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Our favourite book shops

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    Our favourite book shops

    At the exit to Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle is the Buchhandlung Walther König (I'm sure ursus knows it), which has an immense selection of art, design and architecture books, as well as a small but revolving and eclectic selection of music books (where I bought the Jonny Trunk book I've just cited on the music books thread). It's the kind of shop where I could spend a grand in five minutes, if you were generous enough to give me that chance. Mostly I have to walk past it on the way out of the market because I know I can't go in there without buying something. Usually something big and bulky that I have to conceal from frau imp by smuggling it on to an obscured part of the book shelf. My copy of The Book Cover in the Weimar Republic is still sealed. I bought it years ago. Some rainy afternoon soon...

    My other favourite book shop (though I could easily list a Top 20) is Daunt's in Marylebone, for a combination of atmosphere and selection. If I'm in London I have to go there, no matter how short my stay. Unless I'm travelling light, in which case I have to avoid it. At Easter I didn't go either, because my case was already weighed down from having bought too many books and records over the previous two weeks. It's the kind of shop where I feel like I should be paying an entrance fee.

    #2
    My clear favourite in FFM and a place I would stop every time we went to the Kleinmarkthalle, which was pretty much every Saturday morning when we were in town.

    A Milanese analogue, if not equivalent, is the Libreria Bocca in the Galleria, which I used to pass every morning on the way to the office.

    http://www.libreriabocca.com/

    Each evoked the experience of the old Rizzoli bookshop on 57th Street, which was one of the several institutions sacrificed for billionaires' "supertall" condominiums.

    It has since been reincarnated in the Flatiron District, but isn't the same (while still being worth a visit).

    https://www.rizzolibookstore.com/

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      #3
      The Rizzoli website is making me jealous just by dint of its Sunday opening hours. In NYC I always sought out the Strand with its boast of 10 Miles of Books. Is it still going?

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        #4
        Indeed it is, and has even expanded to a branch in our neighbourhood, as well as the ubiquitous kiosks on the lower Fifth Avenue perimeter of Central Park.

        https://www.strandbooks.com/hours-locations

        It is quite possible that I have spent more of my life in the Strand than in any other single non-food emporium.

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          #5
          Strand is a remarkable place. The extent of everything that they have available is mindboggling.

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            #6
            As soon as I saw the thread title my answer was Daunt's in Marylebone

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              #7
              My brother used to live in Cromford, Derbyshire, home of the remarkable Scarthin Books http://www.scarthinbooks.com/

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                #8
                The old church in Inverness that’s been converted into a used book shop.
                The used book shop on Oxford Road/Street(?) Sydney, just opposite and along from The Art Hotel.
                Sportsbooks RIP
                Murder One RIP
                Durham Book Centre RIP
                Any Oxfam Book Shop
                Notting Hill M&V Exchange Book Shop RIP*

                When did it close? I was over there a couple of weeks back for the first time since before lockdown and it’s gone.

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                  #9
                  +1 for Sportspages and Murder One, indeed all the bookshops on the Charing Cross Road, not sure how many survive

                  Stanfords, now relocated but still in Covent Garden

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                    #10
                    Gay's The Word. Not just a great bookshop but a community asset that hosts groups etc.
                    Compendium in Camden was good. Must be going on 30 years ago that closed.

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                      #11
                      Stanfords is wonderful, not as good as it used to be, and only arguably a bookshop...

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                        #12
                        Powell's in Portland, of course
                        Pegasus in Berkeley
                        RIP to Cody's in Berkeley, where I got to see Douglas Adams and William Gibson do readings in person.
                        The whole bookshop/record store scene on Telegraph in general has greatly deteriorated these days, I was lucky enough to go to high school on Bancroft, and all of my spending cash went straight to music and books.

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                          #13
                          The Globe Bookstore and Café, Prague. Home of good books, good beer and (not sure if still a feature) a shop dog who lords it over the place in suitably aloof fashion.

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                            #14
                            That sounds terrific Toby.

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                              #15
                              R J Julia is a wonderful store. I know that authors typically wrangle their agents and marketing people to find a way to get it on their schedule.

