Recently, university students are paying attention to the latest knowledge in the humanities. For this reason, various books and lectures about humanities are popular these days. Even the office workers are interested in humanities as well as university students. To study humanities, reading and thinking are necessary. How many books do you read in your daily life? Do you like to read classics? Here is a man who is proficient in humanities and has looked at huge amounts of books in Korea. CBT met him and heard what he has to say about the humanities and book reviewing. -Ed.
 
■ Who is Lee Hyun-woo
  I’m a book reviewer and also I’m a lecturer teaching university students about Russian literature or world literature, and I’m also a translator and a power blogger. Book reviewing is a work evaluating books. The definition of book reviewing is different depending on who it is, but I think book reviewing is between a book introduction and a criticism. It is a process to notice that the book is worthy to read. The function of book reviewing can be described as a reaction after reading a book review. It can be divided into 3 reactions, which are reading the book, not reading the book, or pretending to read the book. Unlike a criticism, it doesn’t need a qualification and a fixed amount of manuscript. People’s reviews in the internet bookstores are also book reviews. Relatively, the amount of book reviews is less than criticisms. 40-letter book reviews and 100-letter book reviews are common. In addition, even a single sentence can be a book review. However, if it is too long, that will be a problem because more than 30 pages, on squared manuscript paper, are close to a criticism. In principal, a book review is a branch of criticism. Nowadays, the position of the book review has developed because there is a limitation that one can’t read so many books. Today, dozens of books are published per week. No one can read dozens of books. Therefore, a few people, including myself, the specialists, recommend books which are worthy to read and they notify which books have been published. I have looked at more books than bookstore staffs. I’ve looked at more than 2,000 books per year. Half of them are received from a publisher because I’m a book reviewer. Then, I’ve evaluated the books by roughly looking at and reading the titles and authors. I’m one of the best in this field. The book reviewer is not an actual job; however, if you work hard in this field and achieve recognition, you can work as a book reviewer.
  I’m running a blog ‘Low Altitude Flight of Rodya’ (http://blog.aladin.co.kr/mramor). Rodya is the nickname of Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment. I’m unintentionally known by my pen name because I’ve actively written book reviews on the internet. Now, I’ve contributed articles to the press, weekly magazines and newspapers, such as SisaIn, the Hankyoreh, and Korea JoongAng Daily among others. I started this work when I wrote book reviews for an internet bookstore to buy my books because they give points to the best reviewer. Now, I’m quite famous among my readers. They call me ‘internet book reviewer’.  
 
■ The scent of classics
  I’ve lectured on the classics and I published related books. However, many people have difficulty in reading classics. I strongly say that it is all prejudice that the classics are difficult. For example, all human relations are difficult. It’s not easy to deal with a person and expand a relationship. If it is too easy, there is no reason to do it. It is totally an excuse. Do not hesitate before reading at the beginning. In the course of reading, you will find interest and concern. This is same with exercise. At first, exercise is really bothersome and you really don't want to do it. However, when you keep exercising, you will be enthusiastic to it. Reading has the same effect. If you keep reading books, you can know it naturally and see the ways to read a book.
  What I think is that the classics give us energy, bravery and power when we are in trouble. Classics are the collections of some literature from a long time ago that can give people hope in desperate situations. That makes the stereotype that classics are old. I like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I also want to recommend to the university students Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Likewise, I’ve actively written a book. There is no purpose in my writing. It is just self-satisfaction about writing a book and a kind of a desire to increase the people who have the same ideas with me by reading my book. If you are wondering about a book review, I sincerely recommend <Freedom to Read a Book>, or if you are curious about Russian literature, I recommend <Russian Literature Class of Rodya>.
 
■ Master of humanities
  The total number of visitors to my blog, ‘Low Altitude Flight of Rodya’ is 3.2 million. It is famous as a humanities blog for many readers. When I get an e-mail such as ‘Thank you’ or ‘It’s very helpful’ from my readers, I feel very proud to do this work. I think the definition of humanities is making me think about who I am. Knowing humanities has an independent meaning that makes you change yourself. In a collective meaning, it will change history when peoples’ thinking gathers. Recently, university students have been interested in humanities, but it is not an optimistic choice when you are not passionate about studying humanities. If you don’t question yourself, there is no need to study. Studying humanities as a specification is not necessary. In fact, I’ve lamented the reality in Korea because of the lack of the amount of reading. I think humans are animals reading books. There are 2 functions in reading a book. First, in a public meaning, it makes the moral conscience of the citizens. Second, in a private meaning, reading builds peoples’ self egos. Is there any better option beyond reading to enrich and expand the self ego? It is a very sad situation that people don’t read at all. Furthermore, university students must read books.
  I know how regrettable it is, but I’ve worked hard to increase the amount of readers in Korea. Now, I’m busy preparing for lectures and manuscripts. My long term goal is writing more satisfactory manuscripts. Therefore, with this goal, I hope to see the huge amount of readers in Korea as soon as possible.
 

By Park Ji-su
js34@cbnu.ac.kr