Name: I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki
Rating: 3.393153526970954 (241 reviews)
ISBN: 9781526648099

Baek Sehee

Anton Hur

The South Korean Hit Therapy Memoir Recommended by BTS's RM

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어

THE PHENOMENAL KOREAN BESTSELLER PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don't know, I'm – what's the word – depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Se-Hee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiatrist about her – what to call it? – depression? She feels persistently low, anxious, endlessly self-doubting, but also highly judgemental of others. She hides her feelings well at work and with friends; adept at performing the calmness, even ease, her lifestyle demands. The effort is exhausting, overwhelming, and keeps her from forming deep relationships. This can't be normal. But if she's so hopeless, why can she always summon a yen for her favourite street food, the hot, spicy rice cake, tteokbokki? Is this just what life is like? Recording her dialogues with her psychiatrist over a 12-week period, Baek begins to disentangle the feedback loops, knee-jerk reactions and harmful behaviours that keep her locked in a cycle of self-abuse. Part memoir, part self-help book, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki is a book to keep close and to reach for in times of darkness.

It’s like watching through peep hole how someone else’s therapy sessions go. I am not attached to the author or her struggles at all but this book still served as a great opener on the topic of mental health for me. The book composition is very weird though. 

Marek Hnatiak

Doesn’t feel right to leave a rating (good or bad) on this book because it is so personal and raw. The fact that this resonated with so many people around the world makes me think we could all give a little more kindness and patience to those around us.

Xi Hui Teo

I love how raw this book is. It might get boring for a bit because of the simplicity and the conversations between the writer and the psychiatrist, but it comforts you when you find yourself in the same situation, or if you were. I read it in Korean and English at the same time and it’s pretty interesting to see how it translates over.

Alisha

It feels wrong to be rating someone's personal therapy transcripts - but I enjoyed this read and found many tidbits that resonated with me. Since I can relate it is a bit melancholic but I still found it impactful

cee 

i'm in this and i don't like it

I felt too seen. 

"To learn about and imagine the emotions that I don't understand or immediately empathise with: that is the affection I extend to others, and the only way to ensure that what's inside of us doesn't dry up or rot. Maybe complete empathy is impossible, but we can certainly keep trying. I believe that trying in the face of this knowledge is the most worthwhile thing we can do."

Finally finished this after six months. I can count by hand the number of pages I haven't written on, as I've tried to share my thoughts and experiences with the topics they discuss during sessions. This isn't a substitute for therapy, I'm clearly aware of that, but I found comfort in this during my toughest days last year.

Definitely haven't heard anything life-changing from it, but this one's a good read. I have recommended it to my closest friends, who also love it. :)

"To learn about and imagine the emotions that I don't understand or immediately empathise with: that is the affection I extend to others, and the only way to ensure that what's inside of us doesn't dry up or rot. Maybe complete empathy is impossible, but we can certainly keep trying. I believe that trying in the face of this knowledge is the most worthwhile thing we can do."

Finally finished this after six months. I can count by hand the number of pages I haven't written on, as I've tried to share my thoughts and experiences with the topics they discuss during sessions. This isn't a substitute for therapy, I'm clearly aware of that, but I found comfort in this during my toughest days last year.

Definitely haven't heard anything life-changing from it, but this one's a good read. I have recommended it to my closest friends, who also love it. :)

Aku : Bagaimana caranya agar bisa mengubah pikiran bahwa saya ini standar dan biasa saja?
Psikiater : Memangnya hal itu merupakan masalah yang harus diperbaiki?
Aku : Iya, karena saya ingin mencintai diri saya sendiri.

I Want To Die But I Want To Eat Tteokpokki adalah esai yang berisi tentang pertanyaan, penilaian, saran, nasihat, dan evaluasi diri yang bertujuan agar pembaca bisa menerima dan mencintai dirinya.

Buku self improvement ini mendapatkan sambutan baik karena pembaca merasakan hal yang sama dengan kisah Baek Se Hee sehingga buku ini mendapatkan predikat bestseller di Korea Selatan.

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki

Highly relatable. Author was candid in revealing things she said even if she was embarrassed by then. The latter half of the book lost me a little because it was less cohesive.

chris

this was a very quick and easy book to read however i did have to take some pauses in between because i found too much stuff that i related with which made me want to take a moment to myself every time. i appreciate the author's honesty and vulnerability because i would never be able to share all this to someone let alone a big audience like the one her book received. the only wish i had throughout was that, apart from the therapy transcripts, we went more into depth on the author's afterthoughts but overall it was a good read.

mint

Mina

The good thing about this book is that the author had courage to put out something as personal as transcriptions of her therapy sessions out for the world to read. Also, some good insights about what loving ourselves looks like.

But the book lacked structure. It includes a mix of personal essays and transcriptions of the author’s therapy sessions. It reads like someone’s therapy journal. Raw, unstructured, and good for rereading for insight on the author’s progress but not the best for a book. I wonder if this would have been a better read if the structure was different - longer personal essays. 

Like several reviews, I also found the therapy sessions problematic. The author has persistent mild depression and her treatment included medication and talk therapy including some problematic advice from the therapist. Were other therapy methods considered (e.g. CBT)?

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

lala

Okay. I’ve already known before I read this book that this will be filled with conversations between the patient (Sehee) and their psychiatrist. The psychiatrist diagnozed Sehee with dysthismia, or a persistent depression. Regardless of the specificity of the condition that Sehee has, the advice and the opinion her psychiatrist are general and applicable to everyday conditions. Her psychiatrist also ask her the difficult questions that are hard to come by by ourselves, and give insights on how we choose to compose ourselves. I might say that the things Sehee disclose in this book are a not personal enough so we don’t *see* ourselves in her condition, but from what I heard the second volume is more intimate and personal. I got some good advice from this book, but overall, it is an average read.

Anjorin Molayo 

Reading this book was so comforting. I was so into the dialogue between the author to the point that it felt intimate. 
I want to die but I want to eat tteokpokki is the kind of book i’d read again and again especially when i’m feeling anxious or when i’m at my lowest. 

I really hope you find comfort in this book like I did. 
A 5/5 for me 🤞🏾

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki The South Korean Hit Therapy Memoir Recommended by BTS's RM

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