Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop

I enjoyed this, having picked it up pretty impulsively - one of the glut of books-about-bookshops that have sprung up lately.

Running theme was work, how work relates to your life, and a lot of the themes resonated with me. It didn't really feel preachy or as if it had a point it was trying to make. Instead it presented some characters and their lives - sometimes culminating in a one liner that you instinctively apply to yourself. I enjoyed the format focusing on different characters throughout the book.

There's not much more to it though - so you'd certainly need to be in the right mood to enjoy this.

A superb treatise on finding yourself again after burnout from overwork.

The book gathers together a collection of characters who, in some way or other, have been the victims of overwork (and a teenager who worries about joining the workforce), and how they manage to change their lives to deal with the issues it has caused. They meet in Yeongju's new neighbourhood bookshop - beautifully described throughout the book and a place anyone would want to visit and start to heal again with the power of words and reading.

A great book to read - all about healing, the nature of work, how, why, and when we work and for what purpose. And how work is related to happiness and finding out what happiness actually is for each individual.

This is not my usual type of read - in fact, I almost put it down early on, but then I identified so hard with the first Minjun chapter that I stuck with it.

It's very much like a version of Bookshops & Bonedust without the fantasy trappings and the larger plot - characters with a variety of personal issues come together around a bookshop.

It's well written (and well translated! which is not a given!) - what I'm really missing is something actually happening. The characters each go through their different journeys of personal discovery and/or growth, but nothing is materially different at the end of the book. 🤷

Intentionally read this slow to savor it. This is what I want from a light hearted cozy slice of life - enough depth and emotional resonance for characters to work through small (but big to them) struggles without it feeling too perfect.

It is a bit episodic in nature at times, but the slow pace I read it made it so I didn’t mind that at all. If I gave into my desire to devour this quickly then I may have felt a little differently and knocked a star based on my mood influencing the feel.

Great if you like some of the other recent slice of life darlings that feature bookish or coffee themes. Lower emotional stakes but still has depth.