Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Adults fall for coloring books
Illustrator Johanna Basford’s coloring book "Secret Garden" / Courtesy of KL
By Kim Bo-eun
By Kim Bo-eun
People are apparently looking for outlets for stress from their digitally focused lives, and one gaining in popularity appears to be coloring book ― similar to those used in preschool with a bit of an adult spin.
British illustrator Johanna Basford’s “Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book” topped the Korea Publisher Society’s weekly bestseller list yet again for the fourth week of January. The list is based on a compilation of rankings at eight major domestic online and offline bookstores.
“Interest in analogue pastimes emerged as people started growing tired of the digital era dominated by smartphones. The popularity was fueled by people who posted pictures of their colored pages on social media,” Kim Kyong-tae, CEO of KL, the publisher, told The Korea Times.
KL started out by printing 2,000 copies, but began printing in larger numbers due to high demand. In all, the firm has printed some 250,000 copies of the book.
The book, which is filled with intricate hand-drawn illustrations of flora and fauna, has more or less kept its position on the bestseller list for the past four months. It first made it on the list of 20 bestsellers two weeks after the book was published in Korea on Aug. 20 and steadily inched its way up.
Korea is the 14th market the book has entered since its first publication in the United Kingdom in 2013.
Expectations for the coloring book had initially been low. The publication rights were purchased for a mere 2 million won, a spokesman for the publication organization said.
According to data from Kyobo Bookstore, 41.29 percent of buyers of the book were women in their 20s, followed by women in their 30s (27.17 percent) and women in their 40s (11.03). Only 13.79 percent of purchasers were men.