Plate M-4 · 909 stores · 151–300 of 909 · curated ORBIS register
The Topsham Bookshop sells secondhand and out-of-print books across three floors, with West Country history among its areas of interest. Feltrinelli brings a national bookshop chain into the selection, following its first store opening in Pisa in 1957. Pineider adds engraved stationery and pens from a Florentine house founded in 1774, complementing the booksellers with writing supplies.
This plate lists 909 shops in 100 countries. Paris has the most with 27, followed by Tokyo with 15. Among these shops, 5 offer repairs, 63 sell online and 3 work by appointment, going by their own descriptions.
Search by ISBN before you travel: ask the shop to confirm that the exact edition and language you want are on the shelf.
Ask about signed or limited copies: ask how a signed or numbered copy is documented and how it will be packed.
Ask about collection or delivery: an online listing is not proof a title is in the shop, so ask before making the trip.
Check access before you go. The American Book Center says every floor of its Amsterdam shop on the Spui is reached by lift, while only the ground floor of its shop in The Hague is accessible.
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Denver, Colorado
The Bookies is a Denver independent bookstore built around children's literature, families, and teachers, carrying new and used titles. It hosts author events and stocks classroom and educator resources alongside its general shelves.
Best for Children's books and teacher resources
Denver, Colorado
The Hermitage Bookshop on Fillmore Street deals in used, rare, collectible, and antiquarian books across fiction and non-fiction. It belongs to the Rocky Mountain Antiquarian Booksellers Association.
Best for Rare, collectible, and antiquarian books at Denver's oldest independent bookstore
Downtown, Detroit
Operating since 1965 and housed in a former glove factory at 901 W. Lafayette Blvd since 1983, the main store shelves more than a million used and rare books across four floors with no in-store computers. Aisles are organized by hand, and a rare-book room upstairs holds first editions and antiquarian finds.
Best for Used and rare books by the million
Midtown, Detroit
Retired Detroit Public Schools teacher Janet Webster Jones has sold books since 1989, opening a storefront in 2002 and moving to the Auburn Building at 4240 Cass Ave in 2013. The shop specializes in nonfiction spanning history and culture, health and wellness, spirituality and books by and about women.
Best for Nonfiction and books by and about women
Building 42, Street 800, Zone 3, Doha Design District, Msheireb Downtown Doha, Doha, Qatar / Doha / Qatar
Founded 2015 by Fatma and Reem al Sehlawi as a specialised architecture/urbanism bookstore.
Best for Architecture and urbanism books from a specialist founded in 2015.
Doha
A Qatari publishing house and bookseller. Its opened profile identifies it as a Qatari publisher founded in 2017; storefront status remains uncertain.
Best for Fiction, children’s books and nonfiction from a Qatari publisher
Dubai / United Arab Emirates
Lawrie Shabibi is a contemporary art gallery in Dubai's Alserkal Avenue warehouse district, founded in 2011 by William Lawrie and Asmaa Al-Shabibi and focused on emerging and historic Middle Eastern and North African artists. It runs its own Shopify-based store for editions and publications, and has placed works with institutions including the Guggenheim, Tate Modern, and LACMA.
Best for Emerging and historic Middle Eastern and North African art from Dubai's Alserkal
Jumeirah 1, Dubai
A family-run Dubai bookseller carrying books, educational toys, stationery, arts-and-crafts supplies, gifts, and school materials. The company began trading in 1975, and its official history describes Jumeirah as its spiritual home.
Best for Family-run Dubai bookseller carrying books, educational toys, stationery, arts-and-crafts supplies, gifts
Ivy Exchange, Parnell Street, Dublin
Ireland's largest independent bookshop — huge selection, new and second-hand. A Dublin institution.
Best for Ireland's largest independent bookshop — new and second-hand books
56-58 Dawson Street, Dublin
Hodges Figgis sells books from its Dawson Street premises in Dublin, with a dedicated Irish range. That range covers Irish fiction and history alongside poetry, travel writing and Irish-language books. The business traces its beginnings to 1768 on Skinner's Row, rather than to the current building.
Best for Irish writing and general books in Dublin
Dublin / Ireland
The Kilmainham Gaol Book and Gift Shop occupies the ground floor of the Courthouse Visitor Centre and can be visited without a museum ticket, and it also sells online at kilmainhamgaolbooks.ie. It stocks books tied to the site's history as a 19th- and 20th-century Irish prison alongside general gift items.
Best for Books, gifts, irish-history
City Centre
Independent secondhand bookshop and record store at 15A Wicklow Street in central Dublin, Ireland, buying, selling and trading used books alongside vinyl records and CDs.
Best for Used books and vinyl below Wicklow Street
The Secret Book and Record Store is an independent shop at 15A Wicklow Street in central Dublin, dealing in secondhand and discounted books alongside vinyl records and CDs. It operates on a buy-sell-exchange model typical of Dublin's used-book trade and has built a following among locals and visitors browsing its stock for out-of-print titles and rare records.
Ormond Quay
The Winding Stair became a Dublin landmark as a bookshop in the 1970s, named after a Yeats poem and set beside the Ha'penny Bridge on Lower Ormond Quay. It reopened in 2006 with a restaurant upstairs, keeping the ground-floor bookshop and its old shelves intact.
Best for Ground-floor bookshop and riverside dining
Pempelfort, Düsseldorf
A specialist art antiquariat in Pempelfort dealing in artist books, gallery catalogues, monographs, catalogues raisonnés and original photographs and prints. It publishes its own editions and themed catalogues and buys individual pieces and whole collections.
Best for Art books, gallery catalogues, prints
Carlstadt, Düsseldorf
An antiquarian and used bookshop on Citadellstrasse run for more than 35 years by Stephan Lustenberger and Christoph Schäfer, specialising in literature, art and the humanities. They offer personal book-finding, new-title ordering and home delivery within the Carlstadt quarter.
Best for Antiquarian books, literature, art titles
Leith Walk, Edinburgh
Argonaut Books is a community bookshop and multipurpose space at 15-17 Leith Walk, Edinburgh, that opened in December 2021, stocking a curated selection of titles and including a cafe and an accessible event space for free community use.
Best for Curated books and community events
Edinburgh / United Kingdom / Online
The Botanics Shop is the online store for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, selling garden tools, seeds and bulbs, botanical books, stationery, and archive art prints drawn from the garden's collection dating to 1670. Proceeds from every purchase support RBGE's conservation, research, and education work.
Best for Garden shop, books, gifts
Bruntsfield, Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Bookshop opened in 2007 at 176 Bruntsfield Place and has been named UK Children's Bookshop of the Year in 2014 and Scottish Independent Bookshop of the Year five times. It offers free book ordering within two working days and a weekly under-5s storytime.
Best for Award-winning independent bookshop
Blenheim Place, Edinburgh
Topping & Company is an independent bookseller with an Edinburgh shop housed in a former bank. Tall bookcases and rolling ladders form part of a space built for browsing a broad range of titles. The family-run business also organises author events, extending the shop's role beyond a place to pick up a single book.
Best for Browsing books and attending author events in Edinburgh
Topping & Company Booksellers began with a single shop in Ely, Cambridgeshire, opened by Robert and Louise Topping in 2002. The chain has grown carefully rather than quickly since, adding branches in Bath, St Andrews, Edinburgh — opened in 2019 as the fourth shop — and, most recently, York.
The Edinburgh branch occupies a Grade A-listed former bank building designed by the architect William Playfair, spread over three floors and fitted out with oak shelving and a re-clad staircase that keeps the historic interior's sense of warmth. Around 85,000 books line the shelves, reached in places by rolling library ladders, with hand-painted signage throughout — the kind of interior that reads more like a private library than a retail shop. Complimentary tea and coffee is poured for browsers, and the shop runs regular author events plus a "Coffee with a Bookseller" consultation service and signed-first-edition subscriptions organized by genre.
It's an approach built on treating book buying as an occasion rather than an errand — ladders, tea, oak and 85,000 spines to choose from — and the Edinburgh shop, in its former banking hall, is the most architecturally striking setting the family has found for it yet.
4 Haddington Place, Edinburgh
Tiny independent bookshop and typewriter repair — poetry, small press, zines, and vintage machines. The most characterful bookshop in Edinburgh.
Best for Poetry, small press, zines, and typewriter repair in Edinburgh's most characterful bookshop
10702 Jasper Ave, Edmonton
Audreys Books is an independent bookstore on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton, with a history under that name dating to 1975. The shop has long hosted author signings and served local readers, with the store itself forming part of the city's literary life. It is a place to browse books and follow author events rather than a specialist in one subject alone.
