When BTS reads, the world follows

SEOUL – Throughout their long reign as a K-pop phenomenon, BTS has shaped culture in many ways, and literature is no exception. The group’s reading recommendations routinely send titles up bestseller lists, often leading to sellouts, reprints and translations across languages and borders.

Whether a book has been read by a member, inspired a BTS album or simply appeared in photos – quoted on social media or glimpsed in a variety show – it often becomes a bestseller.

Their devoted and highly engaged fandom, known as Army, has compiled extensive reading lists and formed book clubs to read along. Those lists now run into the hundreds.

For this edition, The Korea Herald has selected one title per member, focusing on books that are more widely accessible to English-language readers.

RM, the group’s leader, is an avid and omnivorous reader. Many of the titles associated with his reading lists reflect his wide-ranging interests, spanning classic and contemporary fiction, poetry, essays and art books.

That influence was evident in 2022, when he shared the cover of That Summer’s End on social media, drawing renewed attention to the Korean poet Lee Seong-bok. First published in 1990, the collection is Lee’s third. Its title poem reflects on love and despair through the image of a crape myrtle enduring a season of storms before coming into bloom.

The book is scheduled for an English release this August in a translation by Anton Hur.

Other widely noted titles read by RM include Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Se-hee and Human Acts by Han Kang.

Kim Su-hyun’s I Decided to Live as Me is part memoir, part self-help checklist that had already been a bestseller in Korea before Jungkook was seen packing it for the reality series Bon Voyage!

Structured as a series of roughly 70 reflections and to-do items, the book is organised into six parts, beginning with a section titled “Do not be polite to those who are not polite to you.”

Kim’s essays, including this title, have sold more than 2 million copies in Korea and have remained on bestseller lists for years. The book has since been translated into more than a dozen languages and published in over 25 countries, finding particular success in Japan. The English edition is also translated by Hur.

In an interview, Jungkook also mentioned reading 1cm+ by Kim Eun-ju before bed; the essay collection has since been published in more than 10 countries, including France.

A scene in the 2020 reality series BTS In the Soop showed Suga and RM reading Almond during a quiet break, drawing attention to the novel by Sohn Won-pyung.

The book follows 16-year-old Yunjae, who is born with a condition that makes it difficult for him to feel emotions, as he navigates loss and forms an unlikely friendship with a troubled classmate. The coming-of-age story explores how connection – through love, friendship and persistence – can reshape a life.

Widely read across age groups, Almond has sold more than 1 million copies in Korea and has been translated into more than 30 languages. The English edition is translated by Sandy Joosun Lee.

Titles among Suga’s recommendations include Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler; Reinventing Your Life by Janet S. Klosko and Jeffrey Young; and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

The top-selling poetry collection in South Korea over the past decade is I See You Like a Flower by Na Tae-joo, according to data released on March 18 by Yes24.

Published in 2015, the book has shown steady power, appearing on bestseller lists for weeks at a time and drawing readers across age groups. The collection brings together some of Na’s most frequently cited poems.

Fans have noted copies of the book in J-Hope’s studio, and in a television appearance, he recited Na’s poem When I Look at You. The poet later acknowledged the attention in an interview, expressing his gratitude and calling the artist “very lovely.”

The collection has also been mentioned by public figures such as Jisoo of Blackpink and actors Song Hye-kyo and Park Bo-gum, among others.

J-hope’s reading list includes Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.

Jimin mentioned that he had been reading a book by an 89-year-old author during a concept meeting for BTS’ new album in a 2020 YouTube video, describing it as a reflection on aging that resists rigid distinctions between youth and old age.

Fans later identified the book based on those remarks as Essays After Eighty by Donald Hall. In the collection, Hall reflects on memory, loss and the realities of aging with a candid, unsentimental tone, moving between past and present with flashes of dark humor. Revisiting personal habits and turning points, he traces how each stage of life reshaped him.

Other titles on Jimin’s reading list include “Between Calm and Passion” by Ekuni Kaori and Tsuji Hitonari, a two-part novel told from dual perspectives on love and longing, and The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt, an interactive volume offering concise, often enigmatic responses to personal questions.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino has remained a bestseller in South Korea for years.

The Japanese novel follows three petty thieves who take refuge in an abandoned shop, only to find themselves exchanging letters with people from 30 years in the past. Blending fantasy with themes of empathy and redemption, it unfolds as a series of interconnected stories about advice, regret and second chances.

Jin has been spotted reading the book on several occasions, including while getting his makeup done, and has mentioned it in interviews.

His reading list also includes Demian by Hermann Hesse, a coming-of-age novel exploring identity and self-realisation, and I’m Glad You Lived Like Bonobono by Kim Shin-hoe, a reflective essay collection inspired by the gentle, introspective world of the “Bonobono” character.

Please Look After Mum by Shin Kyung-sook became a major literary success in Korea after its 2009 release, selling more than a million copies within 10 months and later gaining international acclaim. The English translation by Chi-Young Kim won the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize.

The novel follows a family’s search for their missing mother, revealing, in the process, the desires, sacrifices and secrets they had long overlooked.

V mentioned reading the book in a video with RM, recalling that a fan had recommended it to him at a signing event.

More recently, he shared a photo on Instagram holding I Like Things I Don’t Understand by Cho Mal-seon. Published in 2022 as the 172nd volume in Munhakdongne’s respected poetry series, it is the poet’s fourth collection. The book reflects on unfamiliarity and quiet moments of dissonance in everyday life. THE KOREA HERALD/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK