Mood Readers Unite. discussion

Winner of the Munhakdongne Novel Award, South Korea’s most prestigious literary prize.

Cabinet 13 looks exactly like any normal filing cabinet…Except this cabinet is filled with files on the ‘symptomers’, humans whose strange abilities and bizarre experiences might just mark the emergence of a new species.

But to Mr Kong, the harried office worker whose job it is to look after the cabinet, the symptomers are a headache; especially the one who won’t stop calling every day, asking to be turned into a cat.

A richly funny and fantastical novel about the strangeness at the heart of even the most everyday lives, from one of South Korea’s most acclaimed novelists.

Translated by Sean Lin Halbert

Starting this one today. It sounds super interesting to me.

Just started this and it is *weird*

So the stories are all set in the same world. Got it.

The (view spoiler)[Symptomers exist in the Pick Up the Phone world as well as in the Ginko Tree one.<\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

Dee Dee wrote: "Just started this and it is *weird*"

It is indeed weird but I'm kinda in the mood for it.

I just finished the Chapter called "O, Sing in Me, HMS Prince William, of That Afternoon’s Boredom"

and I really liked the conversations on employment in this chapter. It's something I think about a lot as the world places so much importance on what we do for a living. I really found myself agreeing with the pov character's thoughts. I don't really know if we ever got his name

Doppleganger Chapter (view spoiler)[How weird would it be to just be going about your business and find yourself attracted to yourself and not know it was you. I've always wondered what I look like from someone else's perspective (hide spoiler)]

Eliza wrote: "Doppleganger Chapter [spoilers removed]"

I've always wondered but um...his reaction to it is definitely not the one I'm about to have. Bahaha

I finished Part 1 and I am really enjoying this very strange compilation.

I finished this a lot faster than I anticipated...

Dee Dee wrote: "I finished this a lot faster than I anticipated..."

The end of this was so weird. The book for the most part was like a slow paced commentary on life with magical realism which I was enjoying. Lots of themes of loneliness, boredom, capitalism, and urban life from what I can tell. And then suddenly we are (view spoiler)[cutting off fingers and the book is over. (hide spoiler)]

But yeah this did read really fast it was easy to binge.

Eliza wrote: "Dee Dee wrote: "I finished this a lot faster than I anticipated..."

The end of this was so weird. The book for the most part was like a slow paced commentary on life with magical realism which I w..."

It came out of nowhere! And then the (view spoiler)[self aware/meta turn of him realizing that he's currently stuck in his own version of The Cabinet at the end of it all... (hide spoiler)]

Dee Dee wrote: "Eliza wrote: "Dee Dee wrote: "I finished this a lot faster than I anticipated..."

The end of this was so weird. The book for the most part was like a slow paced commentary on life with magical rea..."

I honestly wanted more info on Professor Kwon. Like I wanted to follow his life and how we got to where the story is now. We knew so little