Best for Independent bookselling and author events in Edmonton
8700 Emerald Drive, Emerald Isle, NC
An independent bookshop and toy store in the Emerald Plantation center on Emerald Drive, stocking beach reads, children's titles, puzzles, and games. The shelves lean toward family vacation staples, from local-interest paperbacks to sandcastle kits and classic wooden toys.
Best for Books, children's toys and beach reads
Anger 28, Erfurt
This Erfurt bookshop on the Anger marked its ninetieth year in 2025, a fixture for the city's readers across generations. Its shelves span new fiction, regional titles and children's books, backed by a full programme of readings and events.
Best for Books, regional titles and author events
McCoys Arcade, Exeter
Opened in 2020 in McCoys Arcade, this independent shop carries new fiction, non-fiction, children's books, nature writing, poetry and zines chosen by hand. It runs author events, book launches and poetry nights, and co-produces the Echoes literary festival.
Best for Curated new fiction, nature writing and poetry
Fore Street, Topsham, Exeter
Set across three floors of a 17th-century building at 27 Fore Street, this shop deals in secondhand and out-of-print books, with strengths in Devon and West Country topography, social history, archaeology and English literature. Owner Lily Neal runs a book search service and buys books from customers.
Best for Secondhand and antiquarian West Country titles
Florence / Online
Founded by publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who released Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago in 1957 ahead of any other country; the bookshop chain opened its first store in Pisa that same year.
Best for Italian books and music floors.
The Feltrinelli name traces to Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who established his publishing house, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, in Milan at the end of 1954 as an explicitly antifascist imprint. In late 1956, an Italian journalist brought him the manuscript of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, smuggled out of the Soviet Union; Feltrinelli published it in 1957, publishing the novel in 1957 ahead of editions in both the United States and France, and the book became an international bestseller. The same year, Feltrinelli opened his first bookshop in Pisa, the beginning of what grew into Italy's largest bookstore chain, still operating under his name today. He also published Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard. Feltrinelli died in 1972 under still-disputed circumstances involving an explosion near a Milan pylon. The bookshop chain that carries his name today spans locations across Italy, including this store, and continues the general-interest bookselling model he founded alongside the original publishing house.
Florence / Online
Mondadori stores sell books, stationery and media across Italy.
Best for Bestsellers and stationery.
Florence / Online
Florentine stationer since 1774 — Napoleon and Byron ordered here; engraved paper and pens still do the talking. first shop was Piazza della Signoria (1774); left that square in 2011 for Piazza Rucellai, then moved to Lungarno Acciaiuoli in 2022.
Best for Engraved stationery and leather desk goods.
Frankfurt am Main
A long-standing independent bookshop in Frankfurt focused on literature and the humanities, stocking titles chosen by its booksellers rather than bestseller stacks. It runs author events and readings.
Best for Literature and humanities titles
Nordend, Frankfurt
An independent bookshop in Frankfurt's Nordend-West with a broad general list and a leaning toward literary fiction and translated writing. Staff picks and readings run alongside the shelves.
Best for Literary fiction and general books
Nordend, Frankfurt
A neighbourhood bookshop in the Nordend trading since 1978, known for a literary and political range and hand-sold recommendations. It hosts readings and orders titles for regulars.
Best for Literary and political books
Old Town (Rue Jean Calvin)
Librairie Bernard Letu, trading online as LetuBooks, is a Geneva art bookshop at Rue Jean Calvin 2ter specialising in fine arts, photography, jewellery, fashion, architecture and watchmaking titles. The physical shop is being reworked to reopen as L'Escarboucle, the bookshop of L'ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, while orders continue online.
Best for Art, jewellery and design books
37A&B, Beach Street, George Town / Online
It is best known for Diverse selection — books, clothing, crafts, furniture, fashion, personal care, aromatherapy; celebrates both local and international designers; brands like PARODY PARLOUR, Loka Made, Oh Sebenar, Freitag; Fuku Eatery inside; occasional events and exhibitions.
Best for Diverse selection — books, clothing, crafts, furniture, fashion, personal care, aromatherapy; celebrates both
66, Lebuh Campbell, George Town / Online
It is best known for Aesthetically pleasing stationery, notebooks, planners, art supplies, postcards, stickers, washi tape, handmade items; minimalist café at the back; workshops and unique Airbnb accommodations; bright white tones and natural lighting.
Best for Aesthetically pleasing stationery, notebooks, planners, art supplies, postcards, stickers, washi tape, handmad
Ghent
Boekhandel Walry is a Ghent bookshop on Zwijnaardsesteenweg with a strong local Gent section and shelves spanning fiction, poetry, non-fiction, children's books and Spanish, Italian, French and English titles. Its Shopify webshop sells and ships books, and the shop hosts events and a reading club.
Best for Fiction, poetry, children’s books and multilingual shelves
West End
Family-run secondhand and antiquarian bookshop on Great Western Road at Kelvinbridge in Glasgow's West End, established 1986, spanning two floors with a strong stock of Scottish literature, history and philosophy titles.
Best for Secondhand and antiquarian books since 1986
Caledonia Books has traded as a family-run secondhand and antiquarian bookshop since 1986, on Great Western Road near Kelvinbridge in Glasgow's West End. The shop is known for a densely packed interior - books arranged in rows on the floor, piled in boxes, and stacked to the ceiling across two floors - with particular strength in Scottish, literature, art, history and philosophy titles. Stock is almost entirely secondhand and sold at modest prices, with genuinely rare or antiquarian volumes the exception rather than the rule.
Glasgow
Category Is Books is an independent LGBTQIA+ bookshop at 34 Allison Street in the southside of Glasgow, describing itself as a space for queer books, history, art, activism and storytelling.
Best for Queer books and community bookshop
Kelvinbridge
East End Press makes colourful paper decorations and stationery designed in Glasgow and screen-printed by hand in Jaipur. Its garlands and greeting cards use paper made from recycled cotton pulp. The shop at 427 Great Western Road is beside Kelvinbridge Subway Station and carries the brand's full collection alongside other selected gifts.
Best for Hand-printed paper garlands and stationery in Kelvinbridge
East End Press begins with a printmaker's interest in colour. Its garlands and paper decorations use screen-printing, a process that can leave small variations between impressions. Those slightly offset colours are part of the appearance, rather than something the studio tries to remove. Recycled cotton pulp forms the paper used for its own products.
Designer Ellie Hodesdon started the business in Glasgow in 2015. Production initially happened there too, but the growing garland range outgrew her setup. In 2018 she went to Jaipur to find printmakers, and a family there continues to make the brand's products. The distinction matters when choosing a souvenir: these are Glasgow designs with Indian printing and making, rather than a claim of entirely Scottish manufacture.
The shop is at 427 Great Western Road, beside Kelvinbridge Subway Station. It carries the full East End Press collection and a selection of other gifts. Greeting cards and wrapping paper offer smaller purchases. Garlands and hanging decorations are options for bringing colour to a room.
Glasgow / United Kingdom
The Glasgow second-hand bookshop Voltaire & Rousseau has packed its Otago Lane rooms in the West End with pre-loved, antiquarian and rare titles. Alongside the walk-in shop, open 10am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, it runs a full online catalogue spanning first editions to 10-pound paperbacks.
Best for Secondhand-books, antiquarian, rare-books
West End
A family-run secondhand and antiquarian bookshop packed with rare, academic and literary titles.
Best for Secondhand literature, academic books and unexpected editions
Zona 10, Guatemala City
Guatemala City bookshop founded in October 1998 as a meeting place for readers and writers. Alongside a general selection strong in humanities and contemporary fiction, it runs a cafe and a cultural programme of reading clubs, workshops, book launches, screenings, talks and children's activities.
Best for Books
Zona 10, Guatemala City
Tomo is a bookshop and concept store selling magazines, books and its Houseguest Collection through an online shop based at tomoeditoriales.com.
Best for Magazines and concept-store books
Gotmarstraße 1 (Künstlerhaus), Göttingen
An independent bookshop run for more than forty years by Reiner Grabe, specialising in spirituality, holistic living, health and ecology alongside selected fiction and art and cultural history. The shelves are supplemented by yoga mats, incense, singing bowls, gemstones and tarot cards.
Best for Independent bookshop with a holistic and cultural focus
Halifax / Canada
Duly Noted on Doyle Street in Halifax offers pens and ink, along with stationery and gifts for paper lovers.
