A new book makes the case for reading print newspapers and books at a time when digital media and short-form video dominate.
Kang Hee-taek, head of the new media team at the Gyeonggi Provincial Council, has published "Minerva's Owl Reads the Newspaper at Dawn." The author compiled the book from notes he kept over many years while reading newspaper columns, adding his own reflections. Ranging across history, politics, society, culture and daily life, he shares the knowledge and insights he drew from newspapers.
The book is organized into five chapters. The first, "People, People, a World Where People Live," revisits the lives and choices of historical figures including Nelson Mandela, Confucius and Che Guevara. The second, "All History Is Contemporary History," examines how the past connects to Korean society today through figures and episodes such as Gen. Hong Beom-do and McCarthyism. The third, "Eating, Enjoying and Above All Living," broadens the reader's view of the world through everyday subjects such as coffee, cats and gravity.
The fourth chapter, "Democracy, Again!," reconsiders the meaning of democracy through questions of justice and authority, disability and hatred. The final chapter, "Words and Writing, Knowledge and Wisdom," explores the value of language and learning through the Korean language, Chinese characters and the arts. Rather than simply introducing stories found in newspapers, the book links them to the problems facing society today and gives readers something to think about.
Ahn Jin-geol, director of the Institute for Livelihood Economy, wrote in a recommendation that the author's stubborn refusal to let go of newspapers and books is appealing at a time when reading is increasingly becoming a relic. He said he hoped many readers would join in what he called a meaningful attempt and challenge.
"The curiosity about the world that I felt as a child delivering newspapers has, after many years, borne fruit as a book, and that stirs new feelings in me," the author said. "A newspaper is not merely a medium that delivers news of the world. It is a window of wisdom for understanding an era and looking at people." He added that he hoped the power to read the world would become a seed of hope for building a better tomorrow.