Five-day event runs Wednesday through Sunday at Omok Park, featuring more than 1,000 books and seating for 100 — residents and librarians curated a seasonal reading list, with book personality tests, immersive reading kits and author talks among the highlights.
Yangcheon-gu is launching a special outdoor library to kick off September with books.
The district will operate an outdoor library called "Byeolchaekburok" — a supplementary reading space — at Omok Park from Wednesday through Sunday, giving residents a place to read and relax over five days.
The event transforms an everyday park into an open-air library, letting visitors pick up a book naturally while resting — no trip to a library required. After debuting last year as a one-day pop-up library, the program has expanded to five days this year on the strength of resident interest, with a fuller lineup of reading and cultural activities.
During the event, Omok Park will feature an outdoor reading area with more than 100 seats — including beanbags and chairs — and more than 1,000 books. The titles filling the outdoor shelves are "seasonal reads" chosen jointly by residents and librarians. A resident selection panel picked themes and books suited to the season and everyday life, directly reflecting community tastes in the collection.
Hands-on activities are also on offer to help residents who do not normally read warm up to books. "Book BTI — My Byeolchaekburok" uses a short personality-style quiz to recommend books matched to a visitor's current mood and daily life, while "Book Meong — Read Your Byeolchaekburok" provides an immersion kit — wireless headset, timer and reading log — to help participants focus entirely on reading.
A book talk with the author of one of the seasonal titles and a transcription experience called "Namgineun Byeolchaekburok" — where visitors hand-copy sentences that resonate with them — will also be held. Transcriptions and reading records left by participants will be displayed in a follow-up exhibition at Yangcheon Central Library after the event, carrying the park reading experience back into the library.
The program also includes a rich lineup of special performances. On opening day, classical ensemble Bellevois and a magic show will start things off, followed throughout the week by music busking, classical concerts and a bubble show — blending books and live sound into a distinctive experience.
Byeolchaekburok will run from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. No advance registration is required for the outdoor reading area and regular programs. Schedules and sign-up details for select special programs, including the book talk, are available on the Yangcheon District Public Library website and official social media channels.
The district is broadening its reading-in-daily-life initiatives across the community for September, designated National Reading Month. District public libraries will run a range of programs tailored to each branch — including "Back to the Library," which helps members with overdue items resume borrowing, as well as humanities lectures, traditional music performances and media writing workshops. Reading and cultural programs will also continue throughout September at book rest areas inside parks. Five locations — Yangcheon Park, Paris Park, Neomeudeul Park, Yongwangsan and Omok Park — will host nine reading and cultural programs, including "Forest Booknique," where participants make garlands from book passages, alongside singing bowl yoga and traditional-pattern sun catcher crafting.
Yangcheon-gu District Mayor Lee Gi-jae said he hoped that as cool breezes begin to blow in September, a chance encounter with a book during a short rest at a nearby park would spark a new love of reading. "We will continue to expand resident-centered cultural programs so that books and culture can blend naturally into parks and everyday spaces, going beyond the walls of the library," he said.
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