My Thoughts On Welcome To The Hyunam Dong Bookshop

An Escape Into A warm And Comforting Fictional Bookstore

Welcome To The Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum: book cover

Hello, my lovely bookish friend!!!

Welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books. What are you reading this week?

This week, I finished one of the books I talked about last week: Welcome To The Hyunam Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum. It’s a Korean book, I read the English version translated by Shanna Tan.

I learned about this book through my bookstagram. In a recent post, I asked everyone about the best book they've read in 2024 so far, and two comments back to back mentioned this book. I found that very interesting. But the thing with me is— I do not listen to people. It’s a real problem I have, like I do not listen to others and am always trying to judge things for myself, which among other means I don’t take recommendations from others. If someone suggests me a book, I keep that as an information in my head and only give it a try when I myself find some justification for doing so. Which was the case with this one as well. 

One night when I couldn’t sleep and kept tossing and turning in my bed, I remembered I had a free audible subscription. I had been thinking of reading some modern literature for a change and decided to give it a try. So I played the audiobook as I tried to sleep. The book started off very easily, both the language and the story being very uncomplicated, so it was a perfect read for my sleepy mind.

The book is about…. a bookshop as you can already tell, situated in Hyunam Dong (dong means something similar to a block or a neighbourhood in Korean from what I understood). It’s run by Yeongju, a woman in her late thirties who wanted to follow her dream after giving up on her old life i.e. her job and marriage. While she is technically living her dream, she doesn’t quite know how to go about running a bookshop, she doesn’t even believe she can keep the shop running for more than two years. But as time passes, she learns, slowly developing both the shop, herself and her attitude towards her shop. She makes acquaintances, people who much like her are also trying to figure their lives out, taking one small step at a time. And as they all come together, at the bookshop, it creates a beautiful cosy nest where everyone is welcome and can take a moment to breathe. And heal. 

I really enjoyed the book. It’s not too deep, it’s not philosophical or introspective, I think the perspective it presents is very surface level and even overly-optimistic. But I think that’s why I like it. I know life sucks, the world sucks for most part, but sometimes it’s nice to find an escape from that sucky world, into a land of slow, cosy comfortable life where nothing is as bad as they seem.

Oh, and also, this book talks about a movie I love, After The Storm by Hirokazu Koreeda.

So, all in all, I loved this book. I loved the warm and healing respite it gave me, which I badly needed. This was my first time reading a Korean novel and I am very happy I gave this book a chance.

What about you? Have you read Welcome To The Hyunam Dong Bookshop? Don’t forget to let me know.

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Also, if you’d like me to write for you, you can contact me at joyiewrites@gmail.com

That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