Tag: book

Books

I decided to Live as Me

𝒅 𝒂 𝒓 𝒖

by: Soo-Hyun Kim

*here are the few words that struck me the most while reading this beautiful book

Even though it’s not our fault, surrendering to injustice more than the injustice itself is the real fatal blow to one’s self-esteem.

In the book ‘Ways to Make Yourself Miserable’, it says that the easiest way to feel miserable is by taking a peek at the lives of others and comparing them to yours.

True value isn’t measured in numbers.

We sometimes meet people who misinterpret, distort, and criticize our intentions.

People humiliate others to validate their existence and compensate for their feelings of inferiority with this taste of superiority. It’s pathetic.

Even if we don’t become what we expect to become, even if we have to bear the feeling of being insignificant, we should face our true selves, and not make excuses.

The essence of self-esteem is self-trust, self-respect, and believing that you deserve happiness.

People who suppress their desires in order to do what they have to do lose the sense of what they like, what they want, and eventually, who they are.

If you chase external values without looking at your inner self, you’ll always live with comparisons and never reach real happiness and self-respect.

For individuals to live a life with self-respect, it’s important to understand their talents and choose a job where you can apply them.

The essence of life is uncertainty.

It’s okay to be selfish and somehow irresponsible. There’s nothing more irresponsible than abandoning yourself until you are suffocated with responsibilities.

People who will exploit our anxiety to earn a profit are everywhere and we can be easily lured. Therefore, stop doing your best anxiously only to prove yourself or to conform to the crowd.

You don’t live to be understood by these narrow-minded people, and your life is yours alone.

Books

Almond (Won-Pyung Sohn)

𝒅 𝒂 𝒓 𝒖

*I love taking down notes of lines/paragraphs that struck me whenever I read a book. And here’s my take home from the book “Almond” by Won-Pyung Sohn

I have almonds inside me.
So do you.
So those you love and those you hate.
No one can feel them.
You just know they are there.
This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster. One of the monsters is me.

Books took me to places I could never go otherwise. They shared the confessions of people I’d never met and lives I’d never witnessed. The emotions I could never feel, and the events I hadn’t experienced could all be found in those volumes. They were completely different by nature from TV shows or movies.

The worlds of movies, soap operas, or cartoons were already so meticulous that there were no blanks left for me to fill in. There was nothing left for me to change in that world.

But books were different. They had lots of blanks. Blanks between words and even between lines. I could squeeze myself in there and sit, or walk, or scribble down my thoughts. It didn’t matter if I had no idea what the words meant. Turning the pages was half the battles.

Once you repeat the same word over and over, there comes a time when its meaning fades.

“Anything will lose its meaning if you repeat it often enough,” she said. “At first you feel you are getting the hang of it, but then as time goes by, you feel like the meaning’s changing and becoming tarnished. Then, finally, it gets lost. Completely fades to white.”

I guess sometimes ambiance can give you appetite more than the actual taste does.

It’s good to help others if there’s no harm.

There is no such person who can’t be saved. There are only people who give up on trying to save others.

Anyway, this sounds like cliche but you’ll eventually meet the people who you’re meant to meet, no matter what happens. Time will tell if your relationship with him is meant to be.

It’s better to try than do nothing.

When sadness and disappointment get out of control, and there is no solution, people start thinking bad thoughts.