Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop

Yeongju goes through her online orders and to-do list. The list is an important part of her routine since it gives her a sense of purpose for each day.

Before she started the bookshop, Yeongju felt unmoored from herself. The process of starting the bookshop became her way of anchoring herself back to life. At first, she did not know how to draw people inside the shop because she inadvertently made its atmosphere unwelcoming. One of her first regulars, the mother of a teenager named Mincheol, urged her not to lounge around in the shop and to think instead of how she could improve her business.

Mincheol’s mother regularly came by to check in on Yeongju. She understood what Yeongju was going through, having experienced depression shortly after giving birth. She advised Yeongju that it would help with her healing if she cried as much as she could. Yeongju continued to grieve until, one day, she told herself that it was okay not to cry anymore. She filled her hours with books, which made her feel like a child again. This motivated her to do better for her bookshop. She started to focus on making her bookshop feel more credible, highlighting certain titles with recommendations and posting more often on the bookshop’s Instagram account.

Mincheol’s mother was surprised to hear that, thanks to Instagram, people come from outside Hyunam-dong to visit the bookshop. Gradually, Yeongju built up her routine so that she could stay busy all day. On the first anniversary of the bookshop, she decided to hire a barista to serve coffee.

The bookshop is now two years old. The barista, Minjun, will soon arrive for the day.

Minjun endures relentless heat on his way to the bookshop. When he answered Yeongju’s hiring ad a year ago, he was in desperate need of money. He visited the bookshop and took a moment to browse around, perusing a few pages from Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog. The pages he read were about the inherent loneliness of humanity and the ways individuals can connect with each other through storytelling. The ideas surprised him as he never usually thought about loneliness.

Minjun made coffee for Yeongju to demonstrate his barista skills. Yeongju hired him on the spot. She explained that she needed him to take care of everything related to the café services of the bookshop, which included sourcing beans from Yeongju’s business partner. She stressed that she and Minjun would never have to overlap in their duties unless they expressed the need for help. After explaining Minjun’s work schedule, Yeongju indicated that Minjun would receive a full-time salary, which surprised him because it was much higher than the market rate. Yeongju reassured him that it was nothing to worry about since she wanted to prioritize his welfare as an employee. She also made it clear that with her overhead costs, she didn’t expect to run the shop for more than two years. Despite his doubts about the state of the shop, Minjun signed the contract. Since then, Minjun and Yeongju have followed their work agreement faithfully.

When Minjun arrives at the shop, Yeongju asks him what the coffee of the day will be. Minjun teases her to guess and brews a cup. She comments on its flavor profile after tasting, complimenting the fruitiness of the coffee. They continue to prepare for the day.

Part of Yeongju’s routine is to read a novel before the bookshop opens. Her immersion in a book helps her to distance herself from her feelings and empathize with other people. She often looks for stories featuring characters who walked away from their old lives and embraced change.

Sometimes, Yeongju is bothered by an accusatory internal voice she heard in the past. The voice tells Yeongju that she is selfish. The stories she reads give her the strength to affirm that the choice she made in the past was not just necessary—it was also the only choice she had.

Yeongju is currently reading Animal Triste by Monika Maron. Its story about a woman who walks away from her family to be with another man resonates with her, but she is surprised by the novel’s insight that love is the necessary ingredient for all things. Yeongju does not fully agree with this since she herself is living well enough without love. An alarm goes off, signaling that it is time to open the shop. Yeongju is tempted to ask Minjun what he thinks about the book’s insight, but she also expects that Minjun will be characteristically reticent.

Yeongju decides that life is all about moving forward with the answer that feels right at the time until it no longer serves. Only then should one try to look for the next answer, accepting that the solution always changes.

In the bookshop’s early days, Yeongju erroneously believed that she could recommend her favorite books to customers without knowing what they were looking for. Once, a man asked her for an interesting book, so she recommended The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. As the man asked more questions, it dawned on Yeongju that he was looking for something in the historical nonfiction section. This moment inspired her to do better by using probing questions to find out what books her customers might enjoy.

