SEOUL, July 29 (AJP) - As record-breaking heat and sudden downpours alternate throughout the summer, people across Seoul are increasingly retreating indoors.
Instead of traveling to the mountains or the sea, some are choosing a “bookcation” — a blend of “book” and “vacation” — spending time reading and resting inside the city’s air-conditioned libraries.
Some settle into the tiered seating with a book. Others open their laptops, while still others wander slowly between shelves in search of their next read. Each moves at a different pace, yet together they fill the library with a shared sense of calm.
Even those who enter simply to escape the heat can find themselves slipping away from the speed of everyday life as soon as they open a book, beginning a quiet holiday of their own.
Starfield Library, located in the heart of the COEX complex in southern Seoul, has grown beyond a place for reading into one of Gangnam’s most recognizable cultural attractions.
Foreign tourists raise their cameras before the enormous shelves stretching toward the ceiling, while local visitors sit on steps and at tables, absorbed in their books.
Some preserve the space through photographs. Others sit quietly and encounter its sentences.
People speaking different languages and arriving for different reasons gather in one place through the common medium of books. In the middle of a bustling shopping mall, the library briefly slows their footsteps and draws strangers into a single scene.
During the summer vacation period, children and their families explore the museum, complete missions, solve quizzes and examine artifacts, experiencing the world of books with their whole bodies.
Unlike a conventional library, where visitors sit quietly and read, the museum turns the process of making, preserving and passing down books into a story of its own.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is running its seasonal “Libraries Are Cool: Turn It Off and Go to the Library” campaign through Aug. 31 at Seoul Metropolitan Library and 222 other libraries across the capital.
The campaign encourages residents to temporarily switch off their air conditioners at home and visit a nearby library, where they can escape the heat while enjoying reading and cultural activities.
“Reading is like holding a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”
The words attributed to French philosopher René Descartes suggest that opening a book is an invitation to enter another person’s thoughts across time and space.
Across Seoul, residents are enduring the summer in their own ways amid towering shelves and countless stories.
Some head toward the water. Others search for shade. And some surrender themselves to the space between bookshelves, quietly turning to the next page.
Perhaps the deepest and coolest refuge this summer lies within the pages of a book.
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