Korean Rent out Bookstores

Some Korean bookstores are different from normal bookstores. Instead of selling the books, they rent

out the books for a certain period of time. Personally I am not so familiar with the Korean book stores since I haven't been there a lot... Still I asked my sister to write this post and here it is!

One of the things that I miss Korea is the numerous venues in which one can borrow books from. There are public libraries, but I prefer the small bookstores-libraries. Unlike normal bookstores and libraries, one needs to pay in order to borrow a book. Of course, there are deadlines to follow.

In contrast to public libraries, these small stores are found places near apartments. Almost in every street, there is at least one of this bookstore. These stores are not only convenient to travel to, but also takes account of all readers of age. There are variety of comic books, and novels. Within the comic books section (otherwise known as manhwa or manga) the section divides up into action, comedy, romance, mystery and such. Surprisingly, comic books have developed over the years so that some are as deep as novels in plot and theme. Even a few adults credit their value and can be seen borrowing them. Otherwise, the genre of novels are also enormous. Again, this section is categorized into romance, mystery, fantasy, action, history and such. These stores have a different value from public libraries. Public libraries are mostly educational based books; hence, they are excellent resources. The small bookstore like libraries I’ve been mentioning are thoughtful of what the readers demand. It’s mostly because the owners need to earn a living with it, but it still fulfills the demand of the customers; these books are more entertaining than the books in the public libraries.

These bookstore like libraries are also economical. Instead of having to buy each book you want to read, you can just borrow that book for a couple of days, and return it. One comic book costs around 34 US cents (400 Won), and a novel costs approximately 68 US cents (800 Won). For a price of one novel, you can read 10 books.

One thing that’s unique about these stores are that they also lend you dvds and videos to watch. Korean cinemas are pretty expensive; hence, some people just wait for the dvd to come out in these stores to watch the movie.