Prologue 1: How I Opened a Picture Bookstore
Prologue 2 Still, the picture book store is fun.
Prologue 3: I'm also happy in the picture book store.

100 days ago.
Bookstore Grandma Preparation Begins (Days 100-76)

I'm going to live in Yangpyeong | Should I open a picture book store? | 100 days ago.
Preparing to become a bookstore grandmother | Will customers come to the bookstore? | Recruiting workers for Yangpyeong Bookstore | It's not a 'Grandma Bookstore', it's a 'Bookstore Grandma' | A brief pause at Yangpyeong Bookstore | A reservation-only picture bookstore for one person | Just let it all out | A bookstore that respects everything as it is | Even adults need something different sometimes | I want to reset my life | It's a 'bookstore', not a 'book cafe' | Career gap, 『Interview with Mrs. L』 | I created a logo for the bookstore grandmother | Like Soyang-ri Books Kitchen | The world you see when you're lazy | I'm a carpenter to run a bookstore | People eyeing a bookstore | Doing nothing | Healing the past with present happiness

A Novel-Like Day in the Life of a Bookstore Owner (Days 75-51)

Let's take a look at your child's scars | Jealousy wrapped in anger | Today is not for you | How to live with sadness | Every precious day.
An Overwhelmingly Important Day | A Wonderful Life | Healing from Loss | A Lesson in Meaning | How to Transform Hate into Love | A Balloon of Remembrance | A Memorial Day I Create | A Novel-Like Bookstore Manager's Day

Aunt Haru, Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma (50th - 26th)

Aunt Haru, Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma | Can I Take My Child? | Lydia's Garden | My Liberation Diary | Midnight Library - A Life for Me | I Don't Get Impatient | Self-Proclaimed Grandma vs. Others | Long Journeys Together and Separately | Hallasan: Enjoying, Not Conquering | Why Jeju Bookstore's Pulmujil is Beautiful | Admiring Menopausal Women | Living in a Country House | Letting Mothers Rest

Adults read picture books? (25th - 0th)

Draw a bigger circle and invite me inside | Just one woman, will a guest come? | Heavy rain, hello at Yangpyeong House? | Do adults read picture books? Yes, I do! | How to live happily with a companion dog, and how to say goodbye | If you let go of perfection | Stubbornness that you have to be alone? It's a philosophy | Take your time and relax | I came to clean, but only splashed around | The freedom to feel emotions other than anger | Became a resident of Yangpyeong | Time flows differently in the countryside | A baby frog came to play | Bookstore curation | Me, the number one customer of Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma | 0-Pause

Epilogue: The Birth Story of the Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother

After retirement, I decided to become a bookstore owner.

The author worked as a principal at an elementary school until August 31, 2022.
And on September 1, 2022, the day after retirement, she opened 'Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother' with the concept of 'Women Only - Reservation-based Picture Bookstore' in her country home in Yangpyeong.
This book is the author's diary of retirement preparations, and an essay about the happiness of realizing the 'romance' of life after retirement that he had always dreamed of by running a bookstore, and the bookstore customers who dream of that romance together.
This book will be even more interesting to read for those who, like the author, are contemplating and dreaming about life after retirement, and for those who include keywords such as a country home and running a bookstore in their dreams.
The realistic concerns about that romanticism, and the overflowing joy of running a bookstore, can be shared in 『Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma is Happy Today, Too』.

Starting from the story of the 100 days since she first secured a country house in Yangpyeong to run a bookstore, to the comments she adds about her feelings after three years of running the bookstore, 『Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma is Happy Today』 is full of the 'happiness' the author felt while preparing and running the bookstore, just like the title suggests.
I also feel the sense of liberation and happiness that women feel when they visit a bookstore.
The author envisions the role of the 'Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother' as a place where visitors to the bookstore can take a break and put down their hardships.
That is why the author is always recharging the happiness he can share at Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma Bookstore.

The bookstore customers fully enjoy their 'rest', sleeping for three hours straight, watching the trains pass by in the distance, and playing with cats.
As the author said, “Some people even spent three hours pulling out weeds,” ‘Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother’ is a place of rest where everyone can embrace their own ‘other activities’ that they had been conscious of while being busy with work or pressed for time, and it has become a bookstore that has been visited by customers who have heard about it for three years without a break.


