Gwacheon National Science Museum Selects ‘Top 10 Recommended Books for Autumn’ for the Public

The Gwacheon National Science Museum (director Lee Chung-won) announced on the 9th that it has selected the 《Top 10 Recommended Books for Autumn》 for the general public in celebration of autumn, the season of reading. The initiative aims to offer, through books, questions worth reconsidering in an age when data accumulates and algorithms predict the future.

[코리안투데이] Guide image for the Gwacheon National Science Museum’s 《Top 10 Recommended Books for Autumn》 © 장형임 기자

The museum selected the recommended titles through discussions held by its 《Content Strategy Meeting》, which is made up of staff members. They first settled on five questions and then chose two books suited to each, assembling a list of ten in all.

The ten selected titles are grouped by question. For the opening question, ‘Who am I?’, the museum chose 《Demian》, which follows a journey of growth toward finding oneself, and 《Record of a Journey to Mujin》, which portrays inner wandering. For the question of existence, ‘Do I think and feel?’, it placed 《Thinking, Fast and Slow》, which examines the two systems of thought—intuition and reason—alongside 《How Emotions Are Made》, which explains that emotions are the product of the brain’s prediction and construction.

For the question of space, ‘Where do I stand?’, the list includes 《The Death and Life of Great American Cities》, which sheds light on urban diversity, and 《Parable of the Sower》, which replants community in a collapsed world. For the question of crisis, ‘Can human beings choose?’, the museum selected 《1984》, which depicts a dystopia of surveillance and power, and 《East of Eden》, which explores the free will to choose good even in the grip of fate.

Finally, for the question of the future, ‘In search of another us beyond the questions’, it chose 《Gödel, Escher, Bach》, which probes human consciousness through mathematics, art, and music, and 《Braiding Sweetgrass》, which speaks of the coexistence of nature and humanity through the lenses of botany and Indigenous perspective.

The museum plans to post the ten recommended books on its YouTube channel (youtube.com/@gnsmscience) and Instagram (instagram.com/scipia.gnsm) as well, introducing each question and book in a more accessible and familiar way. The move is seen as an effort to expand the museum’s role beyond a mere exhibition space into a venue for lifelong learning that stimulates citizens’ reflection.

Director Lee Chung-won said, ‘Even in an age when AI and data help our judgments and choices, what to think about and which questions to keep pursuing still rest with people,’ adding, ‘I hope this autumn’s recommended books become an occasion for the public to see themselves and the world anew through reading and to carry on their own questions.’

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