Various Happiness Found in Books... Promoting the 'Jongno Haengbuk (Happy Books) Club'

Reading one related book each month, discussing and sharing reviews... This year, a pilot program for local reading clubs will be conducted, with plans for significant expansion starting next year

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Jongno-gu (Mayor Kim Young-jong) is promoting a pilot project called the 'Jongno Happy Books (Happy Books) Club' to share the diversity of happiness through books until December this year.

The 'Jongno Happy Books (happy books) Club' (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Happy Books Club’) is a program designed to provide residents, exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, with an opportunity to find various kinds of happiness in books and to reconsider happiness.

Inspired by the phrase ‘Happiness also requires practice,’ the program is planned to read one designated book about happiness each month and hold reading discussions to share opinions on the happiness found in the book.

In addition, participants write book reviews and post them on their personal SNS and the Jongno-gu happiness bulletin board, contributing to spreading a community consensus on happiness.

This pilot project is operated for one local reading club team, and based on the results, the scope will be significantly expanded next year.

This year, ‘Pyeongchang Seowon,’ a reading club under the Pyeongchang-dong small library, is participating. Pyeongchang Seowon was formed in 2017 and is an active reading club with 14 members of various ages and occupations.

Jongno-gu and Pyeongchang Seowon have selected a total of four happiness books to read by the end of the year: Life Lessons (David Kessler et al.), Good Life (Choi In-cheol), Happiness Stress (Tak Seok-san), and The Things That Make Me Me (Adam Smith, Russell Roberts).

At the first reading discussion held on the 23rd of last month, seven members of Pyeongchang Seowon participated and shared stories on topics such as ‘What should be removed or reduced for true happiness?’ and ‘Sharing warm experiences where the comfort of a stranger was a great strength.’

Jongno-gu plans to hold a Happy Books meeting in December with Pyeongchang Seowon, other local reading clubs, and interested residents. This meeting aims to freely share various stories about happiness based on the books read so far and to discuss the operational direction of the Happy Books Club for next year.

Mayor Kim Young-jong said, “This will be an opportunity for residents tired of social distancing to communicate with neighbors through books and experience diverse and broad happiness. We will continue to implement various demand-oriented happiness policies to create a happy community for all residents.”

Meanwhile, Jongno-gu established the nation’s first dedicated happiness team in January 2015, enacted the first Seoul city ordinance to promote resident happiness in 2017, and developed the Jongno Happiness Index in 2018.

Also, the Jongno Happiness Dream Project, which discusses and implements happiness in Jongno based on resident participation, is actively underway. In this way, the district prioritizes residents’ happiness as the top value in administration and strives to prepare practical measures to enhance residents’ happiness.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.