▲ Photographed by Choi Ji Won

On September 25 at 3:30 P.M., Shin Kyung-Sook, the best-selling author of Please Look After Mom, gave a lecture at the Inchon Memorial Hall. During the one-and-a-half hour long lecture, Shin delivered a lecture on the subject of “Let’s Read,” and had a Q and A session afterwards. The lecture began with a story of her childhood and it soon led us to the story of how she came to dream of becoming a writer. While it seemed to be made without any fixed script, the lecture consistently linked her life with her love toward books.

Shin was a girl who felt lonely even though she was surrounded by intimate people living in a small town. In high school, she also had to undergo painful time due to labor disputes. Nonetheless, she recalls that she could overcome the loneliness and hardships by reading books. “It might seem as though reading books is a waste of time, because each book does not immediately give us direct answers,” says Shin. “However, when we encounter the moment of crisis and frustration, books comfort us by enabling us to ask ourselves what we should do and whether we are doing the right thing.” At the end of the lecture, she emphasized the importance of reading and writing. Shin says, “By making it a habit to write even trivial events, we can build inner strength to get over agonizing moments.”

Shin Kyung-Sook graduated from Seoul Institute of the Arts with a major in creative writing in 1984 and began her literary career in 1985 with the novella Winter’s Fable. Shin has written many famous novels, such as Please Look After Mom, Unknown Women, and Where the Harmonium Once Stood, and several non-fictions. Korea University (KU) Library has been holding a lecture series called “Library Story” by inviting renowned writers to KU as a speaker. Shin Kyung-Sook was the second speaker of the series, following Monk Hyemin who gave a lecture in July to about 1,400 people.