Hi! I pitched this idea on Discord and got some interest, so I’m opening a second book club!
The book will be 김초엽’s 양면의 조개껍데기. It’s a 384-page sci-fi short story collection. I bought a physical copy in Korea, plan to read it at some point, and thought I could force some others to read with me also, a short story collection is perfect for a book club imo.
김초엽 is my favorite Korean author and I’ve read 3 of her books - 2 short story collections and one full-length book. I expect this book to be around 25,000 complexity score on kimchi reader. It could also be lower. Her books are easier than 정보라’s.
Someone on Discord offered to buy the book on Ridi, so if they do buy it, the rest of us can reap the benefits.
I was thinking we could read 1 short story a week, or 1 every two weeks. I will make a poll when I get home. I will also make a poll to express interest. Idk how to add polls on mobile.
Edit: I have the epub (DM me if needed) and can tell you that there are 6 stories, most of which are 40-60 pages in length (with one 20 page story and one 70 page story).
Love the idea! I won’t be participating right now as I already have too many ongoing books for my taste (too many for me means 2 haha), but I hope to join one of the next reads!
Right now I’m not sure if there will be any more. I can certainly recommend short story collections like 우리가 빛의 속도로 갈 수 없다면, 방금 떠나온 세계 (my favorite book), 너의 유토피아, and 저주 토끼 (actually I don’t recommend this lmao) but there isn’t really anything else I want to read.
Although… now that I think about it, I could definitely see myself wanting to read 얼마나 닮았는가 (a physical book I bought 3 years ago and still haven’t read), 토막 난 우주를 안고서, 다시 몸으로.
Also, it looks like no one really cares about 1 week or 2 weeks, so I am going to make the executive decision to do 10 days per story. I know this is a little unorthodox, but it means we can all definitely finish the book this year if we read on pace (it could be iffy if we do 1 short story every 2 weeks).
I suggest a start date of 10/15, just because it’s the middle of the month. Feel free to leave any alternative opinions as a comment.
It would be fun to have a second book club going for Korean long term. That way not only do we have options, it also means we get to join multiple bookclubs at the same time, which is always fun.
Sci-fi can also be a bit daunting to get into, as there’s a lot of topic specific vocab, and a book club would be encouraging! It doesn’t feel so hard when you’re reading along with people, because not only do you get to ask about anything you had trouble understanding, there’s an additional reward after reading every part, that is, discussing what you’ve just read
10 days/story and October 15th start works for me! Also agree that as long as the people organizing them don’t mind, more bookclubs is never a bad thing.
I started reading the first story and it’s easier than many books I’ve tried so far, but I still only have a vague idea of what’s going on. I might have to re-read it.
also, a short story collection is perfect for a book club imo.