The Reader

The book was more enjoyable than I expected, so I ended up reading it faster than I had anticipated. I didn’t know that Bill Gates was so obsessed with computers during his adolescence and that he founded Microsoft before the age of 20.  His natural talent for mathematics and boundless energy also surprised me . Among the book’s contents, what impressed me most were his mother’s passionate involvement in his education, his programming projects with high school seniors, a programming contract he secured while still a teenager, the development process of BASIC during his college years, the founding of Microsoft, and the legal disputes related to the BASIC program license. Bill Gates is almost the same age as our parents, but his educational environment and upbringing seem more advanced than those of the younger generations in Korea. It was interesting to experience indirectly the development of a device called the personal computer through Bill Gates' autobiography. Establishin...

I recently read the latest book by one of my favorite scholars and writers, Yuval Noah Harari. As expected, I couldn’t resist diving in. The book was rich with extensive research, interesting examples, and sharp, logical writing—truly a well-crafted work. It’s clear that without the collaboration of the Sapiens team, this book wouldn’t have reached the same level of depth and clarity. AI technologies like ChatGPT have dominated the conversation across nearly every field. Just as the agricultural and industrial revolutions reshaped human history, the AI-driven fourth industrial revolution is inevitable. Its impact will be profound—though hard to fully grasp—on both our lives and those of future generations. While I may not be leading these global changes, I also don’t want to fall behind, powerless, and unaware of the world transforming around me. As an individualist, I deeply value independence and freedom in life. That’s why I believe in constantly learning—especially the things tra...

It was a collection of brief chapters that were easy to read. Everyone is interested in health and money, and as you age, your interest in them grows. Both are essential for a happy life. The “PostScript” at the end of the book was the most interesting part for me.

 This is a book of wisdom; it offers relatively light reading while providing insightful observations about human nature. Isn’t wisdom, after all, about pondering the enduring aspects of the human psyche and behavior? A few memorable lines from the book are as follows. “People don’t want accuracy. They want certainty” “The best financial plan is to save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist” “Disagreement has less to do with what people know and more to do with what they’ve experienced”

I recently discovered this book by chance, just before Trump was re-elected President of the United States. It piqued my interest, so I decided to read it. It turned out to be even better than I expected. This could be the most impressive book I've read this year.  The author, who grew up in a poor white household, shares his thoughts and feelings about the cultural dissonance he experienced after entering Yale Law School. He also explores his complex emotions toward his family, leading to moments of deep compassion, and his reflections on personal growth, which I found very moving.  I resonated deeply with the content, and I believe that this book honestly and skillfully captures a life that deserves to be documented, both in the United States and Korea. Perhaps as I age, I’ve become more conservative and agree with many of the author’s views. Writing such a personal book is a tough decision and not a simple process. I commend the author for vividly capturing his experiences ...

The author, a neurologist and clinician, interestingly recounted patient cases related to music that he had experienced both directly and indirectly, as well as unique experiences related to music from non-patients. Given the author’s deep affection for music and brain, this seems to be a well-suited topic for him. Being a natural storyteller, the author has plenty to say, which is complemented by many helpful annotations. A deep curiosity and a great affection for people and life seem to lead to a wealth of stories to share.

Having completed the basic EMDR course and obtained the therapist certification several years ago, many of the concepts in the book were already familiar to me, making it an easy read. However, I got the impression that the book presented only some selectively effective cases in an overly simplified manner, as it described various cases that dramatically improved in a short period after EMDR treatment. Although it is certainly a useful tool that can be applied to people who are struggling emotionally after experiencing psychological trauma, I think, like many other psychotherapy techniques, the client’s or patient’s factors significantly influence the therapeutic response. The individuals who responded well to EMDR might have experienced symptom relief, even if they had tried other psychotherapy techniques. Despite the difficulty in accurately assessing the contribution of the therapy itself to the client’s positive changes after treatment, books of this kind tend to overemphasize the ...

I haven’t been able to write a reading diary for a while. This is because something personally has been very difficult for me since the end of February. For over a month, the psychological pain was so great that I could not afford to read books or engage in other activities. The problem has not yet been resolved, but after I completed the urgent response and accepted the situation I faced, I could briefly talk about my situation to others and read books. However, I still can’t read serious books, so the book I opened was “Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter.” It was a more interesting and enjoyable book than I expected. Is there anything more influential and powerful in modern society than money? Everyone needs and wants money, but those who are so greedy for money that they extort other people’s money and ruin their minds should be punished severely. I dream and pray for a future where this crisis I am facing will end justly, and I will be free from this ...

