Prologue - Pride Aging, For a Deeper Life

Part 1: The Bookshelf of Laughter

"Chopstick Murder" is not in our library.
Confessions of a Library Aunt
Find the misaligned 'Yongjiho'
Civil complaints are like poop disease
Book Sealing Master, Emergency Doctor Heo
We'll find the book for you
You can vomit
Please hold your farts
C-cuts in the library

Part 2: The Bookshelf of Life

Locker 28
Is this you?
Grandmothers' Wise Library Life
The Old Man and the Sea × The Old Man and the Library
A book that crossed the sea
Life is like a piece of pork belly
Please open on holidays too

Inside the third bookcase

I'm not a loan shark, but I'm a lender.
I keep my daughter's heart in the library.
Please enter the correct gender
We are loan consultants
Dreaming of a reverse run of preservation archives
Why do you only give peppers to her?
Affectionate urging
Misconceptions and Truths About Library Workers

Part 4: The Bookshelf of Memories

1.5 tons of Jjajangmyeon
It's a good 'dry' night
Enduring with tteokbokki, holding on with your butt
He sold the gold ring while leaving the gold mine.
I just slept well
Clear File Disappearance Case
That day, we were the protagonists of a novel.

Part 5: The Bookshelf of Dreams

Library Day × Couple's Night
Our lives are still in the midst of life.
About things that were once useless
The Last Flight of the Black Butterfly
Between autumn lyricism and pain
Love in a Small Town

Epilogue - From Chance to Destiny

The spectrum of everyday life seen from inside the bookshelf
Not A-cuts or B-cuts, but C-cuts, the cheerful and poignant moments of our lives.

The book is divided into five bookshelves, containing laughter, life, labor, memories, and aging encountered in the library.
From unexpected commotion in a quiet space, to stories of people whose lives are more passionate than books, to the work and memories of library staff, and a new perspective on aging, the author portrays the library as a stage where days and lives intersect, an archive of life where people and stories accumulate, and a place where the texture of life is imbued.


The daily life in the library captured by the author is full of unexpected 'C cuts' rather than perfect 'A cuts'.
The unique charm of this book is the humor brought about by hearing loss.
The commotion that ensues when a child mishears the word 'chopstick master' as 'chopstick murder' and misunderstands the user's last name from 'Gwak' to 'Kang' is hilarious.
However, the author sublimates even his own mistakes and discomfort into material for human empathy, emphasizing “the value of the leeway and empathy that human mistakes provide, rather than perfect function.”


The pleasant commotion that breaks the silence of the library never ceases.
The secret grievances of colleagues about the 'fart master' who suddenly disappears leaving behind only a strong smell, the story of cracking down on the 'young couple in love' who secretly whisper sweet nothings using the blind spots of CCTV, the story of an elderly man who insisted on using a shiny 'seuden bowl' because the water purifier cup was too small, children who hid comic books in the wrong bookshelf so they could read them alone, and even the bright eyes of an old woman who reads a book upside down even though she can't read the letters, prove that the library is not a static space, but a lively 'theater of life' where all kinds of desires and stories collide.

But behind that smile, there coexists the heavy weight of life.
The back of a job seeker who has been using locker number 28 for over a year, the earnestness of an old man searching for the book “The Soul Never Dies,” and the passion of the “007 Bag Elder” who dreamed of winning the New Year’s Literary Contest even in his eighties, show the dignity of human beings who do not give up on their dreams even in loneliness.
The library is not simply a place to borrow books; it is the last refuge where people with their own stories seek out to continue their lives.


Between books and people, the place where the heart resides
About the noble labor of caring for the heart

The author's gaze delves into the inner workings of the library, 'from the inside of the bookshelf', that is, from the perspective of a worker.
Although it is not a loan business, the worker who ‘lends’ books reads the ‘life narrative’ of a person – the trajectory of illness, anxiety, and dreams – from the user’s book list.
This is not a place of ‘easy’ work, but a place of intense emotional labor that deals with the ‘heart.’
The expression “Civil complaints are like a disease of poop” shows the ethics of workers who do not want to treat the desperation of the complainant as just work.
Reflecting on my early days when I blocked people from using the restroom by setting up a wall of rules, I establish the 'deep ethics of putting people first' that library workers should have.


The essence of labor is redefined as ‘the sealing of the mind.’
The author gains a profound insight from the sight of a colleague meticulously repairing a torn book like a surgeon.
A colleague's words, "Books, like people, can be reused after their wounds are healed, and when you see their scars, you feel affection for them," suggest that library work is not simply organizing books, but rather "lending of the heart that offers comfort and empathy."
The most significant message this book raises is a reflection on the social responsibility of libraries.
The desperate pleas of a single-person householder, "Please open during the holidays," and the story of a missing senior citizen, make us realize that for some, a library can be more than just a shelter; it can also be "the last link to society."
The book's powerful social message is that libraries have a weighty responsibility to provide "emotional safety zones" in an age of isolation and disconnection.


Even in the midst of misalignment, we
Dance to your own rhythm

"Library of Life" unfolds its story through vivid and specific memories of life that have become the solid foundations that support the author.
Life proves that even the trivial and twisted experiences that once seemed to lead us astray, or even that we dismissed as useless, were never in vain.
The author strongly asserts that life is not a marathon, a breathless, straight line sprinting toward a single, predetermined goal.
Instead, he argues that life is like a dance, where you surrender to the unique rhythm of the moment and take steps.


This book, set in a symbolic space where everything is perfectly arranged, the library, warmly affirms the imperfect existence of all of us who constantly wander, "misarranged," and deviate from that orderly orbit.
This resonates deeply in the hearts of readers like a cheerful and affectionate cheering song.
What makes this book particularly shine is its new perspective on life after middle age.
Rather than a vague fear of aging and loss, it allows us to look at the latter half of life with a unique quality that has been gradually forged over time.
Also, instead of despairing or becoming frustrated with the sense of loss, it leads us to reinterpret this moment of life as a hymn to life that still blooms vividly within it.
After reading the book, readers will perceive the library, an everyday space they pass by without a second thought, as a completely different landscape and with a new, much deeper meaning.