Plate M-4 · 909 stores · 451–600 of 909 · curated ORBIS register
Actes Sud connects its Arles publishing identity with a bookshop covering literature and art, also offering photography and design titles. Amber Unicorn Books buys and trades used books, with science fiction and fantasy represented alongside military history and other specialist subjects. Annabee Buchladen is collectively run near Hanover's Lindener Markt, offering political and feminist writing alongside children's books.
What makes great booksellers & stationers?
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.
Explore booksellers & stationers
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Seesaw Books is a new-release bookstore in Sapporo's Kita ward, a minute's walk from Kita-18-jo Station behind UNTAPPED HOSTEL. It stocks a wide selection of independently published zines from across Japan.
Best for New releases and independent Japanese zines
Seesaw Books opened as a new-release bookstore in Sapporo's Kita ward, two subway stops north of Sapporo Station and a one-minute walk from Kita-18-jo Station on the Namboku line. The shop sits directly behind UNTAPPED HOSTEL, sharing the same building complex as the guesthouse.
Alongside current book releases, Seesaw stocks an unusually wide range of independently published zines sourced from across Japan, a focus that sets it apart from general bookstores in the neighborhood. The shop keeps a fixed schedule — open daily from 11:00 to 19:00, closed every Wednesday and on the first Tuesday of each month, with occasional changes for in-store events.
Seesaw also runs an online shop through Square and lists events through Peatix, suggesting a program of readings or signings beyond straightforward retail. For visitors staying at UNTAPPED HOSTEL or passing through Kita-18-jo, it functions as both a neighborhood bookstore and a specialist stop for zine collectors.
Elliott Bay Book Company opened in Pioneer Square in 1973 and now fills a landmark Capitol Hill space with cedar shelving and deep stock. A long-running author-reading series accompanies its staff picks.
Best for Independent bookstore browsing, staff picks and author events
Worker-owned anarchist collective bookstore at Seattle's Pike Place Market, operating since 1973 with no bosses or managers; stocks 10,000+ new and used radical, anti-authoritarian and independent titles.
Best for Radical books, poetry and movement history
Left Bank Books has operated as a worker-owned collective at Seattle's Pike Place Market since 1973, when a group split off from the University District's Red and Black Books to start their own store. It has no bosses or managers; decisions are made collectively at bi-monthly meetings run by consensus. For much of the 1980s and 1990s the collective also ran two related projects: AKA Books, a used bookstore in the University District, and Left Bank Distribution, a mail-order operation supplying radical books, zines and magazines. The current Pike Street store carries more than 10,000 new and used titles across nearly 70 sections, specializing in anarchist, anti-authoritarian, independent and small-press publishing.
Metsker Maps sells printed maps and atlases alongside globes at Seattle's Pike Place Market. The business traces its roots to Charles F Metsker's work in Tacoma in 1901, later developing into a Seattle map shop. Its selection serves travellers and map collectors as well as people looking for a wall map or a different way to explore a place.
Best for Printed maps, globes and atlases in Seattle
Metsker Maps puts physical geography back into the shopping experience at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Maps and atlases share the selection with globes, making it possible to compare a place at several scales rather than viewing it only through a phone screen. The shop serves travellers and collectors as well as people choosing a wall map for home. Its history began with a different audience: Charles F Metsker founded the business in Tacoma in 1901, producing maps for industries such as surveying and logging.
The company's own history describes its later development in Seattle, followed by a move to Pioneer Square and eventually Pike Place Market in 2004. The current shop is in the Sanitary Market Building. Those changes matter because the long business history should not be mistaken for more than a century at the present address. Today the range extends beyond the Pacific Northwest, while the business retains ties to local cartography through Kroll Map Company. For a purchase, start with what the map needs to do: help plan a journey, show a region in detail or serve as an object to study on the wall.
Seattle's National Park Store, run by the nonprofit Discover Your Northwest, sells books, gifts, and outdoor-themed merchandise from its Pioneer Square-area storefront, open Wednesday through Sunday. Its online store stays open 24/7, with sale proceeds returned to Klondike Gold Rush and other public lands to fund visitor services and youth programs.
The Wing Luke Museum's Marketplace, open Wednesday through Sunday at 719 S. King Street in Seattle, is a gift shop and bookstore that sources from more than 100 small businesses connected to the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. Its online store is currently paused for a refresh, but in-person shopping, phone orders, and online order pickup are all available, with proceeds supporting the museum's exhibitions and youth programs.
ÅLAND's Hongdae shop presents fashion and lifestyle goods from emerging Korean designers within a multi-brand retail format. Clothing sits alongside smaller items such as stationery, giving shoppers more than one route into the range. Its Hongdae address is on Yanghwa-ro 16-gil, distinct from the company's other shops in Seoul and elsewhere.
Best for Emerging Korean fashion and lifestyle brands
Starfield COEX Mall brings shopping and dining together in Seoul's Gangnam district near Samseong Station. Its directory includes fashion shops and beauty retailers, while the Starfield Library provides a space to browse books between shops. The aquarium and cinema are separately listed attractions within the complex, alongside the neighbouring convention facilities.