Best for Pens, ink and stationery
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Open Book pairs Certified Fairtrade organic coffee from Nova Scotia's Laughing Whale with Atlantic Canadian titles from Nimbus Publishing and a dozen local presses. The Halifax shop hosts book launches, readings and house concerts on Strawberry Hill Street.
Best for Certified Fairtrade organic coffee from Laughing Whale Coffee
Open Book Coffee runs its two identities in the same room on Strawberry Hill Street: a bookstore stocked with Atlantic Canadian titles from a dozen independent local publishers, including Nimbus Publishing, and a coffee bar pouring exclusively Laughing Whale Coffee -- Certified Fairtrade organic beans roasted in small batches in Nova Scotia.
The pairing is deliberate rather than incidental. Neither side is a sideline to the other: the shop's stated focus is a comprehensive regional collection rather than bestseller racks, and its coffee sourcing is narrowed to a single certified roaster instead of a rotating list. That gives the shop a tighter identity than a general cafe-with-books setup.
The space also functions as a small venue, hosting book launches, readings and signings alongside house concerts -- events that lean on the room's dual purpose rather than treating either the books or the coffee as backdrop. An acknowledgment of Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People, appears on the site as part of how the shop frames its place in Halifax.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Open since 1978 and billed as Canada's oldest children's bookstore, Woozles fills its Halifax shop with children's books, toys and games. It hosts author events and story times.
Best for Children's books and toys
Woozles opened on Birmingham Street in downtown Halifax on October 14, 1978, founded by Ann Connor Brimer with Brian and Liz Crocker at a time when the city had no bookstore for children. Brian and Liz bought the building, a rambling old house painted bright yellow with a green door, and Liz was expecting their first child. The founders wanted a community place as much as a store, somewhere newcomers might ask where to find a daycare. Children's books share the shop with toys and games, and a comfy old chair in the corner invites reading on the spot. The shop calls itself Canada's oldest children's bookstore. Staff have stayed for decades. Original manager Trudy Carey retired in 2009 after 31 years, and Lisa Doucet then became co-manager with Liz Crocker. Past staff include author Hadley Dyer and illustrator Eric Orchard. The shop started a Battle of the Books for young readers in 1986, has run writing competitions, and in 2019 published books by two young writers to mark its 40th anniversary. Quill & Quire profiled the store at forty in 2018. In October 2021 Woozles left the yellow building off Spring Garden Road after 43 years, citing the age of the house and access for strollers, and moved with its old chair to a new building on Shirley Street in the West End, a move reported by CBC News.
Ottensen
Hamburg’s oldest family-owned bookshop, serving Ottensen with literature and events.Established 1878.
Best for Literature and events at Hamburg's oldest family-owned bookshop since 1878
Buchhandlung Christiansen was founded in 1878 and is recognized as Hamburg's oldest bookshop still under continuous family ownership, now run by the fourth generation of the same family. The shop sits on Bahrenfelder Straße in Ottensen, a former working-class industrial district in Hamburg-Altona that has, over recent decades, become one of the city's denser independent-retail and cultural neighborhoods, and Christiansen has remained a fixture through that shift. Its stock spans fiction, children's and young-adult literature, travel writing, political and contemporary-history non-fiction, English-language titles, audiobooks and graphic novels, reflecting a general trade bookshop rather than a specialist. Beyond retail, the shop runs a recurring after-hours format called "AusleseZeit" (roughly, 'time to pick'), in which small private groups of two to ten people can browse the closed shop for three uninterrupted hours -- an events model built around the store's own physical space rather than an off-site venue. It also operates an online ordering channel with in-store pickup or home delivery, layering a modern sales channel onto a 19th-century family business without relocating or renaming it.
Neustadt
Independent Hamburg bookshop, antiquarian dealer and art gallery founded in November 1923 by Felix Jud, a Nazi resistance supporter later imprisoned at Neuengamme; still operating in the Neustadt district as one of Hamburg's key literary institutions.
Best for Antiquarian books and an art gallery, trading since 1923.
Felix Jud founded his bookshop, originally called the Hamburger Bucherstube, in November 1923 together with business partner Erna Kracht, opening at Colonnaden 104 in Hamburg's Neustadt district. Jud was an outspoken opponent of National Socialism: he supported the White Rose resistance group and was imprisoned in the Neuengamme concentration camp, continuing to sell banned literature to trusted customers during the Nazi era. The shop survived the war, and Jud ran it until his death in 1985. Now formally Felix Jud GmbH & Co. KG, the business continues to operate in Hamburg-Neustadt.
Hamburg, Germany
The Box is listed in Hamburg as a cooking / books / gallery / events; its official website and supplied OpenStreetMap place record provide the public-door evidence.
Best for Cooking / books / gallery / events
Hanoi
Gác Xép Bookstore sells secondhand and imported English-language fiction from its Hanoi shop. The store also buys used books and ships nationwide with free delivery over 500,000 VND.
Best for Hanoi bookshop specializing in secondhand and imported English-language fiction
Tay Ho, Hanoi
A two-storey concept store at No.47, Alley 52 To Ngoc Van Street in Hanoi's Tay Ho area, selling fashion, beauty and home goods including ceramics, candles and lacquerware. It also stocks kids' items, stationery and gifts, and offers free nationwide delivery over 1,000,000 VND.
Best for Fashion beauty and home goods
Hanoi
Librairie Française de Hanoi stocks over 16,800 French-language books and Clairefontaine stationery from its shop on Ngo Nui Truc in Ba Dinh district. It also carries Larousse and Le Robert dictionaries.
Best for French-language books and Clairefontaine stationery, with 16,847 titles in stock
Hoàn Kiếm
The Bookshelf Hanoi sells English-language books from a French-era house at 8 Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa in Hoàn Kiếm. Founder Hana opened it in January 2018 as a single wooden shelf inside a decor shop on Đặng Văn Ngữ. The shop moved twice before settling on this street in 2021. Shelves run from fiction and poetry to science and cooking, with a pre-loved section for secondhand copies.
Best for English-language books with a pre-loved shelf and children's titles
The Bookshelf Hanoi began in January 2018 as one wooden shelf at 157 Đặng Văn Ngữ. The shelf stood in a corner of Riri Home, a decor shop of twenty square metres. Founder Hana had studied finance. As a student she bought foreign-language books from a shop near Hoàn Kiếm lake whose owner often discounted them for her. She began selling books to pay for more of her own reading. In autumn 2019 the shop moved to 12 ngõ Trần Xuân Soạn. In 2021 it settled at 8 Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa, a street laid out in 1928 near the centre of the city. The same year two sister shops opened as The Mag Shelf and The Goods Shelf. In December 2022 a further room opened at HipHub Cafe near the cathedral. Staff call the shop Seo, a Vietnamese rendering of Shelf. The stock is English-language and covers fiction, memoir, philosophy, science, business, art. A children's shelf and a pre-loved section for secondhand copies sit alongside. Each order goes out with a bookmark and a thank-you card that changes with the season. A 2026 profile in Báo Quốc tế describes the shop as a meeting point where Vietnamese readers and foreign visitors talk across the shelves. Roughly three in ten customers arrive from abroad. The registered company behind the shop is Kệ Sách Thế Giới, owned by Quách Mỹ Hoa, and its filing gives the same address on Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa.
Ba Đình
Hanoi's first English-language bookshop, opened in 2001 by Australian author Pam Scott as an expat book exchange; Vietnamese owner Hoang Van Truong took over in 2006.
Best for English-language books at this Hanoi shop since 2001
The Bookworm opened in Hanoi in August 2001, founded by Australian author Pam Scott as the city's first and only English-language bookshop, built initially as a book exchange for the expatriate community. In 2006, the store passed to Hoang Van Truong, a Vietnamese reader whose Australian foster parents had run it, and who took over full-time. The shop holds roughly 15,000 titles, about 40 percent of them new stock imported from the United States and United Kingdom, with the rest secondhand copies bought or exchanged with customers. Its customer base splits roughly three ways: about 40 percent foreign residents, 30 percent Vietnamese readers, and 30 percent travelers passing through. The store operates a buyback program for used English-language books and offers same-day delivery within Hanoi. Located in the Ba Đình district, it remains one of the few dedicated English-language bookshops in Vietnam, serving both the long-term expat community and visitors looking for reading material during their stay.
Old Quarter, Hanoi
A locally owned bookshop in the heart of Hanoi's Old Quarter selling new, used and remaindered books, including Vietnamese authors translated into English and French. Its inventory also covers travel, philosophy, cookbooks and children's literature.
Best for New and used books in old quarter
Vedado, Havana
Somewhere around May 2012, a friend of mine drove across Havana to drop off a sack of books. I don’t have room for them.” Who has room in their life for good, not great, books?
