Are you looking for Korean language books to improve your Korean reading skills? Find out how you can read or buy Korean language books online from Europe.
In recent years I have collected quite a few books to practice reading Korean using “real” language instead of textbooks. In Europe you can’t just buy these books in a shop and in many online webshops you can search for a long time without finding what you’re looking for.
Still, I found some good websites where I could buy my Korean language books. I also started reading Korean books and manga for free online.
English translations of Korean books (literature) can often be found at Amazon or Bol.com. In my post about the best Korean books you can read more about the best translated books.
Via Ridibooks you can buy Korean ebooks and also read many of them for free online (legally!). The website is completely in Korean, but it’s quite easy to create an account.
The offer of both well-known writers and unknown writers (with many followers) is large. Often the first parts of a book series (of authors unknown to me) and manga are free to read and it is not expensive to buy the sequels. If you mainly use the books to learn Korean, then the free books will last you a long time.
If you are reading via the app on your phone and also have the NAVER Dictionary app installed, you can press and hold a word in the book to instantly call upon the dictionary function. This allows you to quickly start reading real books, even books above your reading level.
If you like reading ebooks and you don’t need a physical book, Ridibooks is the best resource.
Pros
- Gigantic offer
- Lots of free manga and books
- Samples of popular books
Cons
- Navigation of the site and app is in Korean
This remains my go-to webshop for physical Korean books. In recent years, Amazon’s offer has grown tremendously, but Koreanbooks.de is usually cheaper (and easier to explore).
Koreanbooks.de doesn’t sell many books but what they sell should be enough to get you started. For beginners, Korean translations of Western comics and children’s books are especially interesting. For example, I started by reading a Harry Potter book.
If your Korean is at intermediate or advanced level, you can look at Korean literature and read original Korean-language work by, for example, Jeong Yu-jeong. The supply of textbooks is also quite large. I’m a fan of the Ewha Korean series myself, but I would advise you to compare the price of textbooks with those at Amazon because textbooks are usually cheaper there.
The price of the books is quite high compared to what you pay for them in South Korea, but if you add the shipping costs, taxes and book price together, ordering your books online from Koreanbooks.de is often cheaper than ordering books internationally.
Pros
- Ships to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg with DHL
- Books ship from Europe: no additional VAT and import duties
- Larger offer than Bol.com or Amazon
- Good prices for literature
Cons
- Higher shipping costs than usual within Europe. Shipping costs are 8.90 euros for 1-5 books and 15.90 euros for six books or more.
- Delivery can take 5 – 10 days even when the books are in stock.
- Credit card payment is not possible; only PayPal
A few years ago Amazon was not a good option for Korean language books, but nowadays they have more books on offer. Prices of Korean literature remain high and some books are only available second-hand. Popular books are readily available however and this is where Amazon can be cheaper than Koreanbooks.de.
The translated children’s books are affordable and sometimes even available through Kindle Unlimited. For textbooks Amazon is the cheapest option.
Tip for Amazon.nl and Amazon.com: search for the words “Korean edition”.
Tip for Amazon.de: Filter on “Fremdsprachige Bücher” and then on “Koreanisch” to get a basic overview. From there you can choose different genres to filter out the English or German books about Korea. For bilingual books you can search for “Korean bilingual“.
Pros
- Fast (and often free) shipping
- Many payment methods
- Study books are cheapest through Amazon
Cons
- Small offer
- Expensive
Twochois is a webshop that sends books from Korea. They have a large selection of study books and a fair amount of choice in books based on TV dramas and movies. The best thing about this webshop is that you can order textbooks that Korean children use at school. There are also lots of photos of the content of each book so you know exactly what you’re getting. For example, a few years ago I ordered two books about Hanja (Chinese characters) and spelling.
Pros
- Pay with credit card and PayPal
- Basic price of the books is low
- Large selection of textbooks and books based on films.
- You can order a tailor-made package: they can order any book for you and send it to you.
- Good service
Cons
- VAT and customs clearance costs
- High shipping costs (at least 20 euros)
Gmarket is a good option if you want to order books while on holiday in Asia and receive them there. Most sellers affiliated with Gmarket do not deliver internationally. I expect this to change, but at the moment Gmarket is mainly interesting if you can receive the books in South Korea.
Of course you can then also walk into a bookstore and pick out your books on the spot. For bestselling literature this is certainly the way to go, but the large selection can be overwhelming if you are looking for something specific (without any specific titles in mind) and want to have time left to go sightseeing. I ordered some books during my holiday in South Korea and had them delivered to my hotel: Hanja Bible for Teachers and four parts of 복원가의 집 (The Restorer’s house).
Pros
- Gigantic offer
- Standard book prices
- Especially interesting if you don’t send the books to Europe but receive them in Asia
- Pay by credit card
Cons
- Most sellers do not send to Europe
- VAT and customs clearance costs if you exceed a certain amount (when ordering from Europe)
A Dutch webshop to consider when looking for Korean textbooks; they can be cheaper than Amazon. The fact that a general search for books (literature) doesn’t give you a ‘Korean’ language filter says it all though.
Pros
- Study books for good prices
- Fast shipping
- Shipping from Europe
- Many payment methods
Cons
- No literature on offer
Hi. Please also consider our website, http://www.piefke-trading.com
We specialise in Language books for schools and we have over 20 million titles in our catalogue. If you would like to request a book that you haven’t found pls contact us (John- +60 10-203 2520) or Our e-commerce shops https://www.piefke-trading.com/pages/e-commerce
There is another possibility I’m looking at : Using a Forward package service !
I found a listing here with 16 different service : https://www.expatkidskorea.com/listing/package-forwarding-services
I’m still looking at the price, etc, but it seems a good way > to buy in Gmarket or aladin for example and send all in one go 🙂
( a little like twochois in fact, but with even a larger selection! )
Thanks in any case for your super article and blog 🙂
Hi Lucile,
Thanks for sharing! I didn’t know about that one. I’ll keep it in mind for the next time I am ordering Korean books. Though I wonder if it is much cheaper than Gmarket… I also expect that Amazon Japan will be an interesting option in the future.
Kind regards,
Kim