70-year-old Sinchon bookstore defies decline with staff bond

Seven people gathered around a small table for a lively discussion of Albert Camus' "The Stranger" in the fifth-floor lounge of Hongik Mungo in Seoul's Seodaemun District on July 29.

The staff reading club calls itself Odok Odok, a pun combining the number five of the fifth-floor and reading in Korean. "Just as light casts shadows, truth comes with discomfort," one member said. "Isn't the sun in the novel a device that reveals the truth?" "The sun cannot be avoided and keeps following him around.

So I thought it was the inescapable fact of his mother's death," another member said. "Even while sunbathing or on a date, his mother's death keeps weighing on his mind." The participants first met as co-workers.

Five of the bookstore's eight current employees participate in the club, gathering before their afternoon shifts to talk.

Two former employees pursued other book-related careers, but they still return to their former workplace every month.

The club has forged a bond extending beyond the store.

Hongik Mungo, located just outside Sinchon Station on Seoul Subway Line 2, has been a fixture