By John Redmond
Contributing writer
For those tired of browsing through cramped bookstores offering a limited selection of titles, popular new and secondhand outlet “What the Book?” has moved to a new convenient location on the main street in the heart of Itaewon.
What started out as a little bookstore in a residential neighborhood up near the mosque over seven years ago is now a fully fledged competitor in the surging English-language book market.
Offering a huge range of titles in vast selection of categories in the new books section, “What the Book?” still boasts an excellent choice of magazines and second-hand books as well as a system for ordering titles not available in the store. This service takes about 10 working days from order to delivery.
Manager Chris Chiavetta explained that the move was purely a space issue after outgrowing the previous location up from the fire station.
“We needed more space. The second store was really jammed with books and on any given Saturday customers could not walk without bumping into each other. Secondly, I was deathly afraid of another store moving on to the main Itaewon road,” Chiavetta told The Korea Times.
Catering to more than English teachers, Chiavetta hopes the new store will prove more welcoming to a broader section of the community.
“The bulk of our customers are from English-speaking nations. I would guess that a good deal of them are English teachers, but I know of many business people that frequent the store. At our previous store of course, we got Korean customers, but not as many as I would like to have had. I assume this is going to change with the new store.”
Staffed by friendly English-speaking Koreans and staying true to his indie store roots, Chiavetta sees “What the Book?” continuing to grow.
“The only way you can work at ‘What the Book?’ is if you have command of the English language,” he said.
“I try hard to balance the corporate mentality with the indie bookstore mentality with the used bookstore mentality.... I think having only one or the other you are sure to fail.”
To get there, leave Itaewon station via exit 1 and walk down the street past Burger King. The bookstore is on the second floor of the next building.
For more information, log on to www.whatthebook.com