‘Dallergut Dream Department Store’... Millie's Library 'Book of the Year' for 2 Consecutive Years

Reading platform Millie’s Library (CEO Seo Young-taek) has selected "Dollar Gut Dream Department Store" as the Book of the Year and "Uncomfortable Convenience Store" as the Audiobook of the Year. The "2021 Millie Reading Awards" was held from the 3rd to the 13th, during which members voted.

Throughout the year, 49,896 votes were cast on candidate books shortlisted to 50 titles per category, focusing on books most frequently added to members’ libraries and those with high completion rates. Since 2019, Millie’s Library has held the "Millie Reading Awards" annually to announce the Book of the Year chosen by its members. This year, reflecting the growing demand for audiobooks, a new audiobook category was introduced.

The Book of the Year selected by Millie’s Library members for the first place was "Dollar Gut Dream Department Store" by author Lee Mi-ye, marking its second consecutive year at the top. Amid the overwhelming dominance of the novel genre throughout the year, the sequel "Dollar Gut Dream Department Store 2," published in July, also succeeded by ranking third in the Book of the Year, continuing the phenomenon. Despite an expected completion time exceeding four hours, both volumes show high completion probabilities of 67% and 73%, respectively, compared to the average in the novel category, thanks to their fresh themes and unique immersion.

The first audiobook winner this year was "Uncomfortable Convenience Store" by author Kim Ho-yeon. This hot topic book quickly gained word-of-mouth popularity on Millie’s Library and became a bestseller in bookstores. The audiobook features a multi-cast of nine voice actors, which was praised for vividly bringing out each character’s traits. Boasting a 79% completion rate, it also contributed to the influx of the e-book version, which ranked second in the Book of the Year. The audiobook of "Dollar Gut Dream Department Store 2" ranked second in the audiobook category, showing overwhelming support for the entire series.

The voting results were announced during the "2021 Millie Reading Awards" live broadcast held online on the 14th. Hosted by broadcaster Park Kyung-rim, the event reviewed this year’s reading life. It included a look back at notable books and reading trends based on members’ reading activities, such as the most added books, those with high completion probabilities, and books with the most one-line reviews, centered around the "Millie Reading Report 2021" published on the 30th of last month.

Do Young-min, Head of Marketing at Millie’s Library, said, "As shown in the trend analysis of the ‘Millie Reading Report 2021,’ which revealed a stronger presence of novels compared to last year, the love for captivating stories expressed by many people was also confirmed in the voting results. Since the selected books were chosen based on completion rates reflecting actual reading patterns rather than unidirectional sales figures, and directly selected by Millie members, the Books and Audiobooks of the Year at Millie’s Library are valuable resources that reflect real reading life."

Meanwhile, Millie’s Library, with the largest domestic reading content of 100,000 titles, has expanded a reading culture more familiar to everyday life and reached 4 million cumulative members as of November. In particular, by creating a comfortable digital reading environment tailored to lifestyles?from e-books to audiobooks, audio dramas, and chat books?it was selected as the "2021 App of the Year" by Google Play on the 3rd.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.