Book Corners - Seoul

Wherever we go, we try to make some time for bookstores, libraries, and other book-adjacent things. Sometimes they make it into the blog, and sometimes they don’t. Maybe it was the trip research we did or maybe we were just lucky, but we found there was no shortage of beautiful book places in Seoul to make a bibliophile happy.

One of the must-sees on my list was the Starfield Library in the Gangam (literally star-별 yard-마당 library-도서관). Take the escalator to the second floor to see what’s behind this massive wall of books (hint, it has something to do with food).

Common Ground is the world’s largest shipping container shopping mall. There’s boutique fashion stores and fun snacking experiences. However, on the very top level, we discovered something unexpected.

This is index, a book cafe that takes up just a few of the 200 shipping containers in the complex.

This beauty is ARC·N·BOOK inside the Lotte World Mall. A bookstore with so much more. There’s a toy section, reading light display, and decorative goods. Some of the most lush and creative book covers I’ve ever seen can be found here (shrink-wrapped to protect the glossy pages from fingerprints).

In the 1800’s, King Gojong’s Royal library began inside Gyeongbukgong palace which once held over 40,000 books.

The National Hangeul Museum chronicles the history of Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, which was created in 1443 by King Sejong.

It’s a fascinating journey of their written language and yes, since this post is called “Book Corners”, the museum also has many books on display.

And the winner for most unusual place to find a library? How about an old re-purposed oil tanker? This is the Eco Lounge and it is located inside T6 in the Oil Tank Culture Park.

Leave behind the frenetic energy of the Incheon airport Terminal 1 (departures) by following the “Book Cafe” signs up to the 4th floor. With peaceful music, the appetizing smell of coffee, and rows of books, this was our final book corner.