# Quit Your Job & Open a Bookshop: 3 Reads You'll Love | Reads with Alicia Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/quit-your-job-open-a-bookshop-3-reads-you-ll-love-reads-with-alicia Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/quit-your-job-open-a-bookshop-3-reads-you-ll-love-reads-with-alicia.md Podcast: [What to Read Next β€” Book Recommendations for Romance, Thrillers & Escape Reads](https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873) Published: 2026-05-18T10:00:00+00:00 Episode link: http://www.whattoreadnextblog.com Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/ae571091-402d-4df0-b687-3e5f95f19bfe.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/episodes/quit-your-job-open-a-bookshop-3-reads-you-ll-love-reads-with-alicia Duration seconds: 1230 ## Resource This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. What if your dream bookshop was hiding inside the pages of a book? This week's guest is making that fantasy feel very real. London-based bookworm and Substack newsletter writer Alicia joins us to share her love of a very specific and very delightful trope: woman quits job to open a bookshop. If you've ever fantasized about leaving it all behind for a life surrounded by shelves and the smell of old paper, Alicia has three gorgeous, lesser-known reads that will feed that daydream beautifully. From translated Japanese fiction to a moving Korean novel, these books explore healing, community, and the quiet courage it takes to build a life you actually want β€” even when you're not sure you're ready. πŸ“š Books Mentioned The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada β€” Buy on Amazon | Nonfiction / Memoir | A quiet, insightful look at the world of bookselling and how small changes create big impact. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa β€” Buy on Amazon | Japanese Translated Fiction / Contemporary | A healing, character-driven story about a woman who finds herself β€” slowly β€” through books. Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum β€” Buy on Amazon | Korean Translated Fiction / Contemporary | A raw, courageous story about a woman who opens a bookshop from a place of grief and finds herself living her values anyway. ⏱️ Timestamps [00:00] Welcome & introduction β€” meet Alicia from London [01:00] What Alicia reads: contemporary, literary, historical fiction & nonfiction [02:00] Alicia's nonfiction picks: memoirs, economics, music [03:30] What led Alicia to start Reads with Alicia on Substack [05:00] Building a bookish community online β€” Substack, BookTok & beyond… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/episodes/quit-your-job-open-a-bookshop-3-reads-you-ll-love-reads-with-alicia/transcription-requests` β€” Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-to-read-next-book-recommendations-for-romance-thrillers-escape-reads-9873/quit-your-job-open-a-bookshop-3-reads-you-ll-love-reads-with-alicia.md` β€” Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.