"The Bookstore I Loved" is a book filled with longing and affection for a closed bookstore that one can never return to.
Fifteen independent bookstore owners and bookstore managers from across the country wrote about their love for the bookstores they loved.

This book is filled with the hope that bookstores, spaces where people learn and grow through reading together and where affectionate relationships provide comfort in the shady parts of everyday life, will never disappear and will remain in place for a long time.


In an age where so much of life is conducted online and without face-to-face interaction, having to take the time to visit a bookstore in person can be cumbersome and inconvenient.
But through that hardship, we gain affectionate relationships, quiet comfort, and solid growth.
I hope that through "The Bookstore I Love," this kind of time spent in a bookstore will be shared with more people.

Bookstore Manil is the place that planted the dream of 'I want to open a bookstore like this', and now it is the place that has given me the desire of 'I want to close a bookstore like this'.
I still struggle between these two winds and live my days as a bookseller.
Of course, I still hope that someone can spend time in the bookstore I created, just as I enjoyed the leisurely time as a reader in the bookstore.
If I could keep going, I would like to keep the bookstore doors open forever and be discovered on someone's street corner while I live.
--- p.20 From “A Space of Time I Want to Return to, Bookstore Manil”

When a customer likes a book he carefully selected, when that fateful encounter between a person and a book happens, the bookstore owner feels as happy as if he had received a long-awaited letter.
I cheer in my heart.
Maybe I've been guarding the bookstore all day, just waiting for this moment to come.
The owner of Paul's Bookstore, who always seemed indifferent, must have been secretly delighted whenever I picked up a book.
Now that I've become a bookstore owner, I understand that feeling.
And I can only imagine what the owner must have been thinking as we all headed downtown, forgetting about the local bookstore.
When a customer tells me they want to buy the "Book of Destiny" they found in a bookstore online, and I feel the same way when they leave the bookstore empty-handed, I feel the same way.
It's bitter.
It is powerless because it has no sharp edges.
My heart aches a little when I imagine the owner who tried to appease those feelings and ended up closing down the bookstore, thinking that this was it.
I feel sorry that I completely forgot about this precious place.
--- p.31 From “What Brought Me Here”

The moment I opened the door to Civilization Bookstore, I was overwhelmed by the smell of books.
Paper and ink.
The pure smell of books, as if no other scent could be tolerated! Accustomed to the strange mix of used books and diffuser scents from bookstores, when the scent of new books wafted into my nostrils, I couldn't help but be startled.
The rich, fragrant smell of a new book, hot from the printing house, was strongly imprinted on my mind.
--- p.41 From “The Unfinished World”

The used bookstore, which had been in business for three more years after spending four seasons, left Seoul due to redevelopment.
A high-rise apartment building has been built in that place, and I sometimes think of it when I pass by.
Starting and ending the day by shoveling in front of a bookstore, the sweetness of mixed coffee while sweating and resting, the one book I found after wandering for hours, the smell of used books that got even worse when it rained, the days when we would huddle together and share the watermelon the boss brought home after work, the days when I was sore from carrying books to the newly built warehouse all day.
When memories become memories, even the difficult times become missed.
When I think of those memories, I miss those times when I grew slowly like a sweet potato in the dirt.
--- p.57 From "Hiding in a Pile of Old Books"

In an age when it feels impossible to imagine a society without capitalism, an age when we are desperate to find something to sell, Batgae has been there with us, with books that booksellers enjoy and find necessary, books that they want to read and share with others, and books that they want to introduce to many people.
I broke free from the framework imposed by capitalism and worked to connect books with people, and people with people.
Thus, the humanities bookstore Batgae showed that a humanities bookstore is not just about the types of books sold, but also a place where people who run it and visit it read, write, and constantly renew themselves through their attitudes and practices, and that the books we read should and can be connected to life and the world.

--- p.69 From “More Than Surviving, More Than Grief”

The next day, I went there to say hello, but the sign had already been taken down and a for-rent poster was fluttering on the window.
When I saw the two letters 'For Rent' written in red on a yellow background, I felt like I had a poster for rent in my memory.
It also felt like a future that would soon unfold for me.

Some people close down their businesses because they find it difficult to continue, while others open bookstores with new hope.
I remember countless bookstores I've passed by.
Bookstores are said to be an endangered industry, so why do they still exist?
And why did I start a bookstore?
--- p.83 From “Between Disappearance and Existence”

I would carefully choose a book and a cup of mixed coffee, sit on the sofa in the middle of the bookstore, and stay there until the kids came home.
I went there to buy books, but on days when I missed people, I would go to the bookstore and chat with the bookkeeper about various things before returning.

