Top Book Trends in First Half: "Politics" and "Novels"... Lee Jaemyung, Han Kang Top Bestsellers

First Half of the Year: Major Bookstore Bestsellers
Lee Jaemyung's "Ultimately, the People Make It Happen" Tops Yes24
Han Kang's "The Boy Is Coming" Ranks First at Kyobo Bookstore

The impact of political issues such as the impeachment crisis and the early presidential election was also observed in bestseller trends. In the Yes24 mid-year report, President Lee Jaemyung's book "Ultimately, the People Make It Happen" ranked first overall. It also took second place on the Kyobo Bookstore bestseller list. Sales of President Lee Jaemyung's previous works increased as well. According to Yes24, his 2022 releases, "The Road We Walk Together Is Not Lonely" and "I Came This Far Because I Had That Dream," as well as his 2017 book "Lee Jaemyung's Crooked Arm," saw their sales surge by 17 times (1615.2%), 12 times (1102.0%), and 11 times (1076.4%), respectively. In addition, former People Power Party leader Han Donghoon's "The People Come First" ranked ninth overall on Yes24.

According to Kyobo Bookstore, sales of books in the political category increased by 40.8% compared to the previous year, with the politics and diplomacy subcategory rising by 113.9%. As the impeachment issue brought attention to the Constitution, sales of law books grew by 34.6%. At Yes24, sales of law books skyrocketed by about 13 times (1226.9%).

Following last year's "Han Kang craze" sparked by the Nobel Prize in Literature, the novel genre once again filled the bestseller lists. Han Kang's "The Boy Is Coming" ranked first overall at Kyobo Bookstore and second at Yes24. Five novels made it into Kyobo Bookstore's top 10 bestsellers for the first half of the year, including "The Boy Is Coming," "Contradiction" (3rd), "The Vegetarian" (5th), "Rapids" (6th), and "No Farewell" (7th).

In particular, a high proportion of purchases came from younger readers. At Kyobo Bookstore, 20-somethings accounted for 40.2% of purchases of Yang Gwija's "Contradiction" and 40.3% for Jung Daegun's "Rapids." Among all age groups, those in their 20s had the highest share of domestic novel purchases at 27.7%. Thanks to support from younger readers, the novel category recorded a 28.1% year-on-year growth rate in the first half of this year. The domestic novel category saw even more significant growth, with a 58.2% increase.

The Han Kang craze has also led to increased interest in younger authors such as Baek Surin, Sung Haena, and Kim Geumhee. Baek Surin's "Everything on a Spring Night," released in February, Sung Haena's "Honmono" in March, and Kim Geumhee's "First Summer, Wanju" in April all ranked within the weekly top 10 bestsellers in the Yes24 novel category immediately after release. Compared to their previous works, the initial two-week sales of these three authors' new novels increased by 1.5 to 10 times on Yes24. Sales of award-winning literary works also rose significantly. "The Dog and the Revolution: 48th Yi Sang Literary Award Anthology 2025" and "2025 16th Young Writers Award Anthology" saw their initial two-week sales increase by 128.6% and 32.8%, respectively, compared to last year's editions.

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