A Trip for the Reader's Seoul

Three tall stacks of multicolored books.

Are you a reader who loves anything to do with books? Does your dream vacation include visiting libraries and bookstores? Then Seoul, South Korea, is a great place for a trip. Seoul boasts many amazing libraries and bookstores with breathtaking architecture, design, and—most importantly—books! Seoul bookstores cater to a variety of tastes and include books in many different languages. Here are some of the top bookstores and libraries every book lover needs to visit in Seoul.

Seoul Book Repository

This secondhand bookstore in an immense warehouse (approximately 1,400 sq. m, or 15,000 sq. ft) is the perfect destination for any traveler. The Repository is stocked with used books from many other used bookstores in the area. Books are organized by suppliers, so it’s as if there were several mini bookstores in one building. Readers can spend hours here and still be surprised by discoveries on every shelf. The beautiful rounded bookshelves create a tunnel for customers to walk through, making it the perfect place for pictures.

Starfield Library

If you fell in love with Belle’s library in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, this place is for you! Located in the COEX Mall, it features several bookshelves that are 13 m (or 43 ft) tall. Most of the books found in the library are in Korean, but there are plenty of books in other languages for international visitors to enjoy. Books cannot be checked out of this library, but they can be enjoyed in the many comfortable reading areas throughout the site.

Book Park

Are you the type of reader who loves to read outdoors? Book Park touts many windows, plants, and reading nooks to give readers the feel of an outdoor reading experience while inside.

The colossal bookshelves (at almost 26 m or 88 ft tall) hold approximately 100,000 books about diverse topics in a variety of languages. This bookstore also doubles as an art gallery, café, and stationery shop. The shop is a great place for readers to spend all day lost in a book, get a good meal, enjoy some art, or browse stationery and notebooks—it has something for everyone’s tastes.

ARC.N.BOOK

This famous bookstore, like the Seoul Book Repository, features a book arch that’s a great place for pictures. This store holds about 30,000 books, mostly in Korean, but with a fair amount in English, too.

Exquisite restaurants are also an excellent feature of this bookstore—they have several different options that serve foods from all around the world. If you love international food and books, this place is a must-see.

Other Sites

There are so many amazing literary stops in Seoul! There’s the Naver Library, Kyobo Book, Bandi & Lundis, the Cheongun Literature Library, and much more. For every bibliophile out there, Seoul, South Korea, is a great place to spend an unforgettable weekend (or longer).