"I Kept Seeing That Book Cover"... The No. 1 Book Chosen by Koreans in the Past Decade

"The Vegetarian" and "Human Acts" Take First and Second Place
Six Out of Top Ten Bestsellers Are Korean Novels, Including Works by Han Kang

Over the past decade, the top two books most beloved by Korean readers were both novels by Han Kang.

On December 10, 2024, Han Kang, the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, was celebrated at the "2024 World Nobel Literature Festival" held in the afternoon at Seoul Library. The "La Petite France Quartet" is performing a congratulatory jazz concert. Photo by Younghan Heo

On the 19th, Kyobo Bookstore compiled the cumulative bestseller rankings for the last ten years (from April 17, 2016, to April 16, 2026, combining both online and offline sales) ahead of World Book and Copyright Day, which is celebrated annually on April 23. World Book and Copyright Day originated from the fact that both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes passed away on April 23.

According to the compiled data, Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" and "Human Acts" ranked first and second, respectively. Another of Han Kang's full-length novels, "I Do Not Bid Farewell," also secured the eighth spot among the cumulative bestsellers of the past ten years.

Including these three works by Han Kang, six out of the top ten best-selling books were Korean novels. Following them were "Convenience Store Woman" by Kim Ho-yeon, "Dallergut Dream Department Store" by Lee Mi-ye, and "Contradictions" by Yang Gui-ja, which took the fifth through seventh places, respectively.

Other notable entries included the self-development book "Seino's Teachings" at third place; the essay "The Temperature of Language" by Lee Ki-joo at fourth; "I Decided to Live as Myself" by Kim Soo-hyun at ninth; and "Winnie the Pooh: Happiness Is Every Day" at tenth. Ranking in the eleventh to twentieth places were titles such as "The Nature of Money," "Sapiens," "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982," "Self-Esteem Lesson," "Rich Dad Poor Dad 1," and "Cosmos."

Meanwhile, Han Kang's "The Vegetarian," a collection of linked stories published in 2007, garnered significant attention when Han Kang became the first Korean author to win the Man Booker International Prize in May 2016 with this work. Immediately after the award, a "Han Kang fever" swept through bookstores, with "The Vegetarian" topping the weekly overall bestseller list for twelve consecutive weeks.

Han Kang, the winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature, is talking with literary critic Ji-hye Kang at the '2024 Pony Jung Innovation Award' ceremony held on the afternoon of October 17, 2024, at Pony Jung Hall in Samseong-dong, Seoul. Photo by Joint Press Corps

"Human Acts," published in 2014, is a novel dealing with the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. This work also led Han Kang to become the first Korean to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024. As a result, "Human Acts" ranked number one on the annual bestseller list in both 2024 and 2025.

"I Do Not Bid Farewell," a full-length novel published in 2021 that deals with the Jeju 4·3 Uprising, drew readers’ attention by winning the 2023 French Prix Médicis for Foreign Literature and this year’s National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States.

However, according to a survey on the national reading status conducted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the percentage of adults in Korea who read or listened to at least one general book in the past year dropped sharply from 67.4% in 2015 to 38.5% last year, marking a significant decline over the past decade.

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