One of the rooms in the warehouse of eastern Seoul’s Tongbang Books is filled with shelves holding books, May 31. Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
Tongbang Books is opening its warehouse in Seongsu-dong to the public this weekend. Visitors will be able to browse through its labyrinthine chambers filled with 550,000 English-language books, or 25,000 unique titles.
“The Open House Super Sale is our biggest annual event,” said Hahm Ki-hyun (who also goes by Katch), senior director of operations at the English-language book seller. “Though ordinarily, we do not engage in retail sales on site, guests will be given access to our entire warehouse, where they can purchase books directly off the shelves.”
He added that all titles will be offered “for those two days at the lowest prices anywhere in the country,” at discounts ranging from 25 percent to 80 percent, and various gifts will also be provided based on the purchase amount.
“Rick Riordan Presents: Gifted Clans #03 :The Last Fallen Realm” written by Graci Kim / Courtesy of Tongbang Books
Founded in 1985, Tongbang Books is the oldest and largest family-owned importer-distributor-retailer of English-language books in Korea.
The warehouse’s half a million titles cover all age groups and various genres.
Hahm estimates about two-thirds of their sales are for children’s books, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade, young adult and graphic literature, as well as interactive puzzles, workbooks and reference materials, which can be purchased at tongbangbooks.com. The remaining third is fiction and nonfiction for adults, available through dbBOOKS.co.kr.
“When the business first started, the selection was primarily for adults. Children’s literature wasn’t a big thing,” Hahm explained. “Then, with the success of Harry Potter, everything changed. Books for kids suddenly became fun, creative and modern. On the business side, authors and publishers realized that the key to success was creating franchises, so that young readers would keep coming back to buy the next book in the series. In Korea, this coincided with the boom in English education for kids starting in the early 2000s.”
“A Single Shard” by Linda Sue Park / Courtesy of Tongbang Books
But he added that Korea’s plummeting birthrate has resulted in a dramatic upward shift in the age range of books purchased. “Previously, 0-5 years of age was our core audience, but it’s now 5-10, which tracks with the shift in national demographics,” he said.
He added that there is hope for the 10-15 age range in the coming few years.
Another segment Tongbang is promoting heavily is literature written by authors of Korean heritage, both from Korea and around the world. Many of the titles sold are translations from Korea, and others are written originally in English. The company has even trademarked the term K-Lit, through which it sells Korean literature as a brand on its website.
“Cursed Bunny” by Chung Bora / Courtesy of Tongbang Books
“Following and arguably inspired by the initial splashier waves of K-pop, K-drama and K-film, K-Lit is now coming into its own as a major driver of hallyu,” Hahm said. “Whether written by Koreans in Korea or by Korean diaspora across the world, the works converge to highlight various aspects of Korean history, culture, current issues impacting Koreans and their perspectives.”
Hahm listed several K-Lit authors of note: “Yangsook Choi, Taeeun Yoo, and Suzy Lee are huge in picturebooks. Linda Sue Park, who was the first author of Asian descent to win the Newbery Medal for ‘A Single Shard,’ is a legend in middle grade fiction. We’re also excited to see new stuff from Graci Kim, who’s part of the Rick Riordan universe. Jenny Han, June Hur and Axie Oh are titans in young adult. On the adult side, Han Kang arguably put K-Lit on the map when she won the International Book Prize in 2016 for ‘The Vegetarian.’ Bora Chung was nominated for the same award in 2022 for ‘Cursed Bunny,’ followed by Cheon Myeong-kwan in 2023 for ‘Whale.’ ‘Pachinko’ by Min Jin Lee, ‘Crying in H Mart’ by Michelle Zauner, ‘8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster’ by Mirinae Lee and anything by Chang Rae Lee continue to be major bestsellers for us.”
“Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner / Courtesy of Tongbang Books
Hahm acknowledged that the market for printed books is shrinking — he even admitted that his own reading has been declining lately.
“Post-pandemic, global sales of print publications have taken a steep dive, largely seen as the result of accelerated competition from alternate online media sources, formats and technologies. Netflix, YouTube and the like have excelled at creating addictive content that detracts from reading time — since I’ve fallen into the YouTube rabbit hole, I sometimes prefer to watch video reviews about books, rather than reading them myself,” he said.
But he still sees an important niche for books.
“Still, when reading, current readers seem to prefer paper books to electronic versions, likely because their initial exposure to books was on paper, and so that’s what they’re used to,” he said. “I’m told by librarians at international schools that students will choose the paper version of a book over its e-book counterpart nine times out of 10, when offered a choice. But the next generation, whose babies are now starting to read from the outset on screens, they might feel differently.”
“Whale” by Cheon Myeong-kwan / Courtesy of Tongbang Books
Tongbang is a proud sponsor of IRIS (Inspiring Readership at International Schools), a program to improve access to reading materials for students, families and teachers within the international school community in Korea. The IRIS family currently comprises 24 international schools across the country, including Seoul Foreign School, Yongsan International School of Seoul and Korea International School, as well as schools in Incheon, Suwon, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan and Jeju Island.
The Open House runs this Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days. The warehouse is in the basement of SK Techno Building, a short walk from exit 5 of Ttukseom Station on Seoul Metro Line 2.
Visit tongbangbooks.com for more information.