Best for Books
Havana
Nuestro objetivo es, además de comercializar diversos artículos destinados a coleccionistas y amantes de lo antiguo, crear un espacio que resulte agradable al visitante mediante la recreación del pasado cubano.
Best for Books
Yrjönkatu 1, 00120 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
A working Finnish antiquarian bookshop, founded 1930 and still at Yrjönkatu 1 with largely original fittings.
Best for Old and rare Finnish books in largely original 1930 shop fittings.
Vuorikatu 5, 00100 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
Antikvariaatti Seppo Hiltunen founded 1985 became Antikvariaatti Sofia Oy in 2005 and moved to Vuorikatu after the Sofiankatu lease ended; MyHelsinki confirms the current second-hand bookshop at Vuorikatu 5.
Best for MyHelsinki confirms the current second-hand bookshop at Vuorikatu 5.
Nervanderinkatu 11, 00100 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
Ian Bourgeot opened Arkadia in 2008 as a second-hand bookshop that became an international literary venue; MyHelsinki confirms the walk-in at Nervanderinkatu 11.
Best for Second-hand books and an international literary venue at Nervanderinkatu 11.
Fredrikinkatu 35, 00120 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
Professional Helsinki antiquarian at Fredrikinkatu 35 specializing in old and rare Finnish books plus maps, engravings and early Finnish poster art.
Best for Rare Finnish books, maps, engravings and early poster art.
Bell Street, Henley-on-Thames
The Bell Bookshop trades from an 18th-century building on Bell Street. It hand-picks a stock of more than 20,000 titles across fiction, children's books, travel and non-fiction.
Best for Hand-picked fiction and children's books
Henley-on-Thames / United Kingdom
Way's on Friday Street in Henley-on-Thames is a second-hand bookshop that also deals in rare books.
Best for Rare and second-hand books
District 1
Nguyen Hue Bookstore at 40 Nguyen Hue Street in Ho Chi Minh City was established in 1976 as the office of the state book distribution enterprise and became a bookstore in the early 1980s. It remains the long-standing symbol of the FAHASA chain. Books and stationery fill the floors along with cultural products, and the store runs as one of FAHASA's smart bookstores with automatic checkout. Sai Gon Bookstore at 60-62 Le Loi Street is nearby.
Best for Vietnamese and imported books
Fahasa began on August 6, 1976 as Ho Chi Minh City's state-run book distribution company, set up under the Department of Culture and Information shortly after reunification to get publications from the north into circulation in the south. The 1980s Doi Moi reforms nearly broke the state bookstore sector: private distributors and cheaply produced 'instant books' undercut it so badly that some state shops rented out floor space or sold unrelated goods just to keep operating. Fahasa's turnaround began in the mid-1990s, when it adopted a self-selection retail format — letting customers browse shelves directly rather than requesting titles from a clerk — and began importing English-language titles from publishers including Oxford and Cambridge. Its Nguyễn Huệ store in District 1, renovated during that period, became the model location for the new format. The company was equitized in 2006, converting from a fully state-owned unit into a joint-stock company, and has since grown into Vietnam's largest bookstore network — around 140 stores across 25 provinces as of 2025, alongside stationery, toys and an online storefront.
District 1
Nhã Nam has published Vietnamese literature and translations since 2005, when it launched with Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. It now runs a nationwide bookstore chain from its Hanoi headquarters.
Best for Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Nhã Nam entered Vietnam's book market in February 2005 with an unlikely opener: a Vietnamese translation of Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. The publisher's real breakthrough came soon after, when its edition of Đặng Thùy Trâm's wartime diary sold close to 500,000 copies, a record for Vietnamese publishing that pulled the company into the national conversation. Two decades on, Nhã Nam has built its catalogue on literary fiction in translation alongside a growing non-fiction list, holding Vietnamese-language rights to authors including the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Don Miguel Ruiz, Naomi Klein, and Elizabeth Gilbert, and working with international houses such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. Its titles have collected a run of national honors, from the Sách Hay literary prize to Vietnam's National Book Award and repeat wins at the Hanoi Writers' Association and Vietnam Writers' Association translation prizes. From its headquarters at 23-25 Chùa Láng in Hanoi's Đống Đa district, the company now runs its own bookstore network across the country alongside its publishing arm, putting Nhã Nam in the unusual position of controlling both what gets translated into Vietnamese and where readers buy it.
Thảo Điền, Ho Chi Minh City
A stationery and design shop selling stamps, ceramics, board games, home goods, and locally produced objects using Vietnamese motifs. The source identifies illustrator Simon Phan and Hoa Phạm as the founders.
Best for Vietnamese-motif stamps, ceramics, and board games designed by founders Simon Phan
440 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
This bookstore and bar occupies the C.H. Evans Firehouse, a red-brick 1889 building designed by Michael O'Connor for Engine Company No. 3, converted to retail use and opened by a descendant of the Evans family in 2005. Evans' Ale, first brewed by Cornelius H. Evans in the 1800s, is still poured at the bar beneath the firehouse's original mahogany mantle.
Best for New and used books alongside a bar
The Spotty Dog Books & Ale occupies the C.H. Evans firehouse at 440 Warren Street in Hudson, New York. The building was erected in 1889 as the first purpose-built home of Engine Company No. 3, a company whose roots go back to 1799 and which took the name of Cornelius H. Evans, politician and brewer, in 1868. Architect Michael O'Connor planned the structure, and the cornerstone was laid on December 3, 1889 with gifts from the community that included a mahogany mantle and a bronze chandelier as well as a brass sliding pole. The upstairs served as a social hall while the truck floor was cleared for dances. In 2004 the firehouse was converted to retail use, with period doors replacing the garage door and a bar surface cut from a reclaimed bowling alley. Kelley Drahushuk, a Hudson native and Evans descendant, opened the store in 2005 after moving her art supply business down Warren Street. Her uncle Neil Evans, Cornelius H. Evans IV, owns the building and brews Evans' Ale in Albany, which is still poured at the bar. Some 10,000 volumes fill the shelves, with an art supply room at the back and kombucha on tap beside the beer. Author events and live music draw the town in, and trivia nights fill the tables. Hudson Valley Magazine profiled Drahushuk in 2014 and the Times Union covered the store in 2022.
Ikeja
Ouida combines a Lagos bookshop with an independent publishing business, offering African and international titles to readers. Its publishing work includes children's books through Tanja, alongside fiction and other imprints with distinct editorial interests. The wider Ouida Lagos space also includes a café and workspaces, giving visitors uses beyond buying a book.
Best for African writing and independent publishing in Lagos
Ouida connects an independent Nigerian publisher with a Lagos bookshop selling African and international writing. Lola Shoneyin founded the publishing business in 2016, giving the project an editorial role beyond retailing other publishers' books. Its catalogue includes fiction as well as imprints intended for different audiences and kinds of writing.
Tanja serves children's publishing, while other imprints extend into speculative fiction and additional areas of the catalogue. Those distinctions help readers approach the publishing programme by interest rather than treating every Ouida book as one genre. The bookstore's wider selection includes international titles alongside work from Africa, giving it a broader retail purpose.
The Ouida Lagos space also contains a café and workspaces, with meeting facilities and events forming part of its offer. Buying a book is therefore one possible use of the venue rather than the reason for every visit. A reader can begin with the shelves, while someone planning an event or a period of work needs different information. The publishing programme and the wider cultural space offer different ways to engage with books beyond a single purchase.
Ikeja
Page Bookstore is a current Lagos bookseller on Allen Avenue with an active online catalogue. The shop carries general reading and provides a verified physical door beyond the website.
Best for Books and reading in Ikeja
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Kids Ink stocks picture books, middle-grade fiction, and staff-picked young-adult titles from its storefront at 5619 North Illinois Street in Indianapolis. The shop runs its own storytimes and author events and fulfills online orders through the Bookshop.org affiliate network rather than a corporate warehouse system.
Best for Children's and YA books, staff picks
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
The Rugged Press is a boutique letterpress print shop and design studio in Indianapolis, printing greeting cards, stationery, and custom invitations one sheet at a time on a restored 1909 Chandler & Price floor press. The LGBTQ+-owned studio grew out of its founders' letterpress classes into a full design practice built on more than 15 years of combined graphic-design experience.
Best for Letterpress stationery and custom prints
Innsbruck / Austria
Bookshop on Erlerstrasse with an online catalogue and literary events.
Islamabad, Pakistan
Mashal Books is listed in Islamabad for books.
Best for Books
Islamabad, Pakistan
Saeed Book Bank is listed in Islamabad for books.