Oliver Sacks is a very famous author in the field of neuroscience, but this is the first time I have properly read a book written by him. It’s his autobiography, and I quite enjoyed reading it. After reading it, I felt like he was an excellent storyteller and writer before he was a neurologist. He is a free-spirited and curious person who enjoys motorcycle travel, writing letters, and writing diaries. He interestingly depicts his secret sexual life and romance, his experience with drugs, his feelings toward those around him, and his pure intellectual curiosity about the human mind in his autobiography. It seems that he has an innate talent for closely observing and recording the patients in his care as a neurology clinician, developing his thoughts, and weaving them into humanistic stories that go beyond the field of medicine. After reading this book, I wanted to read his other essays that I had bought at home but had not read. In the current Korean atmosphere, experts might diagnose h...

The author of ‘Guns, Germs, and Steel’ wrote this book earlier, so it contained similar content but also had new and interesting content for me. The author explains how humans relate to primates like orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees. He also explains human life cycle events like death and menopause using evolutionary theory. The author did not believe in finding intelligent extraterrestrials, unlike other scientists, and had a good reason. In that respect, the emergence of human beings and current civilization is so close to impossible that it seems that the existence of God can only explain them. When Europeans used advanced technology to explore new lands, they often massacred native people. This makes it seem likely that something terrible might happen if more intelligent aliens than humans found Earth. However, the author seems to think that there will be no intelligent extraterrestrial life like ours. The Aborigines and Native Americans meeting Europeans felt similar to how w...

 After reading the author’s other book, I thought I should finish reading this book, which I had neglected after reading only part of it for over 10 years. I re-read it from the beginning and thought it was an autobiography and a great science book. Historically important neuroscience findings and the author’s research on memory were thrilling. It was nice to experience indirectly how great research develops throughout a lifetime through the author. Like DNA, the human brain is interesting in that the materials and principles by which it operates are quite similar to those of other invertebrates. In this respect, higher animals may possess some of the consciousness, emotions, and cognitive functions. The author said that giving up a stable career as a psychiatrist to pursue basic research was the most difficult career decision. I have never thought deeply about the life of doing basic research. Reading this book made me think about my life as a basic researcher. Considering who I a...

I purchased this book a long time ago, but I was hesitant to read it due to its thickness. However, I finally finished reading it today. The scope covered by this book is as wide as the author’s diverse academic background, and the level of knowledge is deep. If I were to describe the book in one word, it would be ‘elegant.’ Beginning with stories about modernist artists from around 1900 in Vienna, Austria, notably Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka and the early famous medical scientists exploring neuroscience, including Freud, this book explores the human unconscious and psychology. It also describes in detail neuroscience and how it relates to emotions and reactions that beholders feel when they see art. In particular, it offers many intriguing insights into visual perception and the theory of mind. Although the content is not easy to read due to its abstract nature, it contains many important research results and contents in cognitive science. After reading this book, I...

In this book published in 2021, the author tried to find answers to the questions raised: who gets the power, why do people corrupt after gaining power, and what should we do to prevent such corruption? Personally, I read this book to understand more why authorities that I’ve met or heard acted like that. As it is not an easy subject, I couldn’t get one obvious answer, but the author coherently tried to give answers from various aspects encompassing evolutionary, psychological, and historical perspectives. Interesting anecdotes, interviews, and academic pieces of evidence altogether help us get a glimpse of the ‘true or core answer’, but still makes us feel ‘couldn’t get it done’. Nonetheless, I consider that this book can be the possible best answer to this complex topic. It is worth reading with only relevant knowledge in various fields and interesting stories presented in this book. It is often said that power corrupts, but according to this book, people who are attracted to power a...

Several years ago, when I worked at the national forensic psychiatric hospital, I read this book for the first time. As I stopped reading it after reading two-thirds of it, I read again from the beginning. Now, I became to like this book more than my first reading. As a renowned neurocriminologist, the author deals with the biosocial causes of violent criminals and how to prevent such crimes based on scientific findings. A variety of case examples and proven scientific knowledge are well-organized and woven to convey the major topic. So, the author’s provocative idea regarding the future national crime prevention program in the last chapter doesn’t sound like science fiction or daydreaming. The author’s future imaginary prevention programs named “the LOMBROSO (Legal Offensive on Murder: Brain Research Operation for the Screening of Offenders)” (which seems to be named after Cesare Lombroso, the founder of biological criminology) and “the NCSP (the National Child Screening Program)” loo...

