Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum

We Say Bibliolater
Jan 23, 2025
2 min read

Translated to English by Shanna Tan

Happy 2025 Bibliolaters! Starting the year with this simple, easy question: “Is there a book that will unclog a smothered heart? Will a book have that much power?”

I believe I made the right decision in picking up ‘Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop’ by Hwang Bo-Reum as my first book for the year. To start off, it’s a book about a woman, Yeongju, who leaves a high-power career, a suffocating society behind to open a little bookshop. Which of us doesn’t have that dream? The book also celebrates the written word, the act of reading, the joy in discovering the right book at the right time; all the reasons we started this page.

“Reading makes you see with clearer eyes and understand the world better. When you can do that, you become stronger - the feeling you associate with success. But at the same time, it gives you pain. Within the pages, there’s much suffering, beyond what we’ve gone through in our finite experience of life. You’ll read about suffering you didn’t know existed. Having experienced their pain through words, it becomes a lot harder to focus on pursuing individual happiness and success. Reading makes you deviate from the textbook definition of success because books don’t make us go ahead of or above anyone else; they guide us to stand alongside others…We become more compassionate. To read is to see things from someone else's perspective, and that naturally leads you to stop and look out for other people, rather than chase after success in the rat race. If more people read, I think the world would become a better place. ”

And that brings me to what this book does, meditate on what it truly means to be successful. As someone wading through the marsh of today’s job market, more often than not feeling lost and hopeless, this book was like “evening breeze blows, I thank it for clearing up the stuffiness in me and letting me breathe easier.” Going through the disappointments, confusions, heartbreak, and small happiness of the characters in this book, I often found myself reflecting with them: Am I putting in enough effort? Does everything need to be really interesting, can I be happy with the mundane? Am I adequate enough? Is it okay not to be where you ought to in your career? Is it really okay to follow your own direction?

When the daunting aspect of making mistakes or finding the wrong answer overwhelms, this book provides a lovely reminder, “Isn’t that what life is about? Forging forward with the answer you have – stumbling along the way and picking yourself up – only to one day realise that the answer you’ve held on to for a long time is not the right one. When that happens, it’s time to look for the next answer. That’s how ordinary folks, like herself, live. Over our life span, the right answer will keep changing.”

For me, this book has set some sweet intentions for 2025. And I would totally recommend it to all of you!