--- p.93 From “The Bookstore I Loved, and You Would Love Too”

For a while, I spent time at the bookstore sharing my memories of using Gyeryong Bookstore with customers.
The more I talked about the place where the picture book disappeared and the time that had passed, the more I felt regret and longing.
It took just one day for a local bookstore that had been around for 30 years to disappear.
When talking about downtown Daejeon, you will no longer meet anyone who has visited Gyeryong Library.
But I can't go back to the me I was before I met Mr. Wolf.
The first place of hospitality I encountered when I started living in Daejeon, the people who guarded it, the picture books we sat across from each other and read together, and even the small talk.

--- p.113 From “The Bookstore with Mr. Wolf”

A little while later, I passed by Wolgye Bookstore and saw that it was empty, with only a signboard and a for rent banner hanging.
The empty storefront, with not a single book left, seemed like it would be impossible to tell that a bookstore had once existed there, if only the sign had been removed.
I tried to be calm, but I felt complicated because the words of the bookstore I loved felt like the future of the bookstore I run.

--- p.123 From “There Was a Bookstore, and the Books Remain”

On Saturday afternoons, on the way home from school, even if I didn't have any particular books to buy, I would go in and take a look around.
Actually, when I say I went around once, I should say I went around the magazine section, not the entire bookstore.
Pushing open the glass door, I saw a long, runway-like magazine stand. I walked through it, looking at the magazines with the most passwords, including the "favorites" and women's magazines packed with provocative articles.
--- p.130 From “Slowly, Back to the World of Bookstores”

When I first set foot in Gagarin, I wandered through the alleys with sparkling eyes, looking for something 'unfamiliar, pleasant, strange, and good', with the determination to embrace anything.
When I went to Gagarin, no one spoke to me, but the space itself and the books and objects that filled it seemed to speak to me.
If you look closely, you will find a place where you can naturally discover your own taste, a place that provides good inspiration, a place where anyone can become a creator as well as an enjoyer.
A place where every single shelf willingly becomes a field of experimentation in the realm of expression and creation.
It was a place where we could spread out, discover, share, and exchange our things.
--- p.143 From “A Strange, Pleasant, Strange, and Good Place”

The small bookstore wasn't just a place to borrow books.
As Hemingway said, a good book is the best friend, and it was a small universe that endlessly made new friends during my childhood.
The universe that began on the first floor of an old commercial building in the neighborhood continued to expand through time and space.
As reading beckons to reading, the bookstore took me to another bookstore.
It led to a neighborhood bookstore I discovered dozens of times after every dozen moves, a used bookstore I visited in search of old books, and an independent bookstore I first encountered in a back alley of the city.

--- p.160 From “The Little Universe of My Childhood”

Meanwhile, times have changed, and bookstores and books are facing a crisis at the same time.
But if the bookstore owner's heart doesn't change, people will continue to dream new dreams and share stories in the bookstore.
I hope that someone will find comfort and happiness in books at our bookstore, just as I did at Muju Bookstore when I was young.
I place books on my bookshelf that I hope will bring comfort to someone, and I hope that someone else will experience comfort and discover a new world in this small space.
--- p.172 From “A Bookstore Precious Just by Existing”

There may have been times when I read less comics, but there has never been a time when I didn't read them.
That bookstore was in the middle of those times.
The reason why our bookstore has so many novels with particularly powerful narratives is probably because of the comic and fantasy imagination that I have been cultivating since then.
I read so many comic books that allowed me to expand my vast imagination during my adolescence when my tastes were just beginning to develop, so I'm sure they've all made their way onto the shelves of our bookstores now.
--- p.181 From “A child who grew up eating imagination becomes an adult”

A customer who came to a bookstore and bought a book asked this question.
“How did you come up with the idea to open a bookstore in Udo?”
My answer is consistent.

“I really like bookstores, but there aren’t any in Udo.
So I opened the door to a bookstore I wanted to visit every day.”
A customer who heard that I liked bookstores more than books said this as he was leaving.
“Please stay here.
“I will definitely come back again.”
It was a touching moment.
Bookstores, which we used to take for granted, are now places that receive earnest support from others.
And, there are regular customers who come from far away every year.

--- p.198 From “The Bookstore Where Two Cheeks Touch”