Swapping Books in Busan

BUSAN -- British expats and married couple Drew McCarthur and Emma Clarkson held their first book swap event last November. Now it has a buzz all its own. What the duo thought might be a few people tossing paperbacks between them, became a social event -- with a love of sharing literature as its fuel.

The inspiration originally came from Clarkson. “I had the idea of starting this up because it was pretty hard to get hold of a decent read in this part of Korea, and back in the winter months I needed some decent books to sink my teeth into,” she said.

Like most people who take a risk in organizing an event, they had little idea of what to expect. “I suppose I just thought it would be a few locals in the bar just chucking a couple of paperbacks onto the table. I’m pretty pleased now at how things have panned out and also it has been a great way to meet people,” said an enthused Emma.  

The book swap is latest social groups to become a hit in Busan.

For the first few months, the couple held their swapping event in only one location, Soul Trane in the Pusan National University area of the city. Holding it on the night of the first Wednesday of every month made the bar owner smile and surprised the bartenders with a flood of customers.

Turns out people loved the idea of such a meeting during the middle of the week.

“Instead of having a bar full of 30 people in groups doing their own thing, as there is a main table (at the book swap), people congregate around it while browsing books and having a drink, so friendships are easily made,” said book swap co-creator McCarthar.

Before long Emma and Drew found themselves fielding requests to organize a book swap event in other parts of Busan. Tweaking their evening formula, they sought a location for a Sunday afternoon gathering. That lead them to the ever-popular Wolfhound in Haeundae. It turns out that people love swapping on a Sunday as much as they do on Wednesdays.

The organizers are now considering a third event, but for that they would probably need some help lugging the hundred-plus books that accompany them to each event.

“If people are leaving Korea, or just feeling generous and like the idea of helping along a community, they can dump their books on us,” McCarthar explained.

Donating books to people who will read them sounds much easier and rewarding than trying to sell them on craigslist or koreabridge.

When McCarthur and Clarkson started their swap group, they thought there must be like-minded people in Busan. They discovered that not only was that true in spades, but that the kinds of books that are being traded were of high quality.

“One thing that we have seen since starting up is that books that are famous in their country of origin get discovered by people from other countries who probably would not have found it otherwise. Someone comes here from the U.K. with a book to read, drops it at the swap, then someone from the States picks up that book and gets to read something that they previously would have never heard of. That kind of thing gets mentioned a lot,” they said.

The PNU event in Soul Trane takes place in the first Wednesday (May 4) of every month and the Haeundae event in the Wolfhound is the third Sunday (May 15) of every month.

For more information and to check the Book Swap schedule, search “Monthly Book Swap PNU” and “Haeundae” on Facebook.