Over 150,000 visitors since yesterday : the new and improved Jongno Kyobo Bookstore made the most of its rainy reopening day.
As expected (see "Kyobo Bookstore V2"), the flagship store is bigger, more modern, and better interfaced with Jongro street (Sejongno remains a different story, but I would bet more than one buck on one cafe in that corner).
Stone gave way to glass and wood, the elevated mini flea-market plaza to a sunken outdoor agora for events and public readings, leading to the main entrance. Transparent elevators offer a direct access to parking lots - a clear improvement from the old journey backstage.
The revolution is less spectacular inside - it's not as if you landed in terra incognita, but areas are better arranged. A faux vintage art section, a wider choice of Foreign Books (and closer to the main entrance), a better exposition for books in general...
Hot Tracks and ArtBox are still there, but Kyobo is also investing in ebooks and I wouldn't be surprised to see them venture into cloud services. What will never change, let's hope, is the unique humanistic spirit that makes the company so well respected across the nation.
Seoul Village 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
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Thank you for your comments and remarks. Also for your patience (comments are moderated and are not published right away - only way to curb the spam, sorry). S.