Michael Breen

When Han Kang won the Nobel Prize this month, people rushed to buy her works. Bookstores reported sales of over 1 million copies within a few days.

Besides the obvious interest in someone who has suddenly become internationally famous, how are we to interpret this? Might it be the spark that lights a sustained passion for reading among Koreans?

This would be transformative for, despite the high level of education, people here hardly ever read anything.

A government survey revealed that, in 2023, seven out of 10 adults hadn't managed a single novel or nonfiction book in either print or e-book format throughout the entire year.

If they had picked one up, it’s likely it was to stick under a table leg or move to dust the bookshelf. Some may have started reading one, but then put it down and picked up the phone.

Thanks to the three people in 10 who did read a whole book, the average figure for each adult Korean last year was 3.9 books. That puts Koreans low on the international reading charts. Americans, by comparison, read around a book a month.

This makes me wonder if many of the 1 million Han Kang novels now in Korean homes will actually be read or whether they will lie accusingly on the shelf in the living room,........

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