K-Book Trends - 1st Week, September

1st Week, September

Bestseller Trends in the Four Biggest Online Bookstores in Korea

2020.10.05

September. Breezy Autumn has arrived in Korea. Welcoming the season of reading, new books from various fields have joined the bestsellers.
First of all, A Country You’ve Never Experienced Before with rather a dramatic sub-title “How Democracy Dooms,” is a collection of dialogues on politics and society by one moderator and two experts. Meanwhile, another bestseller What is Studying by professor Kim Young-Min at Seoul National University who wrote A Reminder the Humans Are Mortal talks about how and what to know to become a matured citizen. Meanwhile, books about tips and guides to lead children to study in the right direction are also popular. For example, Mastery Learning Bible written by Lim Jakga of “Life Mentor Lim Jakga,” which is a famous YouTube channel with 110K subscribers, shares how to easily help your child to voluntarily master learning.
Also, Curiosity of the Hunhan Nammae 1 also hit the bestsellers’ list, which is a science comic written by Hunhan Nammae, famous Youtubers with 2.06 million subscribers. The Hunhan Nammae, who have been drawing popularity with their Hunhan Nammae (I-Seum) series, now talk about scientific knowledge from every day through humorous comics for kids. Meanwhile, an essay book by a popular character, “Pengsoo” is also hot. I Peng-Love You: Pengsoo Postcard Book was listed as the bestseller even during its pre-sale period. It contains highlight footage from Youtube channel “Giant Peng TV” that has seized the minds of 2.08 million fans and the newest photos shot while preparing for the book’s publication in the form of a postcard. At the back of the postcard, you can see Pengsoo’s encouraging, heart-warming, and humorous quotes for readers.
Meanwhile, Almonds by writer Sohn Won-Pyung was published in March 2018, but as the members of BTS were found to be reading this book in a JTBC program “In The Soop,” it was immediately added to the top list of bestsellers. Being a popular book among readers since its publication, Almonds won the 10th Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction, and ranked first in the translated novels category in Japanese bookstores. Recently, readers voted writer Sohn Won-Pyung as the “young writer that will be the future of Korean literature” on Yes24, a large online bookstore in Korea. The popularity of Almonds is expected to continue as its literary value has been widely recognized across the world; translated editions of the book have been published in countries including Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Spain.

* The rank of bestsellers below was organized after integrating domestic bestsellers in the first week of September from the four biggest online bookstores in Korea - Kyobo Bookstore, Aladdin, Yes 24, and Interpark.

Best sellers
1		*A Country You’ve Never Experienced Before* Author \| Kang Yang-Gu, Kwon Kyung-Ae, Kim Kyung-Ryul, Seo Min, Jin Joong-Kwon Publisher \| Imagine 1000 Genre \| Politics & Society
2		*Almonds* Author \| Sohn Won-Pyung Publisher \| Changbi Genre \| Novel
3		*The Property of Money* Author \| Kim Seung-Ho Publisher \| Snowfox Books Genre \| Economics & Business Administration
4		*Bienvenue au paradis* Author \| Bernard Werber Publisher \| The Open Books Genre \| Novel
5		*Curiosity of the Hunhan Nammae 1* Author \| Hunhan Nammae (Original), Ahn Chi-Hyeon Publisher \| I-Seum Genre \| Kids Comics
6		*How Studying Became So Fun* Author \| Park Sung-Hyuk Publisher \| Dasan Books Genre \| Essay
7		*What is Studying?* Author \| Kim Young-Min Publisher \| ACROSS Genre \| Liberal Arts
7		The Cakewalk Series: Stock Market Investing (2020) Author \| Yoon Jae-Soo Publisher \| Gilbut Genre \| Economics & Business Administration
7		*I Peng-Love You: Pengsoo Postcard Book* Author \| EBS Publisher \| EBS BOOKS Genre \| Essay
10		*Mastery Learning Bible* Author \| Lim Jakga Publisher \| E-Dasan Genre \| Home & Childcare
10		*You Can Do It!* Author \| John Lee Publisher \| Knomad Genre \| Economics & Business Administration