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Korean Celebrities' Bookshelves: Inside the Reading Lives of BTS Jung Kook, aespa Karina, and More
2025-07-24
English(English)
Korean(한국어)
These days, reading and writing are hip. Social media is awash with book selfies and snapshots from the Seoul International Book Fair. Challenges like #WhatsInMyBookshelf go viral, and the books our favorite stars are spotted reading at the airport spark instant buzz online.
Reading is no longer just a quiet hobby; it’s a shining one. Posing for selfies with books in the background and reading the titles recommended by their favorite celebrities, people are turning the pages of their hearts. Whether they’re singers or actors, their stages may differ, but the source of their inspiration is the same—books. To read the same sentence as your favorite stars means to share the same heart, albeit briefly. Perhaps that’s why we open up our bookshelves—to better read one another.
Karina of aespa chose Someone Harmless to Me, a book that captures emotions that haven’t faded with time. Huh Yunjin of LE SSERAFIM picked To the Warm Horizon, about a romance between two women whose love endures through disaster. Actor Park Jeong-min recommended Concerning My Daughter, a coming-of-age tale of a mother facing the realities of hate and exclusion; Juyeon of The Boyz shared At Dusk, which explores the unfathomable depth of life; and Jung Kook of BTS mentioned Crying in H Mart, a memoir of quiet revelations about identity.
Like a song that once defined a phase in our lives, the seven short stories in Someone Harmless to Me quietly bring back the emotional landscapes we’ve long forgotten. Stories of people who have drifted apart, yet whose hearts and memories remain intact live and breathe in serene prose. Through characters who revisit their immature past selves and experience emotional tremors, the collection offers a subtle yet honest comfort to readers.
To the Warm Horizon [English]
Author Choi Jin-young Translator Soje Korean Publisher Minumsa Overseas Publisher Honford Star (English)
“The only gift left in the wake of disaster—love.” Two people meet after the world collapsed. Amid the ruins where all traces of life have been erased, they carefully begin to redefine the meaning of love. Their hope doesn’t lie in a perfectly safe bunker but in their hearts today that endures even in the face of misfortune. Neither trapped by the past nor shaken by an uncertain future—their love is a new story, built together on the ruins of the world.
Concerning My Daughter [English]
Author Kim Hye-jin Translator Jamie Chang Korean Publisher Minumsa Overseas Publisher Pan Macmillan (English)
The first-person narrator, a mother who raised her daughter alone since her husband passed away, invites her daughter to move back in when she faces eviction from her home. But then, her daughter turns up with her girlfriend, forcing the mother to confront a reality of living alongside a relationship she is completely unfamiliar with. Her inability to understand her daughter’s love festers into resentment as she witnesses her daughter protesting in the streets, scorned by onlookers. That resentment gradually turns into hatred toward her daughter’s girlfriend, and long silences, rather than words, begin to settle over their home.
At Dusk [German]
Author Hwang Sok-yong Translator Andreas Schirmer Korean Publisher Munhakdongne Overseas Publisher Europa (German)
Jung Woohee, a twenty-nine-year-old theater director, scrapes by in a tiny semi-basement apartment, juggling part-time jobs at a restaurant and a convenience store by day; sweating and striving for her dreams on stage by night. Yet, despite the harsh reality that makes even love feel like a luxury, she doesn’t give up the stage.
Crying in H Mart [English]
Author Michelle Zauner Overseas Publisher Knopf Publishing Group (English)
This book, in which the grief of losing her mother is awakened through the author’s sensory memory of taste, is not a simple memoir but a profound reflection on love, loss, identity, and healing. In the familiar yet foreign space of H Mart, Michelle Zauner recalls memories of her mother, one by one, coming to face her longing with raw honesty. Foods like dumpling skins, seasoned seaweed, jjajangmyeon, and ppeongtwigi (puffed rice snack) become more than simple ingredients or dishes—they become vessels of memory and emotion, reminding readers that food is a way of expressing love.
읽고 쓰는 게 힙(HIP)한 시대. SNS에는 책을 읽는 사진과 서울국제도서전 인증샷이 넘쳐나고, #왓츠인마이책장 챌린지나 공항에서 포착된 최애가 읽는 책이 화제가 됩니다. 이제 책을 읽는다는 건 조용한 취미가 아닌 반짝이는 취미가 되었습니다. 책등을 배경 삼아 셀카를 찍고 최애가 추천한 책을 따라 읽으며 마음 한 페이지를 열어봅니다. 가수, 배우. 무대는 달라도 영감의 출처는, 책입니다. 같은 문장을 읽는다는 건 잠시나마 같은 마음이 되는 일. 우리는 서로를 읽기 위해 책장을 공유하는 게 아닐까요?
에스파 카리나는 시간이 흘러도 사라지지 않는 그때의 마음이 담긴 《내게 무해한 사람》을 담았고 르세라핌 허윤진은 재앙의 한복판에서 꺼지지 않는 두 여자의 로맨스가 담긴 《해가 지는 곳으로》를 꺼냈습니다. 배우 박정민은 혐오와 배제의 현실을 마주한 엄마의 성장 소설 《딸에 대하여》를, 더보이즈 주연은 헤아릴 수 없는 삶의 깊이를 담은 《해질 무렵》을 BTS 정국은 정체성에 대한 담담한 고백 《H마트에서 울다》를 공유했습니다.
당신의 책장에는, 어떤 마음이 놓여 있나요?
《내게 무해한 사람》 [일본어]
저자 최은영 역자 古川綾子 국내출판 문학동네 해외출판 亜紀書房 (일본어)
한 시절 우리를 지배했던 노래처럼, 《내게 무해한 사람》에 실린 일곱 편의 소설은 잊고 지냈던 감정의 풍경을 조용히 불러낸다. 멀어진 사람들, 그럼에도 마모되지 않은 마음과 시절이 고요한 문장 속에 살아 숨쉰다. 미숙했던 자신을 돌아보며 마음의 진폭을 겪는 인물들의 이야기는, 독자에게도 섬세하고 정직한 위로로 다가온다.
《해가 지는 곳으로》 [영어]
저자 최진영 역자 Soje 국내출판 민음사 해외출판 Honford Star(영어)
“재난이 남긴 유일한 선물, 사랑.” 세상이 무너지고 서로를 만났다. 삶의 흔적이 지워진 폐허 속, 두 사람은 조심스레 사랑의 의미를 새로 정의해 나간다. 그들의 희망은 완벽히 안전한 벙커가 아닌, 불행 앞에서도 무너지지 않는 오늘의 마음이다. 과거에 갇히지 않고, 불안한 미래에 흔들리지 않는 방식. 이 사랑은, 폐허 위에 새로 쌓아 올리는 우리만의 이야기다.
《딸에 대하여》 [영어]
저자 김혜진 역자 Jamie Chang 국내출판 민음사 해외출판 Pan Macmillan(영어)
외동딸과 단둘이 살아온 ‘나’는 어느 날, 딸이 살던 집에서 쫓겨날 위기에 처하자 선뜻 자신의 집으로 들어오라고 제안한다. 그러나 딸은 동성 연인과 함께 돌아오고, ‘나’는 낯선 관계와 함께 살아가는 현실에 직면한다. 딸의 사랑을 이해하지 못하는 ‘나’는, 거리에서 무시당하며 시위하는 딸의 모습을 보며 분노를 쌓아간다. 그 분노는 점차 딸의 연인을 향한 증오로 번지고, 집 안엔 말보다 긴 침묵이 떠돌기 시작한다.
《해질 무렵》 [독일어]
저자 황석영 역자 Andreas Schirmer 국내출판 문학동네 해외출판 Europa (독일어)
서른을 눈앞에 둔 젊은 연극연출가 정우희. 반지하 단칸방에서 하루하루를 버티며, 낮에는 음식점과 편의점 아르바이트로 생계를 잇고, 밤에는 무대 위 꿈을 향해 땀을 흘린다. 가혹한 현실과 사랑조차 사치로 느껴지는 삶. 그러나 정우희는, 오늘도 무대를 포기하지 않는다.
엄마를 잃은 슬픔이 미각의 기억을 타고 되살아나는 이 책은, 단순한 회고가 아니라 사랑과 상실, 정체성과 치유에 대한 깊은 기록이다. H마트라는 낯설고도 익숙한 공간 속에서 미셸 자우너는 엄마와의 기억을 하나씩 되새기며, 그리움이라는 감정을 진솔하게 마주한다. 만두피와 김, 짜장면과 뻥튀기 같은 음식들이 단순한 재료나 메뉴가 아닌, 기억과 감정의 매개로 작용하는 이야기는 독자에게도 '음식이 곧 사랑'이었음을 떠올리게 한다.
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