[One Thousand Characters a Day] Author Kim Seol's 'Nan Saeng Cheo Jeom Reading Club' <4>

Editor's NoteWhen do we need books the most? At moments when we don't know what to do next and life just feels painful, people turn to books. Everyone experiences a moment of despair at least once in their life, and books that offer empathy and comfort for those moments are essential. Through the stories within books, we gain indirect experiences that serve as life guides and find the courage to move forward. The same goes for reading groups. Various people gather around a single book and share their own stories. Although they are all talking about the book, in fact, they are sharing their own lives. Therefore, listening to members' stories in a reading group is a way to learn how to heal countless lives. As the author says, there is no library richer than someone's life. Word count: 991.

Participants who know that I keep a reading journal all say similar things. "No, it's hard enough just to finish reading a book, why would you even write a reading journal?" Writing a reading journal is entirely a personal choice, so I don't force it on others. However, I do mention that copying underlined sentences and reviewing them has the effect of reading the book twice. At first, I only copied passages. Then I started adding my own thoughts to the transcription notes. Reading and writing in this way gradually improves writing skills.

As reading journals accumulate one by one, the depth and breadth of reading grow. Over time, the added content becomes longer. Naturally, a single chapter of writing is completed, and when those chapters are combined, I start thinking it could be published as a book. Around that time, everyone seems to get ambitious and says the same thing as if a recorder is playing.

"At this rate, I might become a writer too?"

Watching people who keep reading journals, I realized that they all want to express themselves through writing. It doesn't matter who reads it, and they don't mind if no one reads it at all. The experience of writing itself is meaningful to them. Writing is a completely different realm from speaking. They differ in immersion and depth of mind. When speaking, communication is possible even if consciousness stays at the surface. But writing starts from the deepest layer of consciousness. The more you write, the deeper you go. Experience must pass through consciousness and become meaning before it can be expressed in writing.

Not only when developing logic but also when expressing emotions, you need to secure at least a minimal meaning about what you experienced to express it in writing. Writing is the act of making experience conscious and knowing life more deeply. Above all, it is the process of accumulating one's own wisdom through experience. If you realize something while participating in a reading group, it is good to make a list of it. The joy of confirming through a list that you have your own insights?not knowledge read in books, nor wisdom heard in meetings, but your own realizations?is great.

－Kim Seol, <My First Ever Reading Group>, Tiramisu The Book, 15,000 KRW

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