VOL.78/2025.01

South Korea's August Bestsellers

Aggregate data as of the first week of August

2017.8.18

Top-sellers continue to dominate

Japanese author Haruki Murakami's Killing Commendatore topped South Korea's bestseller list for a fourth consecutive week, flaunting its popularity among Korean readers. Kiju Lee's Temperature of Language and Nam-joo Jo's Ji-young Kim Born in '82 continued to enjoy their spots among the top 15 with no big changes. Lessons in Latin, a liberal arts book that dissects Latin snagged a place within the top 10 after seeing a fresh drive in popularity.

TV programs lend a boost

Some books have been riding the coattails of liberal arts television programs that recently ended. Thanks to the popularity some of these shows had, books like The Way Things Work Now climbed three places to 14th while Carl Sagan's Cosmos found itself in 20th place on the bestseller list. Cosmos had jumped 15 spots from the previous week as it was mentioned on a number of television shows in South Korea. The book found more demand on top of its long-running popularity thanks to the summer holiday season.

Focus on the president's reading list

Myeonggyeonmanri, a book series read by South Korean President Moon Jae-in during his summer holiday has seen explosive demand from Korean readers after the president recommended it on his Facebook account. A comparison in sales of the book, written by the creators of KBS' television program of the same name, before and after Moon's recommendation shows demand spiked among men in their 40s and older.

Comparison of reader gender/age for Myeongyeongmanri before and after Moon's recommendation

〈South Korean Top 15 Bestsellers, Aug 2017〉

Written by Hyun-jung Kim (Kyobo Bookstore Brand Management Team)