Hello book club of /r/bangtan! We continue to be booked and busy in Boraland with j-hope still wrecking us on tour (who told him Jay could leave the US??), a new collab song for RM, Jin’s 2nd EP, FESTA just under 7 weeks away, and because BigHit thinks we’re made of money they throw another tour at us – RIP my bank account. I know today is pre-sale day, so sending all the good luck and 🍇!! To help distract you from ticketing nightmares (before and after) how about helping us choose our next book for Book Club! We’re back with five BTS-adjacent books to choose from. These books were either seen on a member's bookshelf/in their luggage, recommended by them, were seen being read by them, are books about BTS and their music, or recommendations from the book club.

The ult-list is much longer but we used a randomizer to choose these 5 for the poll and we'll have fresh choices for you each month. Take a look at May’s picks and vote on what we should read next!

Some key dates to remember

(All dates/time are in KST) these are from in the planning doc spreadsheet

DateEvent
Apr 29Poll opens now – ends May 2 11:59pm
May 3Voters’ choice book announced
May 20Books with Luv discussion meeting

Don’t Say You Love Me… Tell Me What Book To Read Instead

These are the 5 books you get to choose from for the month of May!

Title – BTS ConnectionDescription
Almost Transparent Blue by Ryū Murakami (1976) – RM mentions having read the book during his time on TV show “Problematic Men” in 2015Narrated by the main character Ryū, the novel focuses on his small group of young friends in the mid-1970s. Living in a Japanese town with an American air force base, the near-plotless story weaves a vividly raw, image-intensive journey through the daily monotony of their lives which revolve around sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (1961) – Jin is seen reading this in his Sept. 2024 Vogue Korea shootComprising two works – short story “Franny” and novella “Zooey” – the book focuses on the titular siblings, the two youngest members of the Glass family. Franny’s story takes place in an unnamed college town during her weekend visit to her boyfriend Lane. Disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her, she aims to escape it through spiritual means. Zooey is set shortly after the events of Franny. While Franny suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in their parents' Manhattan living room, leaving their mother Bessie deeply concerned, actor Zooey comes to her aid, offering what he thinks is brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (2015) – Recommendation from the book clubIn a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time. Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most importantly, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor (2017) – Recommendation from the book clubShortlisted for the Booker Prize, the book focuses on the events surrounding the murder of the Witch of La Matosa, an impoverished fictional town in Mexico. The discovery of her corpse―by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals―propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. As the novel unfolds, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (2019) – Recommendation from the book clubOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity.

We’ll bounce back and hit Another Level!

Below is a discussion guide. We will also be preparing some questions for you!

  • Book specific questions: TBA
  • Fan Chant: Hype/overall reviews
  • Ments: favorite quotes
  • ARMY Time: playlist/recommendations of songs you associate with the book/chapters/characters
  • Do The Wave: sentiments, feels, realizations based on the book
  • Encore/Post Club-read Depression Prevention: something the book club can do afterwards (on one’s own leisure time) to help recover from the book hangover.

We’ll Be There for You (but like Jin with Chris, not Jin with Wendy)

Thank you to all who participated in our April discussion of the epic family Saga, Pachinko. If you haven’t gotten a chance yet, feel free to share your thoughts!

As always, if you have questions or suggestions on how we can make discussions even better please let us know. You can post it here or feel free to reach out to any of our lovely volunteers and mods!

With luv,

Our book club volunteers:

And the r/bangtan Mod Team

Rope It aka Vote for It

Vote for the book you would like to discuss in the next book club!

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