Han Kang's Nobel win sparks reading boom in Korea
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Han Kang's historic win of the Nobel Prize in literature appears to have sparked a reading boom across South Korea, with data showing that locals have bought substantially more books following the Oct. 10 announcement.
BC Card, one of the biggest credit card companies here, analyzed online and offline sales at major book outlets in recent weeks. It found that book sales of BC Card users for the period of Oct. 10-16 jumped by 39.2 percent compared to the previous week.
Book sales in that seven-day span were 44 percent more than the same period of the previous month -- Sept. 10-16 -- and 31.9 percent more than the same period in the previous year.
The new report indicates a general increase in book sales, after major bookstores have already reported that Han's books are selling more than ever before. Kyobo Book Center, Yes24 and Aladin each sold over 1 million copies spanning her literary works -- online and offline combined -- in the six days following the Nobel announcement.
According to the BC Card report, users in their 60s bought 51.9 percent more books during the Oct. 10-16 compared to the previous week, a steeper increase than in any other age group. They were followed by a 42.8 percent increase among those in their 50s, a 35.3 percent increase among 30-somethings, 31.9 percent among 40-somethings and an 11.5 percent increase among BC Card-holders in their 20s.
In terms of the money spent on buying books, purchases made by those in their 40s accounted for 32 percent of all book sales at major bookstores across the country. Purchases made by BC Card users in their 30s accounted for 23.1 percent of book sales, followed by 18.8 percent by 50-somethings, 17.2 percent by 20-somethings and 8.8 percent from those in their 60s.
Han, 53, made history by becoming the first Korean and the first Asian Nobel laureate in literature. She had also become the first Korean writer to win the International Booker Prize for "The Vegetarian" in 2016.
She became just the second Korean to win the Nobel Prize, with the other having been Kim Dae-jung, the then-president who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.
By Yoon Min-sik(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)
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