Actor Kim Bum recently put out a single album in Japan — after showing off his vocal skills with the song he recorded on the additional Boys Before Flowers — and now he’s putting out a photoessay collection.

Kim Bum said, “After the broadcast ended for my drama Dream, I traveled to England. Over ten days from October 23, I toured London and the surrounding areas, and I’ve gathered the photographs I shot into an essay collection. You’ll be able to see it soon.” The photos aren’t solely vacation memories but aims to promote an environmental message.

He added, “I’ve wanted to release a book that I put my name on, so this is a dream come true. This was my first trip to England, and I really enjoyed myself. I feel great to be able to experience the culture of environmentalism myself and introduce it [to Korea].”

Meanwhile, Kim Bum has a movie still to be released (action-romance Bisang), and is enjoying a lot of popularity even if his last drama, Dream, flopped. Hopefully he’ll be more lucky with his next choice — given how busy he’s keeping these days, I’m going to guess we won’t have to wait too long for the next project…

Via DongA

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Post tags: books, Kim Bum, star extracurricular activities

Actress Choi Kang-hee (My Sweet Seoul) published her essay collection at the end of September, and within only ten days it’s already become a bestseller.

The collection is titled Choi Kang-hee, A Little Child’s Little Happiness and has shot to the top ten of various bestseller lists. Currently, the volume has sold more than 32,000 copies and is heading into a fifth printing. The publisher’s initial printing produced 10,000 copies, but because of demand, they have upped the latest print order to 20,000 volumes.

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Post tags: books, Choi Kang-hee, Lee Hye-young, star extracurricular activities

Earlier this year, actress Han Ji-hye announced she would be designing a line of shoes with designer Jinny Kim, aptly called “H by JINNY KIM.” Soon her designs will be available for sale as part of the brand’s Fall/Winter collection; Han also models her own designs in the catalog.

Han Ji-hye said, “To match the feel of autumn, I wanted to show designs that aren’t too flashy but comfortable and give off a subtle, calm feeling.”

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Post tags: Han Ji-hye, star extracurricular activities

Three actors — Ji Jin-hee (The Man Who Can’t Get Married), Yoon Kye-sang (Triple), and Sunwoo Sun (Queen of Housewives) — have teamed up for something called the “it Travel” project, which consists of a travel book and DVD in which they showcase photos taken on their journeys and express their sentiments about the experience. It also includes recommended places of interest, travel tips, and behind-the-scenes stories. The book has yet to be published, but the trio have just opened a companion travel blog called “it Travel: Travel with Stars.”

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Post tags: Ji Jin-hee, star extracurricular activities, Sunwoo Sun, Yoon Kye-sang

Last year, Clazziquai singer Horan put out an essay collection; now her bandmate Alex is coming out with an essay collection of his own, a food-related book called Alex’s Spoon. (The tagline under the title reads, “A food diary of a sweet guy living a delicious life.”)

This shouldn’t come as too much of a stretch for the vocalist, or be a surprise for his fans; Alex was reportedly a chef in his pre-singer days, and not long ago hosted a food program on Japanese television called Delicious Korea.

Although food is the main theme, Alex’s Spoon also contains essays describing childhood family memories, his thoughts about making music, and a look back at his love relationships. The book includes photographs, recipes, recommended restaurants, and so forth.

Alex is currently promoting the song “Tell Yourself,” and recently gave a solo concert at Akasaka Blitz in Japan on September 19. The book Alex’s Spoon will be published on September 23 — which, incidentally, is the same day that Yonsama’s own food and culture book, Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty, will be released.

Via OSEN

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Post tags: Alex, books, star extracurricular activities

Bae Yong-joon, or Yonsama, has finally revealed the Korea-related book he has been preparing for many months, called Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty.

In order to gather information to incorporate into his book exploring traditional Korean culture, Bae Yong-joon spent over a year traveling the country to research various topics; for instance, his first step was to visit countryside villages to learn the process for making kimchi in the traditional method.

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Post tags: Bae Yong-joon, books, star extracurricular activities

One thing makes me wary of this announcement that Choi Kang-hee, cute and quirky actress of dramas like My Sweet Seoul, is putting out a book. Not because she’s writing a book in the first place, but because of the fact that it is described as “mini-homepage-like.” (As in, like an unfocused personal blog.)

Her essay collection will be published at the end of September and is described by the actress as “without an fixed format.” The collection includes stories about herself as well as poems, and will be accompanied by photographs she has taken. Some photos feature the scenery of Iceland, shot when she traveled there on a working trip. Videos will be included on a CD to be sold along with the book.

Choi Kang-hee says, “I’ve frequently posted a lot of different thoughts on my mini-homepage, and I thought a lot of people enjoyed it. …As I visited the mini-homepages of other people, I wondered what it would be like to make a book that was like a personal homepage.”

(The reason I’m wary is because what makes a blog interesting doesn’t always make a book interesting. Plus, a blog with a specific purpose is a different thing altogether from a personal blog. I can see the potential when a book mimics that style while retaining a clear point, a la Bridget Jones’s Diary. But a book brought together with no defining purpose sounds like a scattered read.)

Choi has a new movie coming out later this year, Aeja [애자], in which her character is also an aspiring writer. The film co-stars Kim Young-ae and Bae Soo-bin.

Via DongA

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Post tags: books, Choi Kang-hee, star extracurricular activities