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All South Korea Seoul Seoul Book Repository

Seoul Book Repository

Collected from all around Seoul, thousands of secondhand books create this photogenic tunnel.

Seoul, South Korea

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Fred Cherrygarden
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The illusion-creating mirror.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Inside the modern, municipally-run secondhand bookstore.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
There are vintage/antique English books as well.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Korean antiquarian rarities.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Seoul Book Repository.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Arches of bookshelves creating a biblio-tunnel.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
A rainbow of books.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
Tens of thousands of books await.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
A Wonderland of books.   Fred Cherrygarden / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Established in 2019 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Book Repository is South Korea's first municipal secondhand bookstore.

Housed in a renovated warehouse, the unique cultural center is home to tens of thousands of used books, including such rarities as independent publications, antiquarian books, and donations from celebrities, as well as a large number of English-language books. All were collected from 25 indie bookshops around Seoul. The shelves are organized by the sellers, each of them maintaining its own cataloging system, cloning a smaller-scale version of it within the microcosm of the repository.

While its library-like selection of books is excellent on its own, not to mention photogenic with all the rainbows created by the colorful book spines, many of the visitors to the repository are after something else: Instagrammable photo opportunities.

And it's no wonder, really. Inside the repository, row after row of iron-framed bookshelf arches form a stunning tunnel. At the end of it is a mirror, creating a much bigger illusion, a dreamscape for bibliophiles. The unique bookshop has also made an appearance in several K-dramas. 

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Literature Bookstores Books

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Added By

Fred Cherrygarden

Published

August 15, 2023

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  • https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2023/07/113_266856.html
Seoul Book Repository
Seoul, 04399
South Korea
37.521928, 127.103761
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