I am still easing back into reading, but I feel that I couldn’t have found a more perfect book for the task than Hwang Boreum’s Every Day I Read. I love the cosy slice-of-life atmosphere and introspective findings of Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, so I knew picking this up that the narrative style and voice would resonate with me. I just didn’t know just how much I would come to love this novel.

Why do we read? What is it that we hope to take away from the intimate, personal experience of reading for pleasure? Rarely do we ask these profound, expansive questions of ourselves and of our relationship to the joy of reading. In each of the essays in Every Day I Read, Hwang Bo-reum contemplates what living a life immersed in reading means. She goes beyond the usual questions of what to read and how often, exploring the relationship between reading and writing, when to turn to a bestseller vs. browse the corners of a bookstore, the value of reading outside of your favourite genre, falling in love with book characters, and more. Every Day I Read provides many quiet moments for introspection and reflection, encouraging book-lovers to explore what reading means to each of us. While this is a book about books, at its heart is an attitude to life, one outside capitalism and climbing the corporate ladder. Lifelong and new readers will take away something from it, including a treasure trove of book recommendations blended seamlessly within.

The first thing that struck me with Every Day I Read was the short, titled chapters. Not only are they so easy to digest, but they also provide direction, reflection, and sparks of excitement and possibility through which I can guide myself in this rediscovery of reading. The titles work as inspiration, almost like the reading challenges found on bookish social media, which include names such as “Choose Books, Not the Internet’, ‘The Joys of Collecting Quotes’, and ‘Read Beyond Success and Failure’. There are the more common prompts of reading specific kinds of works, reading in various places, and reading in various states, but I find the longer statements carry a punch that makes the contents of each chapter so eye-opening and freeing. Reading doesn’t have to fit into specific moulds and tick all these boxes; instead, it can expand, living outside the restrictions of the page, and be the spark of discussion between two readers. Reading does not have to be a solitary act, and we have moved into a time where the discussion and exploration of such books are not done on one’s lonesome.

Another thing I really like about Every Day I Read is its little teachings. When you are discovering or rediscovering reading, there are definitely ideas we are fed as to how we are meant to read or be readers. Every Day I Read reminds us that reading can be as simple as reading when you have a free moment, maybe ten minutes or less, and allowing ourselves the time and space to think critically about how we feel about the books, tapping into some metacognition that is not only beneficial in expanding our thought processes and understanding of the world, but also in understanding who we are and the kinds of people we want to be. I am reminded to take my time to absorb the messages given on each page, to feel the book as it seeps into your soul, and to think about what it is I am picking up. It makes me feel more connected to the books and the practice of reading so much more than where I was at before my burnout, and I know that this is the sustainable way forward for me.

Every Day I Read has helped me at the exact moment in time that I needed it, and I don’t think a book will align so perfectly with my life journey for the rest of the year. I highly encourage you all to take a look and see if it is something that resonates with you. This is a book I feel many will be able to enjoy and take something useful from, and there is no specific genre reader I feel may benefit most. It is something that can be a beacon for so many of us readers, so I hope you check it out.