2024-07-27 01:25:40
One of the oldest bookstores in the world
The Curious Story of ‘Henry Sorcerer’
It’s like reading an adventure story-occult novel.
◇The Odd Antique Bookstore/Written by Oliver Darkshire/Translated by Eunyoung Park/368 pages/20,000 won/RH Korea
There is a bookstore that has been open for over 260 years since 1761. ‘Henry Sorcerer’ stands in a shabby alley in London, England. It is one of the oldest bookstores in the world. The author is an employee who manages the creaky bookshelves filled with old books. He writes about the reason why he cannot help but love this antique bookstore, even though he receives a “Victorian salary” and faces mysterious and eccentric visitors.
Although it is an essay, it is like reading a novel that mixes adventure and the occult. The author is a storyteller with an attractive development and style. The part where the curse of the book that Sorcerer bought for a large sum of money but was not sold even after traveling halfway around the world is solved. The book almost found its owner, but it was put on the Titanic and sank forever into the sea, the bookbinder drowned a few weeks later, and the remade book ended up being shattered in a German air raid.
The small, succinct footnotes that will appeal to ‘geeks’ are also a small pleasure. Regarding the author’s experience of crossing a collapsing railway bridge to attend a rare book seminar, he adds, “If you want to build a career in rare books in England, you have to wander around the rusty railway bridges that book collectors and dealers love.” He also shatters readers’ illusions about bookstores by honestly revealing the ups and downs of being a bookstore employee. He says, “Bookstores are known to be financially unreliable. Bookstores that refuse to change often disappear into the flow of history.”
While reading the book, you will feel as if you are embraced by a space filled with the scent of Vellichor (the affectionate atmosphere unique to second-hand bookstores). The author, who felt like “an object that had no place to put it,” grows up in a second-hand bookstore that does not fit in the 21st century digital era, and meets “people who are less social than others and have an inner sun allergy.” It is a book that will even provide you with inexplicable comfort.
Reporter Lee Ji-yoon [email protected]
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- great
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- I’m so sad
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- I’m angry
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- I recommend it
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2024-07-27 01:25:40