Recent books

From Chance to Miracle

Kim Tae-won, Chungaram Media, 265 pp., 13,000 won

The author, a well-known guitarists and leader of a rock bands Boohwal, paints a forthright self-portrait in this autobiographic essay.

Living up to the meaning of the band name Boohwal (resurrection in Korean), Kim is now enjoying a new, successful life as an entertainer, bouncing from low points of his life which had been stained by addiction to illegal drugs and subsequent imprisonment.

In hindsight, he says, all the sufferings and depression he had in the past were blessings in disguise for him. He confesses he suffered extreme depression to the point of considering suicide when his band was dismantled in 1998.

Despite all the hardship, Kim was able to make it through thanks to music. In this book, Kim, now one of the most popular musicians and TV personalities, tells how he was able to overcome the difficulties — literally miraculously.

For him, it was the music that gave him the reason to live on. He says as long as there is one thing that he or she longs to do desperately, there will be no room for depression to creep in.

— Cho Jae-hyon

My Pilgrimage of Western Classical Music

Seo Kyung-shik (translated by Han Seung-dong from Japanese), Changbi, 348 pp., 13,500

It is rare to find worthy books in Korean on Western classical music. Recently, there have been some attempts, but they are mostly restricted to operas or certain composers.

Among Asians, there is perhaps no country that appreciates classical music as much as the Japanese. It has been said that there is more written material and archives on pioneering Korean musicians such as violinist Chung Kyung-wha in Japan than in Korea.

This book on classical music was originally written in Japanese by a Korean-Japanese literature professor. Seo Kyung-shik teaches at the Tokyo Keizai University, but his true passion is classical music.

The book is a collection of essays on various topics and people in the field of classical music.

It touches on the relationship between music and society and also talks about some personal moments of the author’s life related to certain composers, including Mahler and Mozart, and their works.

There is a very interesting chapter about how Sir Simon Rattle, who recently brought his Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) to Seoul, transformed the BPO after the departure of his predecessor Claudio Abbado.

Seo also makes suggestions about operas and symphonies as a beginner’s choice.

—Do Je-hae

Ahn Sung-ki: A Portrait of Korea’s Greatest Actor

Toshio Murayama; Translated from Japanese to Korean by Kwon Nam-hi; April Books: 288 pp., 13,500 won

Toshio Murayama’s latest book paints a picture of one of the most recognized Korean actors through the eyes of a Japanese scholar.

Through the well-informed text, the reader reencounters Ahn Sung-ki off-screen as an individual and genuine actor who has thoroughly reflected on his times in the roles he has played over the past decades.

The book walks the reader through Ahn’s beginnings as a child actor in post-war Korea, his struggles through a ten-year hiatus from acting, and the path that ultimately carved a permanent place in the history of Korean cinema. Peppered with a compelling socio-historical context, the narrative makes it clear why the actor’s different movie roles have invariably struck a chord in the hearts of all Koreans.

And while the book aptly depicts the actor as a national image of Korean cinema, it also provides a complete picture of the man’s frustrations and failures without which his successes would not have come about.

— Kim Do-yeu

Travel Therapy

Gwon Hyeok-ran; Hue: 421pp., 15,000 won

What do you do when your life hits rock bottom? One may withdraw from the world, go on a shopping spree or even start binge drinking and eating.

Gwon Hyeok-ran, former editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine “if” and travel coordinator of travel agency “Traveler’s Map,” packed her things and flew away. “Coming up to the surface when you realize that you need to breathe after swimming underwater — that’s probably what travelling is,” she says in the prologue.

“Travel Therapy” recounts her visit to 10 sites over a thousand days. In Korea, Gwon traveled to Jirisan, a southern mountain and Jeju Island. Overseas, she took trips that involved practicing yoga in India and base camp tracking in the Himalaya.

— Noh Hyun-gi