The reading group ‘Communicating with Books’ requires all members to read one book a week, write a presentation, and then meet and discuss on a designated day. The main purpose and direction of this program are to help students acquire various competencies such as self-reflection, logical thinking, empathy for various situations, and information discernment by reading activities.

  For self-expression activities, the surrounding atmosphere and environment are more important than anything else. Therefore, we plan to improve the program environment so that students can be more comfortable and active. Furthermore, we plan to run various programs by diverse planning such as reading groups by subject and voluntary reading groups.

  First of all, a researcher or a reading leader is assigned to each team, and the group is formed while discussing with the students. In addition, students create presentations in order to organize the contents of the book and their own thoughts. It is also a meeting where one can further strengthen one’s thinking through reading and writing in parallel.

  Since the communication center provides the space and books, it is not easy to operate it in the evening or on weekends outside of business hours. However, if there is an opportunity in the future, we plan to use the evening hours during the semester for students who are unable to attend due to class.

  Perhaps among the recently used books, the proportion of humanities book was high. In fact, there are many kinds of books in our center. In addition to books on humanities, we have a variety of books on natural sciences, such as mathematics, science, and astronomy, and we plan to actively use them in the future.

  Due to the deepening of the media society, opportunities for relaxed reading are gradually decreasing. At a time like this, I think it would be precious and important for many people to take the time to read a book. Our reading program is always going to be a great option, so when you need to relax or recharge, please come and visit us anytime.

  In order to show the positive effect of participating in the ‘Communicting with Books’ program, an interview was conducted with Ahn Ji-seon (Dept. of Russian Language and Literature, 20), who participated in the reading group in the first semester of this year.

  Before participating in the reading group, I took the time to read a book according to a  personal reading schedule. However, when I had a lot of important obligations, reading was always last on my list of priorities, so I inevitably put off reading. Therefore, I decided to change my attitude toward reading. I thought that reading should become a natural habit so that I can read even one page in a busy schedule. I participated in ‘Communicating with Books’ to make a habit of reading books in my spare time.

  The most memorable moment was when I read Expulsion of Others in the 6th week and wrote the presentation. When I first saw the book, I thought it would be a quick read. However, it wasn’t as expected. It was the book that took the longest time to comprehend among the books I read in the reading group. It also took a long time to write a presentation after reading it. The first sentence of the painstakingly written Expulsion of Others presentation is “This book is like a puzzle.” Just as you have to place hundreds of puzzle pieces to know what a picture is, the message of the book could only be understood when the reader pieces together the many situations and opinions presented by the author in Expulsion of others.

  Before participating in ‘Communicating with Books,’ I mostly spent 30 minutes on social media right before going to sleep. My life has changed since I started ‘Communicating with Books.’ I was able to build up useful knowledge by reducing pointless social media activity and increasing reading time. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to challenge books of various genres. At the ‘Communicating with Books’ meeting in the first semester, I got a fresh feeling by experiencing genres I had never read before, such as philosophy and art, and it broadened my thinking through reading discussion.

  In addition to the ‘Communicating with Books’ program, the CBNU communication center hosts various reading-related programs such as the ‘Reading Golden Bell.’ In the September reading month, how about participating in a reading-related program to increase food for thought?