On August 6th, at the book cafe
'Cafe Comma' located in Hapjeong,
Seoul, numerous books are
on display, enough to resemble a library.
About ten people situated on the first
floor are all engrossed in
reading in a quiet atmosphere.
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The twenty-something
office worker I met at Cafe Komma said this.I visited this cafe a while ago
for a date, and I came back
because I liked the quiet and
calm atmosphere for reading books.Park Kwang-jin. Songpa District, Seoul
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Mr. Lee Junho (pseudonym), in his 20s,
said, "Unlike libraries, I often visit
here because I can directly choose and
read books and also have
conversations with my friends."
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"The cafe Comma has
recently seen an increase in
young customers,"
explained the representative.These days, most of our customers are
in their twenties. On weekends, many
people come for book dates. As
customers continue to visit, our sales
have been increasing lately.
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Ms. Jisoo Kim, a college student living in
Songpa-gu, Seoul, has recently fallen deep
into 'Bookstagram'. Underlining impressive
passages from books she's read and
leaving reviews on SNS is her 'joy'
in her tiring daily life.Compared to other hobbies, it doesn't feel
like a waste of money. It also gives you
the power to self-reflect and it's fun
to communicate with others who think similarly. Looking at the
reading records that accumulate day by day,
it feels like you've become a great person.
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"'Reading is Sexy.' - This is the title of an article written by The Guardian earlier this year, highlighting the 'paper book reading craze' among the 1020 generation in their country.
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World-renowned British model, Kaia Gerber,
recently established a book club and
in an interview quoted, "Reading is so sexy." Last year,
the UK recorded its all-time high book sales
of 669 million copies.
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If you search for 'booktok' on TikTok,
hundreds of thousands of posts
come up.
If you type in 'bookstagram' on Instagram,
millions of posts appear.
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It's not just the UK. The reading fever has recently hit South Korea as well. A new slang term, 'Text Hip', a combination of 'text', meaning letters, and 'hip', meaning unique and cool, has become a trend among the younger generation.
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At the Seoul International Book Fair held in June this year, one could feel the craze for text hip. The book fair attracted a record crowd of 150,000 people. According to the Korean Publishers Association, the total number of visitors to last year's book fair (130,000 people) increased by about 15.4%.
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The majority are from the young generation in their 20s and 30s. The proportion of viewers in their 20s (45%) and 30s (28%) accounted for 73% of the total. On SNS, there were plenty of pictures boasting about the fact that they had visited the book fair several times, or photos taken with book fair goods received from publishers' exhibitions.
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It is confirmed from various statistics that text hip has spread among the younger generation. According to the '2023 National Reading Status' recently announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the reading rate (percentage of people who read at least one book a year) among people in their 20s was 74.5%. This is a number significantly higher than the average adult reading rate of 43%.
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According to Yes24, the number of books purchased by teenagers has increased continuously for the last 5 years. The results compiled from January to June this year show that the number of books bought by teenagers has increased by 46.3% compared to the same period last year.
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Books are a representative item symbolizing analog, but recently the main stage leading the text hip trend is rather the digital world, SNS. Sharing the book you are reading and posting a part of the book, 'proof shots' are popular.
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The ways in which the younger generation enjoys text hip are diverse.
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It doesn't stop at posting a 'selfie' of reading.
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The trend on social media is 'reading books by underlining' and 'transcribing'. It's a method where you underline important sentences or touching phrases while reading a book, write them in a notebook, and share it on social media. Next to the transcribed sentence, you can confidently post your feelings and thoughts as well. 'Having a direct experience' is an essential element in text-hip.
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The reason why the core of the text hip is evaluated as 'sharing' and 'communication', beyond simple reading. Reading culture, which was considered a boring hobby, is being re-highlighted as a means to coolly express one's taste and intellectual desire.
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