prolog

Chapter 1: Stardust Falling into Everyday Life

01 William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
02 Yun Dong-ju, "Boy"
03 Kim Sang-hyun, "Nevertheless"
04 Jeong Ji-yong, "Lake"
05 Han Yong-un, 『Obedience』
06 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
07 Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
08 Bang Jeong-hwan, "A Little Thing in a Flower"
09 Kim Woo-seok, "Sometimes I Liked Myself, But Often I Hated Myself"
10 Emily Dickinson, Anonymous Poem
11 Shin Ha-young, "I'm Not in Love"
12. De Maupassant, Moonlight
13 Kim Sang-hyun, "Who Will Come to My Funeral When I Die?"
Essay 1

Chapter 2: A Love That Started Before Explanation

14 Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
15. Lee Sang-hwa, "Rather Than Saying Goodbye"
Noh Yeon-kyung, “Happiness is Active”
17 Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
18 Ansinae, "Happiness is Always on Your Side"
19 Han Yong-un, "The Reason for Love"
20 Kim Woo-seok, "Sometimes I Liked Myself, But Often I Hated Myself"
21 Lee Hyo-seok, Leaves of Grass
22 Jo Won-hee, "Someone Who Is Better to Me Than Someone Who Is Better to Others"
23 Yoon Su-bin, "When the Time Comes, Flowers Will Bloom in Your Garden"
24 Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, First Love
25 Kim Sang-hyun, “Nevertheless”
26 Na Do-hyang, "If You Were Embracing the Stars, You Shouldn't Cry"
27 Kim Ki-bang, “Today, We Eat Bread Again”
Essay 2

Chapter 3: Love, the Uninvited Guest That Has Become Everyday Life

Essay 3
28 Anthony de Mello, Wake Up!
29 Jo Won-hee, "Someone who is good to me is better than someone who is good to others."
30 Han Yong-un, “I Love ‘Love’”
31 Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady
Noh Yeon-kyung, "Happiness is Active"
33 Understanding, "Emotions may fade, but the results remain."
34 Lee Hyo-seok, “Because I Love You”
35 Kim Ki-bang, “Today, We Eat Bread Again”
36 Vincent van Gogh, Letters
37 Nabom, "I like it because I'm a cheese lover!"
38 Kwon Yong-hui, 『Seasonal Thoughts』
39 Kim Sang-hyun, "Who Will Come to My Funeral When I Die?"
40 Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
41 Vitali Kasnelson, "You Can't Control Death, But You Can Design Life"
42 Lee Hae-in, "Emotions fade, but the results remain."
Essay 4

Chapter 4 Jealousy

43 Anrina, "Records of Imperfections"
44 Friedrich Nietzsche, How Is the World to Be Understood?
45 Yang Gui-ja, Contradiction
46 Kim Sang-hyun, “Nevertheless”
47 Heo Min, "Farewell"
48 Charlotte Mew, Rooms
49 『The Treasure of Mind』
50 Takeshi Murase, The Last Train Station in the World
51 Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
52 Yang Gui-ja, Contradiction
53 Ilhong, "When the Desire to Live Well Feels Difficult"
54 Christina Rossetti, “First I loved you, then yours”
55 Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Essay 5

Chapter 5: Living with Separation

Essay 6
56 Han Yong-un, 『Farewell』
57 Lee Som, "Iced Americano Even If I Freeze to Death"
58 Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Low Tide
59 Ansinae, "Happiness is Always on Your Side"
60 Kim So-wol, 『The Road You Take』
61 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
62 Vitali Kasnelson, "You Can't Control Death, But You Can Design Life"
63 Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
64. Guseulgi, "I Want to Love Easily and Hate Hardly"
65 Emily Brontë, 'The House is Quiet'
66 Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, First Love
67 Oh Ju-hwan, "The Desire to Live Well"
68 Christina Rossetti, Remember Me
69 Noh Ja-young, "Eternal Parting"
Essay 7

Chapter 6: Still a New Love

Essay 8
70 Sarah Teasdale, Alchemy
71 Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
72 Yuri Jun, "Miracle Cafe, Kaedean"
73 Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
74 Debbie Johnson, Finding Joe
75 Edna St. Vincent Millay, Departure
76 Lee Som, "Iced Americano Even If I Freeze to Death"
77 Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving
78 Jo Won-hee, "Someone Who Is Better to Me Than Someone Who Is Better to Others"
79 Adriane Anne Proctor, One by One
80 Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Essay 9

Epilogue

“Because love cannot be expressed in words, we write.”
Words of love that penetrate deep into the heart,
And the desperate time to carve my own story

《Love is Desperate》 is a record of not forgetting love, and sentences for understanding love.
It is not simply a collection of handwritten sentences.
This is a book of deep thought that captures the complex knots of the emotion called love in each and every sentence, overlapping those sentences with my memories and ultimately organizing love in my own words.

Love comes before life
Staying after death
The beginning of creation
It is an expression of breath
- Emily Dickinson, Anonymous Poem

Love often speaks louder than words.
So people cry when they talk about love, and they are silent when they explain love.
This book places sentences in that space of silence.
From Shakespeare's poignant confessions to Yun Dong-ju's first love of youth, Nietzsche's insights, and Erich Fromm's philosophy.
Eighty sentences, spanning different eras, languages, and emotions, illuminate the many faces of love.
Between those sentences, author Noh Yeon-kyung's essay is 'someone's love story' and, ultimately, 'our story.'
Some people may find themselves recalling a past love from this book, some may reorganize their current love, and some may cautiously dream of a future love.

What is love? It is the most rational madness,
It's like a suffocating gall bladder,
It's a sweetness that makes you endure.
- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

The six chapters are organized in chronological order of love.
Excitement, unrequited love, everyday love, conflict, breakups, and even love starting again.
The process of following the script soon becomes an emotional training to face the love within oneself.
When you feel confused because your emotions are out of order, when you feel lost because you can't find the words, this book will become a light to your heart in the quietest way.
At the end of the book, there is a page of letters you can write to someone you love.
It is not a love story that is read alone, but a book of love sentences that are meant to be passed on to someone.

《Love is Desperate》 is not a simple record of love.
This book is for everyone who has loved someone, who has not loved themselves, and who now wants to love themselves again.
Recommended for those who want to recover love in a quiet but solid way.

“The more I write, the clearer my mind becomes.
Words that couldn't be expressed, feelings that were hesitant, flow into words,
“It is in that flow that we finally discover our own heart.”