Best for Books
İstiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu, Istanbul
Turkey's largest music and entertainment retailer — CDs, vinyl, books, and Turkish pop culture merchandise. The İstiklal Caddesi location is the flagship. Essential for discovering Turkish music.
Best for CDs, vinyl, books, and Turkish pop culture merchandise
Sirkeci, Fatih, Istanbul
Shop at the Whirling Dervish performance venue — Sufi music CDs, books on Rumi, and mystical gifts. The performances are mesmerizing. A spiritual shopping experience unique to Istanbul.
Best for Sufi music CDs, books on Rumi, and mystical gifts
Beyoğlu, Istanbul
Turkish publishing house with a beautiful shop — Turkish literature, translated works, and graphic novels. The graphic novel selection is particularly strong.
Best for Turkish literature, translated works, and graphic novels
İstiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu, Istanbul
The shop of SALT, an Istanbul cultural institution, sells art books, design objects, and publications.
Best for Art books, design objects and SALT publications
Blok S, South Jakarta
B(l)ooks opened on 1 July 2023 at Jalan Birah Raya 10 in the Blok S area of Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. Hikmat Darmawan of the Jakarta Arts Council founded it with Brilliant Yotenega, Kenya Sentana and Steve Wirawan, stocking Indonesian literature and humanities titles from local publishers. A typewriter sits near the entrance, and buyers are given a short poem with their book. The shop trades under the line keep b(l)ooks alive.
Best for Diverse Indonesian publishers at a neighborhood indie bookstore, est. 2023
B(l)ooks opened on 1 July 2023, at a moment when Indonesian bookselling was being written off. Hypeabis reported the opening as a counterweight to the closures of that year, including the shutting of every Gunung Agung branch. Hikmat Darmawan, deputy chair of the Jakarta Arts Council, founded the shop with Brilliant Yotenega, Kenya Sentana and Steve Wirawan. Darmawan told Hypeabis that talk of a twilight for bookshops was premature, pointing to continued growth in Europe and the United States and to physical sales rising alongside digital ones. The shop sits in Kebayoran Baru in South Jakarta, at Jalan Birah Raya 10 in the Blok S district. An old typewriter stands on a brown table near the front with a blank sheet in it. Customers who buy a book are given a short poem, which Darmawan will read aloud on request. The stock is Indonesian, leaning to literature and humanities titles from local publishers. The room is small and domestic in feel rather than retail. Its working slogan, keep b(l)ooks alive, is printed on the shop's own material and repeated in coverage of it.
Taman Ismail Marzuki, Central Jakarta
An independent secondhand and rare-book shop. Established 1996.
Best for Secondhand and rare books, trading since 1996.
Pasar Santa, South Jakarta
An independent bookshop and literacy initiative in Pasar Santa. Established 2014.
Best for An independent bookshop and literacy initiative in Pasar Santa, since 2014
Menteng, Central Jakarta
Second location of history publisher-bookstore Komunitas Bambu, opened February 2025 on Jalan Rembang in Menteng, Central Jakarta, combining a history-focused bookshop with a small cafe.
Best for A new independent bookstore and community space in Menteng
Toko Buku Kobam Menteng is the second retail branch of Komunitas Bambu, an Indonesian publisher specializing in history books, and it opened on February 16, 2025 at Jalan Rembang No. 11 in Menteng, Central Jakarta. The shop stocks primarily Komunitas Bambu's own catalog: histories of the 1965-66 mass killings and the New Order period, Chinese-Indonesian minority history, women's and sexuality history, regional and Islamic history, biographies, plus fiction, poetry, and translated foreign works. A small cafe inside serves coffee sourced from various Indonesian regions, and a front yard functions as an informal reading and discussion space; the store also hosts historical walking tours, book discussions, and reading-club events.
Bintaro, South Jakarta
An independent bookshop specializing in English-language titles. Established 2018.
Best for English-language independent bookshop, established 2018
Multiple Locations, Jerusalem
Aldo Stationery Jerusalem is a Stationery chain with notebooks, pens, art supplies, greeting cards, and office materials. At Jerusalem, the range centers on Stationery chain with notebooks, pens, art supplies, greeting cards, and office materials.
Best for Stationery chain with notebooks, pens, art supplies, greeting cards, and office materials
East Jerusalem
A Muna family bookshop specializing in Arabic- and English-language literature and nonfiction concerning Palestine, Israel, the Middle East, politics, history, and identity. The bookseller operates multiple Jerusalem locations and hosts readings, launches, discussions, and other literary events. Established 1984.
Best for Arabic and English books on Palestine, Israel
The Educational Bookshop opened in Jerusalem in 1984, through what its owners call a simple twist of fate. It has grown into a bookstore focused on Middle Eastern culture and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Its two shops face each other on Salah Eddin Street in East Jerusalem. Books & Coffee at number 19 is the flagship, three floors that also house the first Segafredo cafe in Jerusalem. The Stationer at number 22 handles paper goods and office supplies. The book stock is largely research-based work from established institutions and publishers worldwide, alongside Arabic literature. Guidebooks and dictionaries sit with Arabic teaching books. Maps and local and foreign magazines sit with the stationery, along with newspapers and a selection of DVDs and music. The shop offers photocopying and laminating as well as binding and a delivery service. Book launches and talks run through the year, as do film screenings and other cultural events, announced by a mailing list. The shop quotes writer Leyla Zuaiter on the resilience and generosity Palestinians carry from one era to the next, with an endless supply of stories that never make it into print. It calls that the real story of the Educational Bookshop. Titles on the front table range from Palestinian food to the history of Jerusalem's holy sites.
Jerusalem, Israel
This Jewish publisher's shop carries Hebrew and English Torah texts, siddurim and scholarly works.
Best for Hebrew and English Torah texts, siddurim, and scholarly works
City Centre, Jerusalem
Pomeranz Bookseller carries Jewish religious texts, English-language fiction and academic titles in central Jerusalem. Its specialist strength is Judaica and study material, supported by an online catalogue for checking editions before visiting.
Best for English-language Jewish religious texts, fiction, and academic works in Jerusalem
Downtown Jerusalem
An independent English-language secondhand bookshop carrying used and rare books across fiction, history, religion, politics, and other subjects. Shai and Judy Robkin established the shop in 1981; its former café closed in 2002 while the bookstore continued.
Best for Secondhand and rare English-language books spanning fiction, history, religion
Multiple Locations, Jerusalem
Steimatzky sells Hebrew and English books, bestsellers, children’s titles, Judaica and gifts through multiple Jerusalem branches. A specific store should be chosen because branch stock and opening hours differ.
Best for Bestsellers, Judaica texts, and gifts in Hebrew and English
6 Schatz (Shatz) Street, off 26 King George Street, Jerusalem, Israel / Jerusalem / Israel
Largest second-hand bookstore in Israel, operating since 2000, several hundred thousand titles in four public rooms plus a closed antiquarian room (official FAQ; NileGuide).
Best for Second-hand books across four public rooms, operating since 2000.
Parkwood, Johannesburg
Located at 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg, the store is described as a specialist arts bookstore, skills-sharing hub and community of creatives, selling books on art, architecture, design, photography and South African titles, and also offers framing services.
Best for Art and design books
Soweto, Johannesburg
Soweto Book Café's Instagram bio describes it as a bookshop, library, hub and information centre that also runs a book club and hosts book launch events. It also describes itself there as a tourist attraction.
Best for Books and community book events
Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Located at 14 Reserve Street at the corner of De Korte in Braamfontein, The Commune describes itself as a Pan-African, socialist and feminist bookstore and coffee shop that also stocks records focused on African music, and hosts book launches, talks, film screenings and DJ sets.
Best for African-focused books and records
Kampala Road
Aristoc Booklex sells academic, fiction and children’s books with stationery through multiple Kampala branches.
Best for Academic, fiction, and children's books, Kampala's largest chain
Kampala Road
Fountain Publishers’ Kampala shop sells textbooks, fiction and cultural books about Uganda and the Great Lakes region. It is especially practical for locally published educational and regional titles.
Best for Textbooks, fiction, and cultural books about the Great Lakes region
Kampala Road
Longhorn’s Kampala outlet sells school texts, children’s books and general reading from the East African publisher. It is especially practical for curriculum-linked purchases, where edition and syllabus should be checked carefully.
Best for Educational books and children's literature from a Kenyan publisher's Ugandan outlet
Karachi, Pakistan
Da'wah Books is listed in Karachi for books.
Best for Books
Karachi, Pakistan
Ilmi Kitab Ghar is listed in Karachi for books.
