[This Week's Books] 'The Essential Kim Yeonsu' and Others

The Essential Kim Yeonsu

This is the second work in the ‘The Essential’ series jointly planned by Munhakdongne and Kyobo Bookstore. ‘The Essential’ selects the core works of an author and compiles them into one volume. In 2022, Han Kang was introduced as the first author, and Kim Yeonsu’s works are introduced as the second. It includes the 2020 novel The Last of Seven Years and four short and medium-length stories. The four short and medium-length stories were personally selected by the author from among 55 short and medium-length stories contained in his first short story collection Twenty Years Old (2000) to the 2022 collection Such an Ordinary Future. In addition, six unpublished poems and seven essays are included. (Kim Yeonsu / Munhakdongne)

The Secret of Surviving Thoughts

The author, Sam Tatum, is the global head of the Behavioral Science Department at the world-renowned marketing agency Ogilvy. He has gathered his experiences and insights gained at the forefront of marketing and public relations. Tatum shows that patterns repeatedly appearing in successful problem-solving in one field can be evolutionarily expanded and imitated in other fields. When setting marketing strategies, it is common to look for something groundbreaking. However, Tatum demonstrates, based on behavioral science and evolutionary psychology, that borrowing yesterday’s solutions can help solve the problems we face today. (Written by Sam Tatum / Translated by An Jonghee / The Quest)

Books That Read Us

This is a collection of book reviews by film scholar Lee Yoon-young and cultural researcher Lee Sang-gil. Both currently work as professors at Yonsei University Graduate School of Communication. The collection includes 23 reviews. Part 1 contains 11 reviews by Professor Lee Yoon-young on books by Korean authors he reread. It includes thoughts and impressions on Jo Se-hee’s The Dwarf Launches a Little Ball, Lee O-deok’s Writing Our Language Correctly 1-5, and Beopjeong’s Non-possession, among others. Part 2 features 12 reviews by Professor Lee Sang-gil on books by foreign authors, including Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism is a Humanism, Michel Foucault’s Power/Knowledge, and Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation. (Written by Lee Yoon-young & Lee Sang-gil / Ieum)