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Favorite Used Bookstore in Korea. Why?
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Harpeau



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Coquitlam, BC

PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2004 5:34 pm    Post subject: Favorite Used Bookstore in Korea. Why? Reply with quote

Which is your favorite used bookstore in Korea? Explain.

Myself, I'm kind of torn. I like "What the Book" for it's warmth and homeyness. Buddy serves the best cup of cappuccino on the hill. It's definitely worth the purchase of a book! He's a great guy to talk to and will order anything that you might want off of the net. The store is well organised and it's well lit. He also has some writer & poetry workshops from time to time.
http://www.whatthebook.com/


Now, do note that I also like "Abby's Book Nook". Seeing her warm smile and bright eyes will make anyone's day. Though, the coffee's instant, the couches are so comfy. You can really sink into them! In addition, the new paperback novels that she gets in, she apparently does not make anything off of them. And even though it's a bit musky and dusty, it does have a really homey feeling with those couches!! Not to mention her good taste in folk music!

Both Bookstores are just past the mosque, in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea.


There's the other bookstore down by Noksapyong Station. It's very small and crowded. Also, a tad more expensive. PM can tell you more about it than I can (like, the name, for instance). Embarassed

Are there other used bookstores that you like? PM me and I'll be more than happy to add them to the poll.

All the best!
Harpeau
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Mankind



Joined: 18 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2004 5:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harpeau
Quote:
Now, do note that I also like "Abby's Book Nook". Seeing her warm smile and bright eyes will make anyone's day.


Have you lost your mind or are you trying to be nice? She is the biggest bitch on the planet. She offers about 7-800 won on trades and is so rude. She personally is making By the Book about a grand a month by driving business out of her place.

BTB is the best around. People check him out for new books too. He'll order and charge you peanuts for it. You'll never pay Korean book store prices again. Great place.

HAND Smile
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sparkx



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: thekimchipot.com

PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2004 6:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think you mean "What the book" Mankind....and I agree with your assessment.
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peppermint



Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

PostPosted: Sun May 02, 2004 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find What the book, great for fiction, and Abby's better for non fiction. I usually go to both. . unless I spend too much at one first.
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mindmetoo



Joined: 02 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Abbeys has a rather picked over feel to it.

I kind of like the one a subway station over by the American military base/Korean war memorial. I think it's generically called "Foreign Book Store and Some Back Issues of Maxim Magazine You Might Not Want Touch Because They've Probably Been Read A Lot In An Enlisted Man's Bathroom". It's remarkable how many decent used books this place carries. Of course there's the shelves and shelves of pulp crap but the lit shelf is usually well stocked. It would appear half the American military reads whatever Kevin J Anderson has written that week and the other half reads great contemporary lit.

I suspect you can find a better collection of used books at a Seoul used book store for Darwinian reasons. You're not going to pack crap in your limited luggage space. You're not going to order crap from Amazon.com. There's a certain vetting process that goes on before English books are brought into Korea.

I also sort of enjoy the fact that in Korea you don't have relatively easy, inexpensive access to basically every English book in print (via amazon.com or your friendly corner mega book store). It has an interesting hidden blessing. You're forced to read a book you might normally have passed by. For example I would have given Stephen Fry's Making History a pass as once I tried to read his book Liar and just found the first chapter utterly uninviting. I've enjoyed the hell out of Fry's TV work but what I read of Liar didn't impress me. Making History, on the other hand, was a fun read. I also read Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I would have given this book a pass simply because it was by a Japanese author. Banana Yoshimoto has biased me against Japanese works translated into English. But I ended up enjoying Norwegian Wood.
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Zed



Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Shakedown Street

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why did posts get deleted from this thread?
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kiwiboy_nz_99



Joined: 05 Jul 2003
Location: ...Enlightenment...

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 6:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Harpau, I'm busting you. This just seems like a hidden way to promote both stores. You're asking which is the best used book store in Seoul, and there are really only two worth thinking about ...
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kylehawkins2000



Joined: 08 Apr 2003

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 5:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Personally I think they're both crap.

The prices on many books are exorbiant. What's up with selling Penguin Classics (or similar classic book series') at more than the cover price? That's B.S.