Best for Books
Karachi, Pakistan
Petiwala Tajraan Kutub / Petiwala Books is listed in Karachi for books.
Best for Books
Beiertheim-Bulach, Karlsruhe
Druckerei Butz & Bürker prints and finishes stationery, cards and packaging from its Beiertheim-Bulach workshop, offering techniques such as embossing and foil stamping alongside standard offset runs. The business calls itself a Traditionshaus for print and refinement, run under owner Winfried Karcher.
Best for Custom printing, embossing and foil stamping
Kaiserstraße, Karlsruhe
Metzlersche Buchhandlung is an independent bookshop on Karlsruhe's Kaiserstraße, stocking a hand-picked general range from fiction to regional history. The shop takes special orders for out-of-stock titles and has kept its own storefront through decades of change on the street.
Best for General and regional-interest books, special orders
Park Street, Kolkata
Oxford Bookstore sells new releases, bestsellers, Bengali literature, children's books and box sets in India, with free shipping on orders above 250 rupees. Its site features an Author of the Month section on Salman Rushdie, whose Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize.
Best for New and bestselling books
Paradiesstraße, Altstadt, Konstanz, Germany
Bücherschiff is a general bookshop occupying the Haus zum Affen building on Konstanz's Paradiesstraße in the old town. Alongside German titles the shop keeps a dedicated English-language section and offers same-day pickup on online orders.
Best for General and English-language books in the old town
Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
BooKu is a secondhand bookstore inside Kuala Lumpur's GMBB creative mall, open daily. It also runs a book donation and buy-back program and a warehouse in Cheras, Selangor.
Best for Secondhand English and Chinese books in Kuala Lumpur
BooKu runs a physical secondhand bookstore inside GMBB, the creative-community mall on Jalan Robertson in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, open daily from 11am to 8pm. The shop sells preloved books across English, Chinese, and Malay titles, organized into genre sections that range from literary fiction and fantasy to business, psychology, and children's categories, alongside a section for older secondhand stock in Chinese literature, feng shui, and general non-fiction. Beyond retail, BooKu operates a donation and buy-back program for readers across West Malaysia, accepting anything from a handful of books to bulk lots of a hundred or more, with some exclusions such as textbooks and religious texts. A separate warehouse in Cheras, Selangor, handles this intake alongside the storefront. BooKu also runs an editorial side to the business: a submissions platform for book and film reviews, plus recurring columns from a small roster of contributing writers, positioning the store as a reading-culture hub rather than a pure retailer. The result is a secondhand bookshop that functions simultaneously as a community drop-off point, an online marketplace, and a small publishing outlet for reader-submitted reviews, run out of a single Kuala Lumpur storefront rather than a chain.
Bangsar
Family-run Malaysian stationery and art-supply chain, founded 1968 by Peter Chen as a Kajang sundry shop. His sons Alvin and Jason Chen opened the Bangsar branch in the early 2000s, bringing in imported brands like Rhodia, Midori and Clairefontaine.
Best for Family-run stationery and art supplies since 1968
CzipLee began in 1968 as a small sundry shop in Kajang, Selangor, started by Peter Chen with capital borrowed from his mother; the shop initially sold candy, newspapers and a limited stationery selection before Chen leaned into the growing demand from students and parents, moving to a larger Kajang premises in 1973. The Kajang store eventually grew to occupy four shop lots. In the early 2000s, Peter's sons Alvin and Jason Chen led an expansion into Kuala Lumpur's Bangsar neighborhood, opening a store aimed at a different, design-conscious customer base and stocking imported brands such as Rhodia, Clairefontaine, Midori and Kokuyo alongside art supplies, craft materials and a children's line called CzipKid. The family business, now trading past its 55th year, operates as CzipLee Retail Sdn Bhd, runs a loyalty programme (CzipFam) and print service (CzipPrint), and sells through both its Bangsar and other Malaysian branches and its e-commerce platform.
Kyoto
Akao Shobundo deals in antiquarian woodblock-printed books, Japanese hanga prints and books on Japanese literature, with colored xylographic prints from the Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras, including dye-weaving samples and kimono design books tied to Kyoto's Nishijin textile district. The shop is located in Kawaramachi, central Kyoto.
Best for Antique woodblock prints and books
Teramachi, Kyōto
Kyūkyōdō began in Kyoto in 1663 and specialises in incense and Japanese paper goods. Its range includes writing paper and gift envelopes, alongside supplies for calligraphy. Seasonal paper designs offer a smaller purchase than a complete set of writing equipment.
Best for Incense and Japanese paper stationery
Kyūkyōdō dates to 1663 in Kyoto, where it opened as a pharmacy before turning to incense, brushes, and paper. Its imperial connection is specific and documented: in 1877 the chancellor Prince Sanetomi Sanjō passed the shop his family's incense-blend formulas, secret recipes reportedly kept for nine centuries and favored within the Imperial Household, and Kyūkyōdō has produced them since. From 1891 to 1945 the company held the position of official stationer to the Imperial House of Japan. When the capital moved to Tokyo, Kyūkyōdō followed, opening a Ginza branch around 1880 on a street that leads toward the Imperial Palace; the current flagship building dates to a 1924 renovation. Today the shop still trades in the same three categories it built its name on — incense sticks and raw aromatic wood, calligraphy brushes and ink, and washi stationery — serving both the ceremonial incense-appreciation crowd and anyone buying a box of good writing paper. Few Japanese incense houses can point to a specific, named imperial gift as the source of their formulas rather than a vaguer claim of court patronage; Kyūkyōdō's 1877 transfer from Prince Sanjō is the kind of detail that separates a provable court lineage from marketing.
Shijo-Karasuma, Kyoto, Japan
Morita Washi wholesales handmade paper from mills across Japan out of its Shijo-Karasuma shop, stocking everything from plain kozo sheets to yuzen-patterned chiyogami. Staff cut paper to size at the counter, and the shop stocks stationery and small goods made from the same stock for browsing customers.
Best for Handmade washi and yuzen-patterned paper by the sheet
La Porte, Texas
Jessica and Rosa's Books by the Bay on West Main in La Porte is a woman-owned indie: new books, gifts, and Libro.fm audiobooks.
Best for Bookstore in La Porte.
La Porte, Texas
Dimensions on West Main in La Porte calls itself Houston's first genre comic store: weekly comics with a pull box, plus books, records, movies and collectibles in a deeper shop than the storefront suggests.
Best for Comics And Collectibles And Music in La Porte.
Falomo Ikoyi
Glendora Bookshop describes itself as a social-cultural, independent book and music store based in Lagos, Nigeria. It says it is known for a wide selection of rare titles spanning both books and records.
Best for Rare books and music finds
Lagos / Nigeria
Mindville is an online bookstore with two pickup points in Lagos, at Ajegunle and Surulere. It ships business and self-help titles nationwide, describing its vision as giving the human mind free rein.
Best for Business and self-help books
Surulere
Patabah Books has sold books, stationery, and gifts from Lagos since 1987. Its Surulere shop sits inside the Adeniran Ogunsanya Shopping Mall, open Monday through Saturday.
Best for Books, stationery and gifts in Lagos
Victoria Island / Surulere
Roving Heights is an independent Nigerian bookseller with Lagos shops in Victoria Island and Surulere. Its catalogue foregrounds writing from across Africa while also carrying a range of general titles.
Best for Nigerian independent bookstore with multiple Lagos locations
Victoria Island
A bookstore within Lagos’s independent arts and culture centre. The opened Nigerian bookstore directory gives its Lagos address.
Best for Books inside Lagos's independent arts and culture centre
330 N Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, California
Sue Greenwood Fine Art has spent more than two decades on North Coast Highway building a roster of realist and figurative painters working in oil and acrylic, including Jason Kowalski and Dave Lefner. The gallery publishes its own exhibition catalogs and rotates shows regularly.
Best for Contemporary realism and figurative painting
Lahore, Pakistan
Readings is listed in Lahore for books.
Best for Books
League City, Texas
Schroeder's Book Haven is an independent bookstore in League City. Its in-person selection focuses on independent bookstore, making that specialty the practical reason for a focused local shopping stop.
Best for Independent bookstore
Leeds Corn Exchange, Call Lane, city centre
Opened in November 2012 as the first Leeds shop to focus specifically on design publications, Colours May Vary now trades from the Corn Exchange on Call Lane. It pairs its book and print stock with exhibitions and collaborations with working illustrators and designers.