This book reveals wonderfully with a mixture of enough scientific pieces of evidence and personal stories why hidden factors outside a hospital are important to human health. As social beings, others, namely community and neighborhood, deeply influence us. A sense of belonging and interconnectedness is critical to our mental health. Long-lasted loneliness and isolation make persons vulnerable to mental illness. Exaggerated, endured stress responses accompanied by stressful daily lives can make persons ill. So, the author maintains that kindness and compassion for others matter and can make humans healthier and happier. According to this book, humans are 99.9% genetically similar. In that regard, we all are quite similar in genetic make-ups, but some people overestimate racial and ethnic differences. However, race is arbitrary, a sort of social construct, rather than a scientific one, the author argues. Is our hierarchical social structure reflecting the historical and cultural inequity...

 I bought this book ten years ago when the author became famous to many Koreans as the first Asian woman tenured at Harvard Law School. I heard through an interview that she was excellent at piano and ballet and read many books regardless of the school curriculum during school days. As I always have been interested in people who achieved academically, I first bought a translated Korean version and then an original English version. After reading the initial part, I left it unattended for a long time, and recently I read it to the end. As expected, she was a "well-rounded" and talented woman in the liberal arts. Highly educated, resourceful parents, focused on giving opportunities to their children, and American education, which must have given more chances to a gifted person than the 80s' & 90s' Korean education, seem to have played a positive role in her academic success. In addition, her qualities, including the ability to make friends easily and maintain a close...

This memoir illustrates vividly what he had to go through since childhood to earn a Ph.D. degree at Stanford University, physics department in around 2000. This book begins with a story of his mother and father’s physical fight at night and clearing out with mama and older sister to somewhere the next morning. As his mother always had to work and was not a caring or devoted type of person, his sister nearly took care of him. He was a sort of neglected, poor black kid. Even with a genius IQ and talent for physics, he could not get a real chance to pursue an academic career in physics until he reenrolled at Tougaloo college. At Tougaloo, he met two white professors, Dr. Teal and Dr. McGinnis, both of whom recognized his talent and tried to help him learn science in-depth, get research experience, furthermore dream an academic path in a prestigious graduate school. At Stanford, compared with other graduate students, he was least academically prepared and had to take two years of undergrad...

  It is a well and clearly written book, so I could finish reading it quite fast. As a renowned expert on the dynamics and influences of the social network, the author conveyed his major experiment findings and relevant important concepts interestingly and concisely. Unlike simple information transfer or viral infection (‘simple contagion’), meaningful social changes or innovations (‘complex contagion’) have to overcome people’s inertia to keep the status quo, so the author mentioned that such social changes start in the periphery of the networks, against our expectations. Good innovations require isolation or protection from the skepticism of non-adopters (“countervailing influences”), and also need reinforcement from surrounding people (“relevances”), which require redundancies of connectedness or clustering. It is said that the periphery or outer rim of social networks fulfills such conditions that social changes are actually initiated by people in the periphery, not by hig...

Frankly, I couldn’t completely grasp what the author said in this book. It seems like background knowledge is needed to understand the author’s criticism of several political figures. As I don’t know enough about American culture and politics, my understanding of the author’s contention was inevitably quite limited. However, I couldn’t help but agree with the author’s criticism of higher education in America. Many problems with higher education in America are also happening in Korea. As I am a quite practical person, a college education focused on practicality and preparation for certain jobs doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. I have to confess that I didn’t know why liberal art education is necessary during my college period. In recent years, I got to know why such education matters. As I had to attain certain credits in the liberal art classes as a college student, I took the classes but most classes were not helping me learn how to think philosophically, understand humans, and deep...

  I self-published my first book, entitled  『내가 박탈감에 빠진 날 : 박탈감으로 괴로운 누군가를 위한 책 (The day when I fell into the feeling of deprivation: a book for someone who suffers from a sense of deprivation 』 through Kyobo Bookstore, “PUBPLE”. http://pod.kyobobook.co.kr/podBook/podBookDetailView.ink?barcode=1400000498453&ejkGb=KOR Deprivation is one of the dominant feelings among people living in the twenty-first century. Like many other books dealing with loneliness, a book dealing with psychological aspects of feeling of deprivation is needed for all of us. This book aims to cover all related aspects of deprivation feelings including loneliness, self-esteem, self-image, and narcissism. When we can see our inner deprivation feelings more objectively, we can hope to escape from these painful feelings. This short book will guide you on the way out of the deprivation feeling. Written by Shim G.