VOL.69/2024.04

2nd Week, March 2024

Bestseller Trends in the Four Biggest Online Bookstores in Korea

2024.04.01

March in Korea is the month that signals the arrival of spring and the start of a new school year. It is also a time for blooming flowers, new friends, and fun memories. The bestseller list is also filled with exciting new titles. For example, Gangster Grandmother in Hospital, the No.2 bestseller in the 2nd week of March, is an essay by Yang Yoo-Jin, a 1M creator named “Bbangthug,” filled with heartfelt stories. Even during its presale period, the book was enthusiastically welcomed by subscribers, taking it to the top of the bestseller list. In the book, she reveals that she is suffering from an incurable disease called lupus, yet she captures her daily life in a playful and lighthearted way, drawing expectations from readers.
The No.8 book, From Good Sentence Structure to Punctuation!, is written by Lee Soo-Yeon, a teacher at the “Korean Language & Culture School at Your Fingertips,” which is a part of the “Online Ganada” program run by the National Institute of Korean Language. This book is a guide to writing good sentences based on the questions she has received while teaching. It will help you clear up any confusion or questions you may have had while writing, as well as teach you expressions that will refine your speech and writing. If you want to express what you want to say concisely and articulately, this book will help you change your bad writing habits. From short sentences on social media to official documents at work, you will feel more confident in your ability to write well-structured texts.
The book History: Modern Era, No.1 in the top 5 in the history category, presents a clear-eyed look at the history closest to us: modern and contemporary history. The writer explains that the reason why we need to learn history is to study the past and use it as a lesson to set the right direction for our present and future. Meanwhile, the No.5 book, Minimal Korean History, is back with a new cover to celebrate 100,000 copies sold. Explaining 5,000 years of Korea’s history in an easy-to-understand fashion, the book has become a popular introduction to Korean history, with images and graphs to keep readers interested. So, if you are curious about history, which is more interesting than K-dramas, it would be a good idea to try out the two books.

* The rank of bestsellers below was organized after integrating domestic best sellers in the second week of March from the four biggest online bookstores in Korea – Kyobo Bookstore, Aladdin, Yes 24, and Interpark.

Top 10 bestsellers for the 2nd week of March
1		Same as Ever Author│Morgan Housel Publisher│Seosamdok Genre│Business
2		Gangster Grandmother in Hospital Author│Yang Yoo-Jin Publisher│Book 21 Genre│Non-fiction
3		The Not-So-Friendly Friend Author│Written by Christina Furnival, illustrated by Katie Dwyer Publisher│Little Forest Genre│Parenting
4		Reading Schopenhauer at Forty Author│Kang Yong-Soo Publisher│Uknowbooks Genre│Humanities
5		Small Things Like These Author│Claire Keegan Publisher│Dasan Books Genre│Fiction
6		All the Beauty in the World Author│Patrick Bringley Publisher│Woongjin Thinkbig Genre│Non-fiction
7		ETS TOEIC Regular Exam Prep: Vol. 4 RC (Reading) Author│ETS Publisher│YBM Genre│Foreign Language
8		From Good Sentence Structure to Punctuation! Author│Lee Soo-Yeon Publisher│Maribooks Publication Genre│Humanities
8		Sayno Love Author│Sayno Publisher│Day One Genre│Self-help
8		Understatement Author│Matthias Nöllke Publisher│First Penguin Genre│Self-help

 

Top 5 history books for the 2nd week of March
1		History: Modern Era Author│Hwang Hyeon-Pil Publisher│Yeokbayeon
2		Culture: The Story of Us, From Cave Art to K-Pop Author│Martin Puchner Publisher│Across
2		Material World Author│Ed Conway Publisher│Influential
4		Guns, Germs, and Steel Author│Jared Diamond Publisher│Gimm-young Publishing
5		Minimal Korean History Author│Choi Tae-Sung Publisher│Front Page