Best for Design books, art prints and zines
Farsley, west Leeds
Truman Books is an independent bookshop and café in Farsley, West Leeds, with books for adults and children. Owner Amanda Truman moved into bookselling after a career in travel, building a shop that also carries cards and gifts. Author events and children's activities add reasons to visit beyond choosing a book and stopping for coffee.
Best for Adult and children's books with a café in Farsley
Truman Books operates from 95 Town Street in Farsley, Leeds, describing itself as an "award-winning independent bookshop and cafe", combining adult and children's books, gifts and cards, and a coffee-and-cake counter under one roof. The book range runs across more than two dozen categories, from fiction split by hardback, paperback, crime/thriller and sci-fi/fantasy, to children's sections divided by age band (0-5, 5-8, 9-12), young adult, biography, history, poetry, science, travel and a dedicated Local Interest & Authors shelf. Beyond retail, the shop runs its own recurring programming: a Storytime and Young Readers' Review Panel for children, and Truman's Book Club Social for adults, alongside a partnership with the Farsley Lit Fest that ties the shop into the town's wider literary calendar. It also carries signed copies and special editions as a standing program rather than an occasional promotion. Closed Mondays, the shop keeps otherwise regular hours across the rest of the week, including a shorter Sunday slot. For a single-shop independent in a Leeds mill town, running a standing book club, a children's review panel and a literary festival partnership simultaneously is a more active programming slate than most comparably sized shops maintain.
Leipzig / Germany
Doppelhand on Zweinaundorfer Strasse in Leipzig stocks books and zines alongside clothing from small labels.
Best for Books, zines and small-label clothing
Leipzig / Germany
Siebter Himmel on Nikolaistrasse is the Leipzig half of a concept store for books and design.
Best for Books and design objects
Lille / France
Momentum is a Lille design store for furniture, lighting, tableware, accessories, art books and children's objects.
Best for Furniture and lighting
Miraflores
El Virrey sells fiction, nonfiction, children’s books and stationery through several Lima locations. A specific Miraflores branch should be attached because hours, events and stock differ across the chain.
Best for Fiction, children's books, and stationery across multiple Lima locations
Jesús María, Lima
Entrevista a La Biblioteca de Trantor, la primera y única librería peruana especializada en ciencia ficción, terror y fantasía.
Best for Books
Centro Histórico, Lima
This shop sells books and literary accessories. It states its aim is to connect readers with meaningful, quality stories.
Best for Books and literary accessories
Miraflores, Lima / Cusco
The Sanseviero family's El Virrey has been Lima's literary anchor for decades — Peruvian letters, Latin American fiction and a Cusco outpost for readers in the Andes.
Best for Peru’s bookselling family house
LX Factory
Ler Devagar combines new and second-hand books with exhibitions and cultural activity at Lisbon's LX Factory. The business began in Bairro Alto in 1999, moving through several settings before opening its LX Factory space in 2009. Its tall former industrial interior and kinetic objects make browsing part of a wider visit rather than a quick search along a single shelf.
Best for Books and exhibitions at Lisbon's LX Factory
Ler Devagar occupies a tall former industrial space at Lisbon's LX Factory, combining bookselling with exhibitions and other cultural activity. New and second-hand books are part of the selection, while kinetic objects created by Pietro give the interior another focus beyond the shelves. The business describes the bookshop as a place for readings and the exchange of ideas as well as buying books. Its programme and setting make a visit useful for browsing even without a particular title in mind.
The history is more mobile than the familiar interior suggests. Ler Devagar began in Bairro Alto in 1999 and subsequently occupied several other settings. An invitation to move to LX Factory came in 2008, but the doors there opened in April 2009 according to the shop's own account. Keeping those dates separate avoids confusing the decision to move with the opening itself. The present bookshop forms part of a larger cultural complex, so it can be visited alongside other spaces at LX Factory. Within the shop, the combination of books and objects rewards time spent looking through the different levels rather than treating the building only as a photograph.
Lisbon
At Rua Garrett 73-75, Chiado, Lisbon, Livraria Bertrand (Chiado) is an evidence-verified current door for books at the continuously operating chiado shop.
Best for Books at the continuously operating Chiado shop
Avenida da Liberdade
Lisbon bookshop founded 1943 by German emigre Karl Buchholz on Avenida da Liberdade; moved in 1965 to Rua Duque de Palmela, where it still operates as a general and foreign-literature shop under Grupo LeYa.
Best for Historic German-language bookshop.
Livraria Buchholz was founded on 22 July 1943 by Karl Buchholz, a German bookseller who fled Nazi Germany after his Berlin business was destroyed in wartime bombing. It opened at number 50 Avenida da Liberdade, where Buchholz introduced innovations to the local trade - stocking foreign books beyond the usual French titles, themed window displays, and art exhibitions - and became a meeting point for cultural and dissident circles. In 1965 the shop relocated to Rua Duque de Palmela 4, where it remains today: a three-floor space combining new releases, records and art shows. It is now owned by publishing group Grupo LeYa.
Rua Nova do Almada 70, 1200-289 Lisboa, Portugal / Lisbon / Portugal
A current official shipping/contact page proves a physical Chiado address, while historical continuity needs careful separation from its post-2023 business form.
Best for Independent books, magazines and paper goods.
Baixa
Historic Lisbon stationery since 1891 — hand-selected notebooks, art supplies, and Portuguese papers in a preserved 1920s storefront.
Best for Historic stationery and art supplies.
Papelaria Fernandes is one of Lisbon's oldest continuously operating stationery businesses, founded in 1891 by Joaquim and Artur Lourenço. Located in the Baixa neighborhood on Rua do Ouro, with additional entrance at Rua Vitória 41, the shop retains a well-preserved late-1920s facade of iron and glass while the interior was thoughtfully remodeled in the 1980s. The shop is known for its curated collection of premium notebooks, sketchbooks, and journals crafted with care. The upper floor showcases decorative cards, wrapping papers, packaging materials, and comprehensive art supplies. The main floor carries general stationery essentials alongside specialty items. Visitors consistently note the sensory experience—the scent of paper, ink, and craftsmanship. The staff are described as deeply knowledgeable and courteous. Papelaria Fernandes has expanded across multiple Lisbon locations, including a branch in the Chiado neighborhood.
Rua Marquês Sá da Bandeira 88B, 1050-150 Lisboa, Portugal / Lisbon / Portugal
The independent specialist opened in 2015 and publishes one São Sebastião shop address.
Best for A São Sebastião specialist with one shop, opened in 2015.
Trg republike 2, 1000 Ljubljana / Slovenia
An antiquarian bookseller offering old and used books, prints and maps.
Ljubljana city center
Založba Beletrina, one of Slovenia's leading literary publishers, runs its own bookshop in central Ljubljana where staff host regular readings and author talks. The shelves lean toward Slovenian fiction and poetry in translation, reflecting the publishing house's own catalog as much as outside titles.
Best for Slovenian literature and author events
Ljubljana
Operating in Ljubljana since 2014 from a showroom on Miklosiceva street, the shop sells Slovenian-made products including olive oil, honey, cheese, chocolate, wines, craft spirits and rakija, alongside books, natural cosmetics and home goods. It also offers personalized corporate gifts and same-day local pickup.
Best for Made in slovenia gourmet gifts
Llandudno / United Kingdom
Mostyn Siop on Vaughan Street in Llandudno sells hand-crafted and design-led pieces, from creative books to homeware.
Best for Hand-crafted and design-led objects
Covent Garden (21 Tower St, WC2H 9NS) / Online
Independent London stationer focused on fine papers, writing instruments, desk objects, wax seals and traditional paper goods.
Best for Beautiful papers, tempting Christmas decorations, charming desk accessories; in-house designed stationery rang
83–84 Marylebone High Street, London / Online
Daunt Books' Marylebone shop is a general bookseller with a particular interest in travel and books about places. Its ranges extend from fiction to travel guides, with books arranged by country forming part of the wider offer. The business began on Marylebone High Street in 1990, before expanding into other London neighbourhoods over subsequent years.
Best for Travel writing and general books in Marylebone
Daunt Books began on Marylebone High Street in 1990, before the business expanded into other London neighbourhoods. The Marylebone shop remains associated with travel reading, while operating as a general bookseller rather than selling guidebooks alone. Its wider catalogue includes fiction and books about places, giving travellers several ways to prepare for a destination.
Books by country form one route through the range, alongside conventional categories for novels and nonfiction. That distinction helps when the subject of a trip crosses several kinds of writing. A reader can consider a travel guide together with fiction set in the same place or an account of its history.
