Is reading really hip in Korea? Or is it just the goods?

Book-related events and merchandise are booming in Korea. Book fairs are drawing huge crowds, publishers' limited-edition goods are selling out, and the latest viral craze is, of all things, a pastry.

Yet at the same time, the country's adult reading rate is falling sharply.

The contradiction has prompted a growing debate: Is Korea's newfound enthusiasm for book culture getting more people to read, or simply turning literature into another lifestyle accessory?

Among younger Koreans, visiting book fairs and collecting literary merchandise have become fashionable enough to inspire the phrase "text hip," or the idea that reading is cool.

The Seoul International Book Fair, where visitors have lined up before the opening in recent years, drew about 150,000 people to this year's event in late June.

The enthusiasm extends well beyond books. One of the latest examples is "Minumsa bread," a collaboration between the publisher Minumsa and the convenience store chain GS25. The product sold 50,000 units within three days of its launch. Some packages, which originally cost about 3,000 won ($2.19), have since been resold online for as much as 15,000 won.

The appeal lies in what comes with the bread: a randomly selected transparent bookmark modeled after the covers of Minumsa's World Literature series.

It is an effective piece of marketing. But it also captures the uneasy paradox of Korea's current book boom. The collectible connected to the book may be generating more excitement than the book itself.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's 2025 reading survey, the adult reading rate fell to 38.5 percent last year, from 67.4 percent in 2015. The figure measures the percentage of adults who read at least one print or digital book in the previous year.

In other words, more than six in 10 Korean adults did not read a single book in a year.

Meanwhile, neighborhood and independent bookstores are disappearing. According to the 2025 Trend Report published by Dongneseojeom, a service company for independent bookstores, the cumulative number of bookstores that had suspended operations or closed rose from just one in 2016 to 256 last year. The survival rate fell to 77.3 percent after five years and 64.2 percent after seven.

For the past several years, critics have complained that the Seoul International Book Fair is becoming more of a merchandise fair than a book fair. The backlash has been visible, too.

Several independent and smaller publishers that declined to participate in the Seoul International Book Fair, citing concerns about commercialization, organized alternative book fairs across Seoul during the same period this year.

Kim Hyang-su, the head of Hyang Publishing House and the person who proposed the Seoul Proper Book Fair, said its purpose was to create a fair centered on books and readers rather than merchandise.

Others argue, however, that the picture is more complicated.

The government survey found that people in their 20s were the only age group whose reading rate increased. Among those ages 19 to 29, the rate reached 75.3 percent, up 0.8 percentage point from 2023.

Joo Iroo, the head of the Seoul International Book Fair, said the growing appetite for literary merchandise should be understood as part of a broader shift toward experiences and participation.

"Women in their 20s and 30s today are already accustomed to buying light sticks to support K-pop singers or headbands when they visit amusement parks," he said. "Isn't it only natural that young readers who love books would also want to buy reading-related merchandise?"