Korean online bookstore?

[ssomers]

Dear friends,

I have had mixed success finding a comprehensive Korean bookstore online -- this is probably owing to my deficiency in the language of course.

I like Hanbooks.com -- but their literature selection is small. It has the virtue of being dual language, so I can 'check' my translations to ensure I'm ordering what I think I'm ordering.

www.aladdin.co.kr (with a US branch as well) seems to be the Amazon of the Korean lit world -- but it's all in Korean (for obvious reasons).

Is there something else out there that's got a big selection, but offers a small amount of English to help intermediate learners get about? I understand I probably shouldn't be buying books that I'll be struggling to read - but, what can I say? Bibliomania is a terrible habit.

Thanks,
Sean Somers
U.B.C.

[matthew254]

hey hey ssomers and welcome!

Kyobo is the Barnes & Noble of Seoul - it's a labyrinth of a brick and mortar bookstore. Here's their online store http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/index.laf unfortunately, I can't find an English aspect to the site.

Anyone able to help?

[shanshanchua]

This one's in English. There are books for learning Korean (in Korean), but I'm not sure how many of their other books are in Korean. You can try browsing or even send them a request if you are looking for anything in particular.

http://www.seoulselection.com/index.html

[theresa]

i'm looking for korean books too but i have no idea what's good to read.

hey shanshan, you're singaporean too right? where do you get your books from? the only place i see selling korean books is sol mart but they don't have much variety.

[shanshanchua]

Hi Theresa, yes I'm singaporean I'm still pretty much at the beginner level, so I don't think there are many Korean books I can actually read at this stage. I thought of looking for children's storybooks (I think there are some bilingual ones at Amazon), but they are too expensive to buy. So... I dont' have any helpful suggestions for you.. I actually think that getting to know some Koreans living in Singapore is a good way to access Korean things so if you ever have the opportunity to do so, grab it!

[ssomers]

I've also had some success with www.hanbooks.com:

this site has a small literature selection, including multi-volume editions of the modern classics, such as Cho Chongnae.