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                                #16
                                Vistors to Sydney's iconic QVB should always venture across the road to Abbey's bookshop, independent and unique in its selection, especially in non-fiction, Classics etc.: https://www.abbeys.com.au/abbeys/hom...oaAuFDEALw_wcB

                                A proper bookshop to get lost in. There is an excellent and large Kinokuniya not far away in the Galleries Victoria, so best to visit both.

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by colchestersid View Post
                                  +1 for Sportspages and Murder One, indeed all the bookshops on the Charing Cross Road, not sure how many survive
                                  My sister worked in Booksmiths, which sold mostly remaindered books. Not there now (her and the shop).

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                                    #18
                                    It might have quite a narrow remit, but Stanford's is definitely a bookshop. I've been in the London one a few times, but the one on Corn Street in Bristol will always be closer to my heart, obviously.

                                    For sheer time spent browsing (because the staff weren't bothered and it was close to both the clothes shop I worked in during my gap year and the hospital I worked in for a few years after uni), the Waterstones in the Galleries in Bristol, for me. For a Proustian rush it'd be one of a couple I can barely remember really but which will probably come flooding back to me if I ever return to Wigtown (my family had, and some friends of my dad still own, a static caravan quite close to Wigtown), or one in Clevedon which has the unfortunate quality of not existing any more. And the Blackwells on Oxford Road and the Waterstones on St Anne's Square, both in Manchester.

                                    And it's not really Buenos Aires's best bookshop – that would be a ridiculous claim in a city that's so packed with them, and so many great ones –but visitors to Buenos Aires could do worse than pop in for a quick look around El Ateneo Grand Splendid, which is unfortunately owned by a chain (rich, I know, coming from someone who's posted the couple of paragraphs above) but makes up for that by looking like this:

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                                      #19
                                      The original Blackwells in Oxford should be up there with Daunt's. Walking past it on Broad Street is definitely Proustian, the deep blue frontage that was always there. The "commercial" (for Oxford) sorts of books that greet you as you walk in always felt a bit flat, but then going downstairs into the big room full of the massive range of academic books, the excitement of seeing my dad's few academic texts on their shelves (they were obviously not in any other shops). Yet as a kid I always bought novels, and buying novels was always better at the Waterstones at the corner of Broad St and Cornmarket - which itself was a very impressive bookshop, so despite it's legendary status the Blackwells never quite did it for me.

                                      Actually, the Waterstones, originally Dillons I believe, on Malet St/Torrington Place/Gower St opposite UCL, which was - and may still be - the university bookshop of University of London, was always pretty much a delight. Their "staff picks" for novels got me reading so many things I'd never have discovered. It may be a big gallumphing chain now, but it was and probably still is a great shop.

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                                        #20
                                        Yes, my feelings about Heffers in Cambridge are similar to SB's about Blackwells (I think Blackwells now own Heffers, which you'd think would be some kind of varsity shame for Cambridge, but I have no idea, since they seem to care more about 8 blokes in a boat once a year)

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                                          #21
                                          On digging a bit it turns out that Blackwells was in turn bought by Waterstones earlier this year so now they're all owned by the same bookshop. That must mean they have about 90% of the bricks and mortar bookselling market in the UK. Assuming you don't count WH Smiths as a bookseller, because it isn't

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                                            #22
                                            Charlie Byrne's bookshop in Galway is a terrific warren of rooms full of new and second hand, generally out of the ordinary books. Every time I'm down there I can easily spend an hour or more just browsing. They also have a regular supply of old Shoot! magazines from the 70s and 80s, which I'll always grab when they're available.

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                                              #23
                                              Dom Knigi, Saint Petersburg ('House of Books')

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                                                #24
                                                I don't have the stats to back this up, but my impression is that Blackwells in Oxford has a far larger book display area, and correspondingly/consequently a far more comprehensive and better offering, than Heffers. The gulf in coverage between the two shops one of the things that, as a Cambridge person (both ex-student and current town resident of many years standing), give me severe Oxford jealousy. In Cambridge, frankly, I prefer Waterstones.

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                                                  #25
                                                  It must be acknowledged how good Waterstones is now in comparison to about 15/20 years ago when it was really going down the toilet.

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