The used bookstores here can't compare to even an average one back home. (I know, we're NOT at home....we're in KOREA!!) Well, whatever. I'm sticking to buying my books new. And for the books that are hard to find I'll stick to Amazon.com or Yesasia.com. Amazon.com has used books for sale BTW.

Later,
K
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Swiss James



Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Location: Shanghai

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mindmetoo wrote:
But I ended up enjoying Norwegian Wood...


Can I just recommend that you stop there with Murakami, I've read another 3 or 4 of his books and they're just maddeningly annoying- the most bizarre and ridiculous plot twists you'll ever read, told in the same dead-pan style. I enjoyed Norwegian Wood, but wish I'd never read the others.
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Tiberious aka Sparkles



Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kylehawkins2000 wrote:
I'm sticking to buying my books new.


Yeah, I never have figured out what the deal with buying used books is. It's not like buying a car or anything. It's a freaking book! What's a new paperback cost, like 10,000-20,000 won? Plus, they don't smell all funky, and the pages are nice and crisp (and now everybody knows my new-book fetish).

Sparkles*_*
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phaedrus



Joined: 13 Nov 2003
Location: I'm comin' to get ya.

PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2004 8:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote:
kylehawkins2000 wrote:
I'm sticking to buying my books new.


Yeah, I never have figured out what the deal with buying used books is. It's not like buying a car or anything. It's a freaking book! What's a new paperback cost, like 10,000-20,000 won? Plus, they don't smell all funky, and the pages are nice and crisp (and now everybody knows my new-book fetish).

Sparkles*_*


As long as the used books aren't dirty they are great.

At a good used bookstore I can get an absolute stack of books for under fifty bucks.

Used books also have character. I love finding notes in them as well as sometimes old bookmarks from exotic places, and they all have this lovely paper smell.

New books are also awesome.........
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Zed



Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Shakedown Street

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2004 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tiberious aka Sparkles wrote:
kylehawkins2000 wrote:
I'm sticking to buying my books new.


Yeah, I never have figured out what the deal with buying used books is. It's not like buying a car or anything. It's a freaking book! What's a new paperback cost, like 10,000-20,000 won? Plus, they don't smell all funky, and the pages are nice and crisp (and now everybody knows my new-book fetish).

Sparkles*_*
I think that would depend on how much you read.

But if you're looking for a specific book, or even author, here you're probably going to have to settle for paying 2-4 times the price at B&L's or Kyobo.
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mindmetoo



Joined: 02 Feb 2004

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2004 3:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Swiss James wrote:
Mindmetoo wrote:
But I ended up enjoying Norwegian Wood...


Can I just recommend that you stop there with Murakami, I've read another 3 or 4 of his books and they're just maddeningly annoying- the most bizarre and ridiculous plot twists you'll ever read, told in the same dead-pan style. I enjoyed Norwegian Wood, but wish I'd never read the others.


Thank you for the heads up Smile
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Tiberious aka Sparkles



Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2004 4:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

mindmetoo wrote:
Swiss James wrote:
Mindmetoo wrote:
But I ended up enjoying Norwegian Wood...


Can I just recommend that you stop there with Murakami, I've read another 3 or 4 of his books and they're just maddeningly annoying- the most bizarre and ridiculous plot twists you'll ever read, told in the same dead-pan style. I enjoyed Norwegian Wood, but wish I'd never read the others.


Thank you for the heads up Smile


You'll be sorrrreeee!!!

Murakami does it, and he does it well. And while 'Norwegian Wood' is his best novel, stopping there would be like listening to Sgt. Pepper's, liking it, and then completely ignoring The Beatles's other albums.

(a little bit of an overstatement, I know; but the guy did write 'The Windup Bird Chronicle'. And he appears to have gotten out of the funk that was 'Sputnik Sweetheart' -- a truly terrible novel.)

Sparkles*_*
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Zed



Joined: 20 Jan 2003
Location: Shakedown Street

PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2004 4:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kylehawkins2000 wrote:
Personally I think they're both crap.
So apperently my former post expressing a similar sentiment was deleted because it used exactly this word. Strange.
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