Q&A WITH AUTHOR
YJ: I love your book. It makes me feel like I'm successful by virtue of reading and I like this feeling. (laughs). It's totally my kind of book.
AR: Yes, absolutely. (laughs) Reading makes you see with clearer eyes and understand the world better. When you can do that, you become stronger - the feeling you associate with success. But at the same time, it gives you pain. Within the pages, there's much suffering, beyond what we've gone through in our finite experience of life. You'll read about suffering you didn't know existed. Having experienced their pain through words, it becomes a lot harder to focus on pursuing individual happiness and success. Reading makes you deviate further from the textbook definition of success because books don't make us go ahead of or above anyone else; they guide us to stand alongside others.
Y: I like that line - to stand alongside others.
AR: We become successful in other ways.
Y: How so?
AR: We become more compassionate. To read is to see things from someone else's perspective, and that naturally leads you to stop and look out for other people, rather than chase after success in the rat race. If more people read, I think the world would become a better place.
YJ: It's common to hear people say that they have no time to read but I believe you read a lot?
AR: Not really, about one book every two or three days.
YR: I call that reading a lot. (laughs)
AR: Really? (laughs) Being so busy, were usually left with only small pockets of time to read - perhaps in the morning, during lunch, in the evening after work and before we go to bed. But these pockets of time can add up to become something substantial.
XI: You mentioned that you usually read a few books at any one time.
AR: Yeah, I have a short attention span. I get bored and distracted easily, even if the book is interesting. So, when I start to feel restless, I'll switch to reading something else. I've been told that I'll mix up the plots, but so far, that has never happened.
X: I feel like I'll forget what I've read earlier by the the time I return to the previous book.
AR: Hmm... when I read, I don't obsess over the need to remember every detail. Of course, I'll need to remember the earlier bits to a certain extent, but that said, it's also unlikely that you have zero recollection of what happened. I usually recall most of it, but if my memory is a little hazy, I'll reread the bits I've underlined in pencil before I move on.
Y: Yes, I remember you mentioned in your book that there's no need to obsess over the details. But is it really okay? (laughs)
AR: (laughs) It's perfectly fine. Books are not meant to remain in your mind, but in your heart. Maybe they exist in your mind too, but as something more than memories. At a crossroads in life, a forgotten sentence or a story from years ago can come back to offer an invisible hand and guide you to a decision.
Personally, I feel like the books I've read led me to make the choices I've made in life. While I may not remember all the details, the stories continue to exert a quiet influence on me.
Y: That's very comforting to know. To be honest, I can't even recall much from the books I read just a month ago.
AR: Same for me, and I think most people will agree too.
Y: Some say were in an era where people no longer read. What do you think?
AR: While I was writing this book, I used Instagram for the first time. I was so pleasantly surprised by what I saw that I started to question who dreamt up the notion that people don't read these days? There are so many people on the app who are devouring books at an incredible pace, and it convinced me that readers aren't an extinct breed. That said, I know these Instagram readers are not representative of the average person and are probably a niche bunch. Some time back, I read this article claiming that half the adults in Korea don't even finish one book in a year. But when people don't read, you can't just call it a problem. It's not that straightfor-ward. Therere so many reasons: being busy, having no emotional bandwidth or time. It's because were living in such a suffocating society.
XT: Does that mean that until we create a more liveable society, it's going to be hard for people to read?
AR: Hmm... we can't just sit and wait for society to get better. If more people start to read, they'll be able to empathise with the pain of others and the world will become a better place sooner.
YJ: What can we do?
AR: It's not an issue I can solve. (laughs) But I believe that people still have an appetite for read-ing, and that they feel it's important to read. What about the people who want to read, but can't, for one reason or another?
YJ: ...
AR: As the age-old saying goes, the first step is always the hardest. (laughs) How do we start? Oh, is this the point where I should say I wrote the book with this group in mind? (laughs)
YJ: That's it? Not even a teaser? Come on, share something with us. How about the bit about using timers on days when you can't concentrate?
AR: Of course, I was just kidding. On days when you can't concentrate, ask yourself what's been on your mind recently. Humans are naturally motivated to be curious about things were interested in. For example, many of us want to quit our jobs. If you're thinking of quitting, read books written by people who've quit. There are many such books. If you want to emigrate, read stories about people who've moved across lands and oceans. If you're struggling with low self-esteem, have lost touch with a good friend or feel depressed, seek out books about that. But if you haven't read for a long while, it might be hard to concentrate, and you may get distracted easily. When I feel this way, I set a timer on my phone for twenty minutes. Until the timer rings, I'll focus on the book. Setting small restrictions like this adds a little tension that'll help us concentrate. Once the twenty minutes are up, we have the choice to stop reading, or if we want to go on a little longer, we can set a timer for another twenty minutes. If we do it three times, we have read for an hour already. Let's try to set the timer three times and complete an hour of reading every day.
