Library-style cafes rarely spur reading, but provide new cultural hub

How homegrown novels have become a rare find on best-seller lists

When R-rated flick “Fifty Shades of Grey” opened in theaters here in February, the box-office score was a big disappointment with only 364,410 tickets sold. However, the story was different in the e-book market. The eponymous title, written by E.L. James, nabbed No. 1 in March for several consecutive weeks on major e-book charts, including Yes24, Kyobo Bookstore and Interpark, while the paper co...

26 scholars share insight on future of Korea Inc. in ‘Time of Accumulation’

“Way Back into Korea” By Choong Soon Kim (Ilchokak) A native anthropologist come home, Kim sheds candid insight to the wide gamut of socioeconomic, political and historical contexts of Asia’s fourth-largest economy in an intriguing narrative that keeps readers focused, while providing a solid precursor before digging into the current issues of Korea. The book takes full advantage of two too...

“Introduction to K-pop History” By Zhang Eu-jeong, Suh Byung-kee (Sung An Dang) Listeners of K-pop may be surprised to find that the content of a book titled “Introduction to K-pop History” goes all the way back to the year 1907. The term “K-pop” has become so synonymous with the global phenomenon of idol groups, dance music and fandoms that it seems hard to imagine anything before that ...

Frenchman recounts 10 yrs working at LG in memoir

“IS Report” By Samuel Laurent, Korean translation by Eun-Jung Felsner / (Hanul Publishing Group) Since it declared statehood about a year ago, the Islamic State, a jihadist militant group, has been making headlines with beheadings of hostages, terrorist attacks and other nefarious activities to push for its religious causes. Despite the U.S.-led fight against the radical group, the IS has been...

In the field of political science, the issue of national identity has been marginalized due to its abstract, impractical and amorphous nature that makes it difficult for one to empirically back his or her analyses of international relations. For mainstream theorists -- be they liberalists or realists -- material power, trade volume, investment amounts and other tangible, thus, measurable, data a...

“Beautiful Bonds: Friends of Korea.net,” a new book that tells the stories of 35 “Koreaphiles,” is a tribute to those -- both Korean and foreigner -- who have taken an interest in Korea, discovered its charms and helped spread its culture to the global audience. The 620-page book is a compilation of in-depth interviews given by an eclectic group of people, ranging from former Philippines Preside...

“Dansaekhwa”/By various authors (The Grenfell Press) Amid the emerging interest in Korean monochrome paintings in the global art world, an in-depth examination on Korean abstract art has been published in English this week. The book titled “Dansaekhwa,” written by multiple art experts, traces the roots of the Korean monochrome painting movement called “dansaekhwa” and its historical context and...

“A Goodnight Kiss for My Daughter”/By Lee O-young (Yollimwon) Lee O-young’s new book, “A Goodnight Kiss for My Daughter” (unofficial translation), is a collection of anecdotes, essays, letters and poems in memory of the writer’s late daughter Lee Min-ah. She was a pastor who died in 2012 after battling with cancer, the death of her firstborn and near blindness during her lifetime. Lee is an este...

Korean-American chef Corey Lee, the mastermind behind the three Michelin-starred restaurant Benu in San Francisco, has packed his debut book, “Benu,” to the brim. “It’s ultimately a cookbook first, but also a book that was trying to communicate the inspiration behind the restaurant and meditation on the menu,” he said. The book is stunning, a big, white hardcover with over 250 pages of recipes,...

With almost 30,000 North Korean escapees calling South Korea home now, many of their stories have been printed in novels, essays or poems. In fact, there are so many that literary works by or about North Korean defectors now form a new genre in South Korean bookstores. North Korean refugee Jang Young-jin’s debut novel “A Mark of Red Honor” departs from the typical conventions of this genre. In ...