My wife Su Young Lee (we got married last month) has just published her first book. It is pretty unlikely the audience of this blog will read it, but it’s still such a great accomplishment that I can’t not crow about it.
The title is- 韓国語ストーリーボクス -Korean Story BOX, and it’s basically a mid-level fun textbook for Japanese students interested in learning Korean, filled with all kinds of insider insights on Korean culture- such as the lowdown on face lotion BB Cream (I hear it’s very popular with Japanese ladies), how Japanese are loath to schedule social engagements on a whim, and other great stuff.
It was published late March just after we came back from our honeymoon and has apparently nearly sold-out its initial print run of 2,000. Pretty amazing for something she started as a hobby, but soon became a very serious endeavour, as the idea mutated and the publisher was hooked.
It started off as a book of fairy tales in Korean and Japanese, then became far more original content she wrote herself. Once the publisher’s galleys started arriving, the work-level went through the roof. But now it’s all done, the book is on shelves, and she (we 🙂 ) can sit back and watch the royalties pour (trickle, perhaps) in.
One great thing in this book’s favour is the cultural headwind blowing from the Korean peninsula. Korean TV romances and K-pop music are pretty huge with a certain segment of Japanese; probably young ladies, though I’m far from being an expert. The Story BOX should play right into that demographic.
If you are interested (perhaps you are Japanese, or you just have a hankering to read more about Korea in both Japanese and Korean) you can read more about it on her blog (in Korean!) here.
Or you can buy it on amazon.co.jp here, where one of the reviewers so far said she loved the content, though was a little shocked at the ‘raw meat’ color of the pages. I don’t think it looks like raw meat though- more a striking vermilion.
Well done SY!
OK, crowing over. Back to our regularly scheduled programming (which I confess of late has been very sparse).