By Oh Kong-dan

On occasion I give public lectures to share my thoughts with people who are interested in learning about Korea and Asia, and these lectures typically end with a question-and-answer session. Especially when I’m lecturing to a college audience, there will be at least one person who asks the practical question: what advice do you have for someone who wants to become an Asian scholar?

It’s a big question and a tough one, because getting a good job in a highly competitive field like Asian studies is not easy. One bit of advice I can always offer to young people, whatever their professional goal, is to read good books: history, literature, culture, geography, autobiography, poetry, science. It doesn’t much matter what the subject is as long as the book is thoughtful and well written.

When I was growing up in poor and underdeveloped Korea in the 1950s and 1960s, finding good books was difficult. First of all, there were hardly any public libraries, and school libraries were poorly stocked, so books often had to be purchased on a student’s paltry budget. Foreign books translated into Korean were particularly expensive, although Japanese books were somewhat less expensive if you could get them from a publisher such as Ulchi Books, which sold Korean translations in a small format called ``ulchi mungo (paperback series).” I loved those ulchi books with their faint yellow jacket covers that reminded me of a summer evening sunset. I was also lucky to have a father who, as a teacher and school administrator, read a lot and had a sizeable private library.

By the time I graduated from high school I had read many Korean books as well as Korean translations of Japanese and European works, and I continued my voracious reading in college, where my majors were literature and history. Some years later, when I resumed my graduate studies by going to the United States, my reading habits helped me compete with the American students, most of whom hadn’t read as widely as I had, even though most of my reading had been in Korean translations. Books that I read helped me in debates and discussions with my professors and fellow students, and my reading also stood me in good stead after I had begun my career in political science and Asian studies.

My most vivid memory of mixing literature with politics was when I cited Korea’s beloved poet, Kim So-wol, who wrote a famous poem about the azaleas of Yongbyon. I was meeting with U.S. government officials and military officers to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. In the early 1990s, North Korea’s nuclear facilities at Yongbyon were just becoming known, and before I launched into my analysis, I recited Kim’s poem, noting how the beauty of this lovely azalea valley contrasted with the view Americans had of a nuclear valley! My hard-nosed American audience was quite taken with this different perception of North Korea. It just goes to show that you never know when something you read will come in handy.

I still read a lot, choosing my books from among those that receive good reviews or are recommended by trusted friends. Reading makes me feel wiser, more confident, and sometimes smarter than non-readers. Reading is, after all, a way of tapping into the knowledge and intelligence of others.

In the news today I read that the online bookseller Amazon now sells more books in electronic form than in paper, but I still read books on paper. Taking an armload of books along with me when I travel does add weight, but at home I like the feeling of being surrounded by books and magazines and professional journals. My coffee table is covered with piles of reading material in their various shapes, forms and colors.

In the evening I sit on the sofa, facing my husband in his easy chair, with a fire in the fireplace during the winter months, and spend relaxing time traveling across the world and throughout history by reading my books. At the moment there’s a book about the history of cancer, another about the great San Francisco earthquake, one about language learning and another about a dog, along with books that are closer to my field of study, including one about the political origin of nations, another about the dominance of Western governments, and one about the rise of China.

In short, there always is a book to suit any mood and a source of background knowledge for my job.

Oh Kong-dan is a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. She is an expert on Asian affairs. Her recent publications include the report, ``Moving the U.S.-ROK Alliance into the 21st Century" and the book ``The Hidden People of North Korea: Everyday Life in the Hermit Kingdom." She can be reached at kohassig@ida.org.