Park Geun-hye's Prison Letters Collection Tops Bestseller List Upon Release

A Significant Portion of Buyers Are Elderly... 36.2% Are Aged 60 and Above

Former President Park Geun-hye's collection of letters written during her imprisonment topped the bestseller list as soon as it was published. According to the bestseller rankings announced by Kyobo Bookstore on the 6th, 'Longing Does Not Happen to Just Anyone,' a collection of letters written by former President Park during her time in prison, was the best-selling book in the first week of January (December 29 to January 4). It also ranked first in the weekly bestseller list compiled by the online bookstore Yes24. The book was distributed to bookstores on the afternoon of the 30th of last month, just before former President Park was released under a special New Year's pardon, and has been selling rapidly. A significant portion of the buyers are elderly, with those aged 60 and above accounting for 36.2%, followed by those in their 40s (22.6%), 50s (20.4%), 30s (15.5%), and 20s (4.9%).

As former President Park's book swept the bookstore market, novelist Kim Ho-yeon's 'Uncomfortable Convenience Store' was pushed down to second place. Seoul National University professor Kim Nan-do's 'Trend Korea 2022' (3rd), the comic 'Heunhan Nam-mae 9' (4th), Eric Weiner's essay 'The Socrates Express' (5th), and Matt Haig's novel 'The Midnight Library' (6th) all dropped one rank. 'Goodbye, Lee Jae-myung,' which deals with the conflict between Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and his older brother, jumped 98 places to 18th. The Democratic Party has filed an injunction request to ban the sale and distribution of this book, and the court's decision is pending.

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