunshine, this wind, this moment for a long time!" Let's be aliens in the moments on the road captured by the traveler recording. Let's not care about the days of the earth's people and think that there is nothing natural in the world. Meet strangers and ask, "What's your favorite?" "Wait a long time, eat slowly," and become a beginner traveler as if you are going through everything for the first time. The trip that the writer suggests is "to be an alien." Do we really know the Earth? Don't you think you know because you're used to it? Everything suddenly starts again, and the trip unfolds. When you go to Kim Joong-hyuk's novelist Kim Min-chul's house, they pour alcohol from somewhere far away and glasses from somewhere far away. I listen to the story of the trip released while drinking. It is mostly pleasant and often poignant and always true. It's a book that contains all the fierce behinds of the stories. This dense travel book will take you to various places and put you back into a different routine. I feel grateful. Kim Hana Kachi writer, <My favorite joke>
Below is one I don’t know, but I endeavour to find out….maybe Jjong will tell me. 😍
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Woohoo….I know it now!
Malice by Keigo Higashino Japanese Novel / Korean edition /
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I found more on the web , however I am not convinced by a few of them. I know the author is right on some, but not the book.
This page will be updated once I am sure he read them. Anyway here is the list…
This page will be updated once I am sure he read them. Anyway here is the list…
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Game of Thrones
I know Jonghyun liked watching Game of Thrones. He liked Jon Snow. I am wondering if he read the books or just watched the programmes….. Of course I am Daenerys Targaryen ...in my dreams!^^