The store also serves readers who have no journey planned, through its general book selection and bookselling advice. A practical visit might begin with a particular author or subject and widen from there. Marylebone is a specific branch, so descriptions of the company's other shops need not apply to the same premises. The travel association is useful as a starting point, without restricting what someone can reasonably look for on its shelves.
London / Charing Cross Road
Foyles occupies the former Central Saint Martins building on Charing Cross Road, where the flagship relocated in 2014. Specialist departments cover general reading and language study, while Ray's Jazz adds records to the bookshop. A café and an auditorium occupy upper levels, with the latter hosting the shop's programme of events.
Best for Books, language-learning material and recorded music
Foyles moved its Charing Cross Road flagship into the former Central Saint Martins building in 2014. The new premises gave the bookshop a central atrium and a series of connected mezzanine levels. Three lifts provide an alternative to the staircases linking those levels through the building.
The departments give several reasons to visit beyond looking for a general reading recommendation. Fiction and children's books sit within a much wider range that includes specialist educational material. Ray's Jazz sells recordings on the second level, alongside classical music and sheet music departments. The language section incorporates Grant & Cutler, providing learning material and literature from publishers in many countries.
This is a bookshop where the department matters when planning what to look for. A visitor seeking language study material has a different destination from someone browsing music recordings or a new novel. The upper levels also contain a café and an auditorium used for literary events and other programmes. Those spaces extend a visit beyond the shelves without changing the store's primary role as a bookseller.
London / UK
Hand & Eye is a letterpress printing and publishing house founded by Phil Abel in Whitechapel, east London.
Best for Illustrated letterpress-printed books and jobbing print work from a Whitechapel
Hand & Eye is a letterpress printing and publishing house founded by Phil Abel in Whitechapel, east London. Its own site dates the operation precisely: "We started in 1985 as jobbing printers, and now print books and record sleeves that find their way to a world-wide audience." It cites the twentieth-century Curwen and Shenval presses in Britain, and Riverside and Stinehour in the United States, as the operations it drew inspiration from when it began.
Four decades on, the shop works from 12 Pinchin Street on two large-format Heidelberg platen presses and a FAG Control 525 proofing press, backed by an extensive collection of wood and metal type. Most current work is printed from photopolymer plates made in-house, letting the studio control every stage of a job from typesetting through to the finished sheet.
Hand & Eye's list of illustrated letterpress editions includes The Wind in the Willows and A Christmas Carol alongside newer titles such as Shadows of Time, The Woman in White, A Far Away Country, and Dear Edward, published for private-press collectors and general readers alike. Alongside its own books, the studio takes on commercial jobbing work, including catalogues for art galleries, keeping the letterpress operation earning its keep between editions the way it has since 1985.
London / United Kingdom
New North Press is a working letterpress studio in Shoreditch, at 45 Coronet Street, where hand-printed cards, limited-edition posters, books and portfolios come off vintage presses rather than digital plates.
Best for Hand-printed cards, limited-edition posters and letterpress classes
New North Press is a working letterpress studio in Shoreditch, at 45 Coronet Street, where hand-printed cards, limited-edition posters, books and portfolios come off vintage presses rather than digital plates. The studio's own description sets its terms plainly: it exists to combine "centuries-old craftsmanship with contemporary design ideas," and the type collection backs that up — more than 700 fonts spanning wood type, metal type, and even a 3D-printed letterpress face, kept in working order rather than displayed as artifacts.
Secondary reporting (Standpoint London, British Letterpress) traces the press to 1986, founded by Graham Bignell on New North Road before the move to its current Coronet Street address in 1993 — the name outlived the original street. That continuity matters in a trade where most commercial letterpress equipment was scrapped decades ago; a studio still running the type and the presses, not just collecting them, is the exception rather than the rule in a city the size of London.
The press takes on commissioned print and design work alongside its own limited editions, and runs regular hands-on classes that teach typesetting and printing on the actual equipment rather than a simulation of it. That combination — production, commission work, and open instruction under one roof — is what separates a working letterpress house from a heritage display case.
London / Bloomsbury
Lamb's Conduit Street's feminist publisher — grey covers, forgotten women writers, and the bookshop that rediscovered mid-century female voices.
Best for Forgotten women writers, grey covers, feminist publishing.
London / Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane
Rough Trade East opened on 20 July 2007 in a former loading bay of the Old Truman Brewery, just off Brick Lane. It is the company's flagship UK store. David Adjaye designed the 5,000 square foot room with a coffee bar, a snug and record crates that wheel away for performances. Vinyl fills the greater part of the floor beside books and merchandise, and the stage hosts live events seven days a week.
Best for New vinyl and in-store gigs
Rough Trade opened its first shop in Notting Hill in 1976 and became a place to find new wave records and fanzines. The label of the same name split from the shops in 1982, and the two have run separately since. Rough Trade East was the company's answer to a bad decade for music retail. It opened on Friday 20 July 2007 in the former loading bay of the Old Truman Brewery on Dray Walk, off Brick Lane. Its 5,000 square feet made it the country's biggest music-only specialist store at the time. It replaced the cramped basement shop in Covent Garden, whose staff transferred east. The architect David Adjaye was a customer who had offered his services a decade earlier. He designed the room with old gin palaces in mind. A coffee bar greets the entrance and a cushioned bench runs along one wall under spoked fluorescent lights. Listening posts stand throughout. A snug with tables and sofas serves quizzes and workshops, and record crates on wheels roll aside for in-store performances. Director Stephen Godfroy argued at the opening that the high street had commoditised music. A side-street shop offering knowledgeable recommendation would find its audience, he said. The store remains the flagship of the UK chain. Vinyl takes the greater part of the floor. Books and merchandise fill the rest, and there is a bar and a photobooth. The stage hosts live events seven days a week and has held Sampha, Little Simz and The Hives.
Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia
Operating since 1978 on Lagoon Road, the Lord Howe Island Museum holds 50,000+ specimens tracing the island's history to its 1834 discovery, including its stick-insect recovery program. Its free shop sells island-made crafts and natural history books.
Best for Island-made crafts and natural history books
The Lord Howe Island Museum has operated since 1978 on Lagoon Road, holding more than 50,000 scientific specimens, books, photographs and cultural objects that trace the island's natural and human history back to its 1834 discovery - the source of the museum's own tagline, "Discovering more since 1834." Admission is free every day of the week, with the museum relying on donations, bequests and sponsorships rather than ticket sales to stay open, a model that keeps the collection accessible to both residents and the relatively small number of visitors the island receives each year. The permanent galleries cover the island's geology, biodiversity and conservation history, and give particular attention to the Lord Howe Island phasmid, a large flightless stick insect once thought extinct and now the subject of an active recovery program that the museum treats as a flagship story rather than one exhibit among many. The attached shop is built around the same material: books and locally authored titles tied to the island's natural history, art prints, screen-printed tea towels made by island artisans, and wood-turned crafts, rather than generic souvenirs bought in from elsewhere. Buying something here supports a museum that charges nothing at the door, and most of what's on the shelf ties directly back to the collection and conservation work happening in the galleries behind it.
Los angeles / Online
Run by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, this shop sells officially licensed Oscars merchandise alongside exhibition-tied collaborations with Academy members like Spike Lee and Ruth E. Carter. Its catalogue spans apparel, collectibles, and one of the more comprehensive cinema book selections in Los Angeles, all purchasable through its direct online store.
Best for Museum store, film memorabilia
Los Angeles / United States
Chevalier's Books is an independent Los Angeles bookstore, a general trade shop anchoring Larchmont Village on North Larchmont Boulevard. Open daily, it hosts frequent in-store author events and book clubs and sells new, signed, and pre-order titles both on the shelves and through its online store.
Best for Bookstore, books
Los Angeles / United States
Billed as California's largest new and used book and record store, The Last Bookstore fills a landmark space in downtown Los Angeles and hosts events from author signings to film screenings. It sells new, used, and rare books plus vinyl in person and through its online shop, and now runs additional locations in Studio City, Montrose, and Honolulu.
Best for Bookstore, used-books, vinyl
Malmo
This family-run English-language bookshop on Davidshallsgatan is kept by Tiffany and Marcus, who stock handpicked titles and host book clubs, readings and live music in its intimate space. Copies sit on the shelves in-store and can be reserved or ordered as curated bundles online.
Best for Bookshop, English-language books, book clubs, live events
Manchester / United Kingdom / Online
An art and design bookshop selling illustrated books, independent magazines, prints and design-led gifts through its online store. Stock ranges from a Fumi Koike St Pancras print to niche titles picked up at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
Best for Bookshop, art books, magazines, prints, design gifts
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