The task of recommending books remains a challenge to Yeongju, especially when the customers bring abstract requests to her. Once, Mincheol’s mother requested “a book that’ll unclog a smothered heart” (24). As Yeongju asked more questions, she learned that Mincheol’s mother was worried that Mincheol had no sense of interest or excitement in life. Unable to think outside her limited experience and worldview, Yeongju admitted that she couldn’t think of a title that would address Mincheol’s mother’s problem, but she could recommend Amy and Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout to sympathize with her. The next time she came back, Mincheol’s mother thanked Yeongju for the recommendation because it taught her to anticipate Mincheol exiting her life.

Yeongju assures herself that she did her job well if her customer reports their enjoyment. Still, she tries to discern what makes a good book. She theorizes that a good book leverages a deep understanding of the author’s life to help the reader navigate their own.

After the initial rush of business, Yeongju finds a pocket of silence in her day. She uses this time to quietly enjoy some fruit with Minjun. Quiet time is something Yeongju learned to enjoy because it meant she and Minjun were comfortable with one another. Minjun preoccupies himself with making coffee, trying to perfect his brew.

Minjun is often a favorite topic of conversation between Yeongju and her coffee roaster, Jimi. Yeongju and Jimi are good friends, and Jimi frequently visits Yeongju’s apartment. Once, they talked about Minjun’s quiet demeanor, which Yeongju took as a sign that he didn’t like her, though she naturally assumes that people aren’t drawn to her. Jimi observed that Minjun was beginning to open up to Yeongju, as well as to her staff.

Yeongju uses the ritual of sharing fruit to tell Minjun to take a break every once in a while. She also uses the moment to make sense of her own thoughts, bouncing them off Minjun. Once, Yeongju shared her theory that life had no inherent meaning and that everyone was driven to find that meaning on their own. She admitted that she couldn’t find meaning in her own life, and Minjun didn’t know how to respond. Yeongju concluded that the effort alone proved that she could find meaning in her life.

Yeongju asks Minjun if people who leave boring old lives for something new are happy. Privately, Minjun theorizes that the knowledge that life will change is enough to inspire happiness.

Yeongju knew that her bookshop wouldn’t survive on book sales alone, so she started organizing community events like book clubs to boost profits. In many cases, the events increase walk-in customers, which Yeongju capitalizes on with promotional offers.

In Yeongju’s opinion, the bookshop’s real niche is the bookseller-hosted book talk, and she makes the extra effort of sharing this online for the benefit of her community and the authors she invites. Although she is usually self-conscious about her hosting ability, she usually finds the book talks fun in the moment. They allow her to discover that authors aren’t really eccentric or solitary people, but ordinary people who struggle through everyday problems like imposter’s syndrome and anxiety.

Yeongju hosts a book talk with Lee Ahreum, the author of Every Day I Read and posts an excerpt on the bookshop blog and Instagram account. They discuss how reading makes people more sympathetic, how people can make time for reading, and how to read despite short attention spans. Ahreum stresses that books must resonate with the heart more than with the mind. She suggests that the reason a large number of people fail to read has to do with a hierarchy of priorities and the exhaustion of emotional energy. She still has hope, however, that many people still see the importance of reading, whether they read or not. She recommends that people who have a hard time focusing should set small but manageable limitations, like reading with a timer and reading books that appeal to their curiosities.

Minjun routinely visits Jimi at her coffee roaster, Goat Beans, to discuss upcoming orders. In the past, Jimi used to visit the bookshop herself to help Yeongju prepare coffee. Jimi was relieved when Yeongju hired Minjun because he was a better barista than Yeongju. Jimi invited Minjun to Goat Beans to observe their selection and roasting process. While learning about the factors that influence coffee flavor, Minjun discovered that Jimi had an antagonistic relationship with her husband, who never visited the roaster himself. Jimi often complains about her husband’s messiness and his poor behavior with friends and with other women.

Minjun arrives at Goat Beans and listens to Jimi rant about her naïveté that drove her to marry her husband (whom she exclusively refers to as “that man”). Jimi proposed to her husband when they were working at a pub together. Though she swore that she would never marry, she was so charmed by her husband’s coolness that she abandoned her promise. Her regret is exacerbated by her husband’s unemployment and his failure to communicate with her. When she apologizes to Minjun about her rant, Minjun encourages her to talk more about her feelings. He feels that by listening to her, he can better understand how to share his own problems with other people. Jimi pushes the topic of her husband aside and quickly returns to a discussion on coffee blends.