In today's world of business, with big chains affecting just about every line of the industry from food to even books, small-scale bookstores are becoming a thing of the past, but obviously not everyone is going out of business.

At least that's the story of one American who started with just 25,000 secondhand English books and turned it into a sizeable business with over one million books in just a year.

'What the Book?' located near Itaewon station in Seoul, is a unique second-hand bookstore. Instead of old books stacked randomly as is typical in Korea, there are neatly categorized shelves of old AND new books.

With ample seating as well as free coffee the buyer is truly invited to kick back and browse.

A former English teacher, the 30-year-old owner Chris Chiavetta, wanted to create a book store with a comfortable, homey atmosphere, qualities he felt other second-hand shops in Korea lacked and he literally built this place with his bare hands.

"I looked at the other bookstores and I noticed the stores weren't well organized, they weren't very clean. So for a month I spent my time building the shelves, installing electrical outlets installing carpets."

What started out as a modest used-book store has grown rapidly and now there are also new books on display.

Two months ago Chris and his business partner, his wife, went online in English.

Aside from contacting publishers and placing orders they analyze buying patterns and chat with their customers to provide tailored services, something they claim customers can't get at major book chains.

"Foreign customers seem to buy fiction more to occupy their time. Korean customers seem to buy a lot of non-fiction. I really don't know why trying to kill two birds with one stone learn English and learn about a subject at the same time."

With word of mouth getting out and business picking up, Chris has plenty of ideas and high hopes for his shop online and off.

"We are working on getting the pages translated into Korean and we plan on moving the store next year to a more desirable location."

Arirang TV