This Year's Most Borrowed Book in Public Libraries: Dollar Gut Dream Department Store

'Almond', 'Namiya Japgajeom-ui Gijeok', and 'From the Gaze' Follow
Loan Volume Stabilizes... 43 Works by Female Authors in Top 50 Korean Literature Titles

This year, the most borrowed book from public libraries was Im I-mye's Dallergut Dream Department Store. The National Library of Korea released data on the 28th after collecting and analyzing information from 1,320 public libraries nationwide (from January 1 to December 15). According to the data, the first volume of Dallergut Dream Department Store, published as a paper book in July last year, ranked first in borrowing for an impressive seven months. The second volume also showed an upward trend, ranking fourth last month. The total number of borrowings reached 30,077. The book deals with secretive and peculiar events occurring in a dream department store that can only be entered when asleep. It offers a touching and warm story about people who buy and sell dreams, giving readers a feeling as if they have stepped into a fairy tale.

The second most borrowed book was Son Won-pyeong's Almond (27,534 borrowings). Following were Keigo Higashino's The Miracles of the Namiya General Store (22,980 borrowings), Jeong Se-rang's From the Gaze (22,785 borrowings), and Kim Cho-yeop's If We Cannot Travel at the Speed of Light (19,832 borrowings). In the nonfiction category, Oh Eun-young and Cha Sang-mi's How Should I Tell You? (18,912 borrowings) enjoyed the highest popularity. A National Library of Korea official added, "It was mostly read by women in their 30s and 40s." Kim Seung-ho's The Nature of Money (17,323 borrowings), Michael Sandel's The Tyranny of Merit (15,401 borrowings), and Yuval Harari's Sapiens (15,328 borrowings) also ranked high.

The total number of borrowings was counted at 96,541,685. This marks a significant increase compared to last year (63,428,233 borrowings), when public library operations were disrupted due to the spread of COVID-19. A National Library of Korea official explained, "This is the result of actively operating non-face-to-face book lending services to ensure safe reading habits," adding, "It will be difficult for the COVID-19 pandemic to have a major impact on borrowing volumes in the future."

In the Korean literature borrowing rankings, female authors showed strong dominance. In 2017, male authors accounted for 50% (25 titles) of the top 50, but this year, they accounted for only 14% (7 titles). Conversely, female authors' share surged to 86% (43 titles). A National Library of Korea official explained, "The empathy and comforting stories contained in the works of female authors resonated with female users in their 20s to 40s, who lead public library borrowing," adding, "Especially Jeong Se-rang, Im I-mye, Kim Cho-yeop, Jeong Yu-jeong, and Han Kang received great love."