Book Lovers Campaign

HISTORY

2013
Book Lovers Campaign, carried out in conjunction with the Kyobo Book Centre, aims to encourage Korea’s ten million readers to read more as well as improve the general cultural level of the public. Several new events were introduced in 2013 such as: The Kyobo Humanities Lectures, fun and interesting humanities lectures for the public; Thursday Reading at Gwanghwamun, a regular reading event; and “Korea and Spain—Literary Rendezvous at night.” Furthermore, the Foundation sponsored two literary tours: “Snow Country Literary Journey,” where readers visited important locations from the Nobel Literature Prize laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s novel Snow Country; and “Literary Journey to Russia” to visit places appearing in the stories of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Both events received an enthusiastic response from the readers. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of novelist Kim Dong-ni, eight painters participated in the exhibition “Novels Turn into Pictures—from A Descendant of the Hwarang to Deungshinbul.” Their works were shown at the Seoul Metropolitan Library and the Yongin Poen Art Hall, offering to the public a unique chance to experience a hybrid of art and literature. The major programs hosted by the Foundation in 2013 are as follows: The Kyobo Humanities Lectures, Thursday Book Reading, Humanities on the Road, Cultural Trips (Snow Country Literary Journey and Literary Journey to Russia), and Novels Turn into Pictures.