By I can’t imagine that this book will sell to well to an English speaking audience, but I imagine a Japanese version of his book would sell quite well:
Stuck with no plans for next week’s Lunar New Year holiday? Two recently published travel books offer insights on Korean getaways that are both well-traveled and off the beaten path.
“A Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty” has been a hot seller due to a record number of foreign tourists exploring Korea’s history and natural beauty.
This book stands out because it is a first-person account by one of Asia’s most famous actors, Bae Yong-joon.
The strongest point of “A Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty” is its honest portrayal of the subject matter. Bae explores his country in search of its “beauty.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link but the other book profiled in the article, Korean Journeys looks pretty good.
3:07 am on February 11th, 2011 1
Is it a good book? Kinda hard to read from Texas, even with my glasses on…
1:48 pm on February 11th, 2011 2
A book about beauty of Korea? No-one here is going to buy or read that junk. It's far more interesting and humorous to read news about the Korean train that went off the track. At least then you can claim you knew some French engineers who said Koreans were cutting corners (nevermind the fact that you'll probably be the 50th white guy I've seen who writes that).
1:48 pm on February 11th, 2011 3
"The strongest point of “A Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty” is its honest portrayal of the subject matter. Bae explores his country in search of its “beauty."
…with he help of his chauffeur, one luxury hotel at a time?
5:13 pm on February 11th, 2011 4
#2 BS. There are many beautiful sites in Korea. Unfortunately sometimes your countrymen tend to leave trash all over the place.
9:30 pm on February 11th, 2011 5
You said it, Leon.
There are a lot of very nice places that are truly so covered in trash that it is impossible to sit down without touching a piece.
I frequently host lake and river trips with groups of Korean friends and their families. I always take a couple of trash bags for our trash and I pressure everyone to pick up some extra trash until the bags are full. Cigarette butts and packaging for fishing accessories are the biggest offenders… with ramyun, snack and soju packaging coming in second.
Korea is very good at making campaigns and this should be the next big focus. Everybody feels good when the area is clean… and I think they would feel good if the country was clean, too.
Litter is a third world legacy behavior that Korea has not yet lost. Places like the Philippines and Indonesia have some beaches and rivers that make you cry. Laos would, too, but they are so funking poor, there is little sold with packaging.
America lost much of that crap after Woodsey spread the word (not to be a dirty bird) in the 70s… although traveling around the Southwest recently made me notice that unmitigated dumping of trash is yet another wonderful cultural export of our friendly neighbors. Thanks for nothing, Mexico.
9:13 pm on February 12th, 2011 6
I just ate in a restaurant and an ad played on TV.
I don't know if it the start of an official campaign or if it was a one-off thing but the subject was the environment.
Instead of a necessary and productive "Don't Throw Trash" message, it was "Reduce Carbon to Help the World".
Unbelievable.
3:36 pm on February 18th, 2011 7
Bae'snbook was originally published in Korean and Japanese last year and was instantly a best seller in both Japan and Korea. Then the book was translated into Simplified ans Traditonal Cihnese and has done very well in China and Taiwan as well.
Will it be a best seller in the USA? If they want that gold ring, Bae will need to hustle himself to the USA and do a very heavy book your but I gunk they'd be happy enough for it to do very well in S'p
3:50 pm on February 18th, 2011 8
To finish … S'pore, Malaysia and Philipines are the primary market for the English book, not the USA or the anglosphere. However it seems typical that anytime a Korean book is published in English, Westerners presume that they are the target market of the book and get snarky about how the book doesn't appeal to Westerners as though only Westerners are fluent in English.
6:26 am on August 20th, 2011 9
El libro ya esta en varios paises esperamos que llegue America para poder adquirirlo guardarlo como un bello recuerdo de este hermoso pais, debe seguir escribiendo esto es de mucha suerte ……..