A reservation-only bookstore for one woman

'Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother' operates by accepting reservations from women who visit alone.
When we are feeling down, we all want to go on a trip alone, to a place where we can be alone.
The author says that in times like these, when she is tired, when she wants to rest, she desperately wants a place where she can go away alone and stay comfortably and safely.


“Extroverts meet people to be happy.
Introverts, on the other hand, seek out places to be alone to be happy.
Querencia for introverts. Querencia is a place where introverts can take refuge in solitude.
A hidden place where bulls tired from fighting can take a breather and rest away from the gaze of the spectators and bullfighters.
I hope Yangpyeong Bookstore becomes that kind of place. (Main text, p. 55)

‘Yangpyeong Bookstore Bookstore Grandma’ was born as a bookstore that could satisfy such a romantic dream.


There were also concerns from those around her about the principle of operating on a reservation system for one woman.
Women mostly travel with their families, and even if not, they often travel with friends rather than alone.
Is it really possible to run a bookstore with just one woman? The author answers.
“Because that’s rare.” Even if women want to go alone, it’s rare for them to be able to go alone, rather than ‘together’ with family or friends.
A space where women can find rest and relaxation while reading their own minds.
It is possible at ‘Yangpyeong Bookstore Bookstore Grandma’.

A bookstore where picture books that are even better for adults await.

The author says that adults also read picture books, and that there are some picture books that are even better for adults to read.
That is why 'Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandma Bookstore' is operated as a picture bookstore that provides a day of rest for adults who are tired of life.
For those who come to rest, I want to give them time to quietly look at the pictures and think about their experiences and emotions, rather than reading complicated or difficult books.
In this book, the author introduces picture books he read while preparing to run a bookstore, and shares episodes from his life related to them.
Starting with a picture book that shows a beautiful approach to dementia, as you read along the story, you will soon find yourself sitting on the sofa in the bookstore at 'Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother' with the author, opening the picture book and sharing a conversation.
There is also the fun of discovering good books introduced by the bookstore owner, who is also a bookworm.


Author's Note

#retirement #countryside home #neighborhood bookstore
“When I retire, I want to go to the countryside and live in a house in the countryside.”
“When I retire, I want to run a small bookstore.”
The dreams of people nearing retirement are a country house and a local bookstore.
Running a bookstore in a remote location is difficult, and running a bookstore means giving up on your dream of spending your old age in a country home.
I completely resolved that conflict by opening a small bookstore in my country house.

#Bookstore Grandma?
The name of the bookstore, ‘Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother’, was originally ‘Grégoire and the Bookstore Grandmother’.
After reading the novel ‘Grégoire and the Bookstore Grandfather’, the idea of ​​a ‘bookstore’ took root in my heart.
I wanted to be the grandfather who runs the bookstore in the novel.
But I'm not 'grandfather'? Just say 'grandmother'.
I became the 'Bookstore Grandma'.

#Woman alone?
It's a place where women can come alone.
I've often thought about going on a solo trip to a place where I can be alone when I'm feeling down.
But there aren't many places where women can travel alone.
I have children so I can't be away for long.
Woman in her thirties to forties.
At work, at home, in relationships with friends, frustrating things keep popping up like mushrooms.
But if I tell my mom about something that upsets me, she'll be more upset than I am.
Even when things were difficult, I kept it to myself and had a hard time.
When you're tired, when you're having a hard time, when you want to rest.
I desperately wanted a place where a woman could go out on her own and stay comfortably and safely.
Since there was no such space, I created it.
In Yangpyeong.

#Reservation system?
Since it is a place where you can stay alone, of course you have to make a reservation.
The bookstore will be open for one person only during the reserved time.
I read books by myself, sleep, pull weeds in the garden, and just meditate.
The sound of a train passing in the distance makes me imagine a longer journey.

#picture book?
I came here to rest, so I don't like complicated or thick books.
Picture books for adults are available.


Somehow, I opened a picture book store.

Still, picture book stores are fun.

This is the story of the first 100 days of the Yangpyeong Bookstore Grandmother, who finds happiness in a picture bookstore.

I want to share it with you.