Viral 'text hip' trend boosts bookstore sales, brings literature to food aisles

For years after graduating from college, Park, an office worker in her early 30s, barely set foot in a bookstore. Having spent so much of her academic life buried in texts, she thought her days of reading for pleasure were behind her.

Then came October 2024, when Han Kang, author of the International Booker Prize-winning novel “The Vegetarian,” became the first Asian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“I remember going to Kyobo’s Gwanghwamun branch and being overwhelmed by the crowds of people trying to get their hands on Han's books,” she said. “That’s when I realized reading didn’t have to feel like an obligation. It could be something you enjoy for its own sake and share with other people.”

The experience was made all the more appealing by the growing array of literary accessories — from fabric book covers and book pouches to bookmarks, paperweights and decorative book rings — that added an aesthetic dimension to the hobby.

Since then, visiting bookstores has become a regular pastime for Park. Her most recent visit, a week ago, was to pick up “Autobiography of Red” by Canadian novelist Anne Carson, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature.

She also joined a book club this year devoted to 20th-century classics around the world, where she found herself among fellow readers mostly in their late 20s and 30s.

Park is among the growing number of young Koreans caught up in the so-called “text-hip” trend, which has recast reading as more than an intellectual pursuit. It has become a lifestyle statement — a way to express personal taste and cultivate an aesthetic.

The shift is reflected in bookstore sales.

According to Samsung Card Data Lab, bookstore sales rose 8.5 percent year-on-year in the January-September period, reversing a decline that had persisted since 2023.

People in their 20s and 30s accounted for 26 percent of total sales, with those in their 20s posting the strongest growth. Their spending rose 5 percent from a year earlier, followed by a 3 percent increase among people in their 30s.

The figures contrast with a broader decline in reading among Korean adults. According to a survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, just 38.5 percent of adults said they have read at least one book in 2025. The reading rate among people in their 20s, however, edged up to 75.3 percent.

The reading boom is also finding its way into an unexpected place: food aisles.

Minumsa, one of the country’s largest publishers, teamed up with convenience store chain GS25 in late August to launch a literary-themed cream bun that quickly went viral. Each bun came with one of 20 collectible bookmarks featuring the covers of classics such as “Les Misérables” and “Pride and Prejudice.” The collaboration sold 2 million buns in less than two months.

In October, confectionery maker Lotte Wellfood partnered with publisher Bookk to release four limited-edition varieties of chewing gum. Billed as “a poetry collection in the palm of your hand” each features specific lines of poetry printed on its wrapper.

Even workplace cafeterias are joining in. Samsung Welstory, a food service provider, is partnering with publisher Changbi to run its Autumn Bookstore program at more than 120 cafeterias nationwide from Oct. 29 to Nov. 13.

The promotion pairs seasonal food with literature, including an “autumn book bun” made with rice dough, whole red bean paste and maple jam. Shaped like a maple leaf, the pastry comes with a matching bookmark printed with lines of poetry.