Best for Gangnam shopping and dining with a stop at Starfield Library
Starfield COEX Mall sits beneath Gangnam and works less like a shopping centre than a district with a roof over it. Around 320 brands fill it. The range runs from the big international fast-fashion names through street labels to a deep stretch of beauty. Walking it tells you what Seoul is wearing at the moment.
The centrepiece is not a shop. At the centre of the mall is an open library, free to enter, built as a place to rest and meet as much as to read. It programmes talks and performances by figures from literature and the arts rather than simply shelving books.
For a great many visitors that library is the reason to come at all, and it costs nothing to walk into.
Eating is treated as seriously as shopping. There are roughly a hundred restaurants and cafes, among them American-style Asian dining and two of the names that led Korean coffee culture. Beyond the retail the complex carries a cinema and an aquarium, along with exhibition space and a hotel. Three hundred brands without a plan will take a day you had not meant to spend.
Korea's thousand-won shop, where the rule is that nothing goes over a dollar. Household goods, stationery, cosmetics and snacks in quantities that stop making sense. Myeongdong runs to four floors of it.
Best for Korea's 1,000-won shop (everything under $1)
Mosaic Seoul is a vinyl record shop stocking LPs, 12-inch and 7-inch singles, CDs and tapes across genres including rock, jazz, soul/funk/disco, club, hip-hop, world, reggae, Korean and Japanese music, plus record sleeves, equipment, merchandise and books. It operates two locations in Seoul, in Sindang and Sangsu.
Korea's most popular stationery and lifestyle chain. Cute, clever Korean-designed goods at impulse-buy prices. Everything from novelty socks to desk organizers to phone cases.
Best for Korean stationery, desk goods and novelty accessories
Independent bookstore and publisher in Seongsu — art books, poetry, design publications, and literary magazines. The quiet, contemplative space is a refuge from Seongsu's bustling streets.
Best for Independent bookstore and publisher in Seongsu — art books, poetry, design publications
Itaewon's English-language bookstore. New and used books, author events, and a cozy reading atmosphere. The expat community's living room — a rare space for English readers in Seoul.
Best for New and used books, author events, and a cozy reading atmosphere
At 1F, No. 678 Miaojiang Rd, Huangpu, Shanghai, dododo book (多多书店) is an evidence-verified current door for contemporary art, architecture and design books.
Best for Contemporary art, architecture and design books
The Sharjah Art Foundation Shop sells art publications, Sharjah-focused books, and exclusive gifts inspired by the Foundation's exhibitions from its stores at Al Mureijah Art Spaces and Rain Room. A full e-commerce shop offers international shipping alongside the physical locations.
Design bookshop in Singapore's Bras Basah Complex, started in 1985 by Basheer Ahamed as a traveling book salesman and given a permanent storefront in 1991; still family-run by his son Abdul Nasser.
Best for Architecture, illustration and graphic-design books
Founded in 1995 by writer and Cultural Medallion recipient Yeng Pway Ngon, this Chinese-language independent bookstore originally traded opposite the National Library before relocating in November 2014 to Bukit Pasoh Road; Yeng passed ownership in 2015 to Lim Jen Erh, Lim Yeong Shin and Lim Wooi Tee.
Best for Independent Chinese-language books and cultural space, since 1995.
Grassroots Book Room was founded in 1995 by Yeng Pway Ngon, a former journalist and Chinese-language poet and novelist later honored with Singapore's Cultural Medallion. The store began at the Qiaobei Centre, across from the National Library, as an outlet for Chinese-language literature, history, philosophy and art at a time when such independent stock was scarce in Singapore. In November 2014 it relocated to its current premises on Bukit Pasoh Road in the Chinatown/Outram area, close to Exit H of Outram Park MRT station. In 2015, Yeng passed the business on to three successors: Lim Jen Erh, a former journalist and dramatist; Lim Yeong Shin, who runs day-to-day operations; and Lim Wooi Tee, a medical doctor. Under their stewardship the shop has kept its core categories — Chinese and Western philosophy, Chinese modern literature, translated Japanese and Western literature, art and film — while adding newer sections such as picture books, food writing and lifestyle titles, maintaining its role as one of Singapore's few dedicated Chinese-language independent bookstores.
Independent bookshop opened in 2014 in a conservation shophouse at 20 Duxton Road near Tanjong Pagar, Singapore, curating literary fiction, crime, sci-fi/fantasy, travel writing and children's titles rather than bestseller-driven stock.
Best for General books in a two-storey conservation shophouse, since 2014
Littered with Books opened in 2014 in a two-storey conservation shophouse at 20 Duxton Road, close to Tanjong Pagar MRT station in Singapore's Duxton Hill / Chinatown conservation district. Shophouses of this kind - narrow street frontages opening into long, deep interiors - are a protected building type from Singapore's early-20th-century mixed-use architecture, and the shop's layout follows that footprint, with shelving running back through the building rather than spread across a wide frontage. Rather than trying to be a general-interest retailer, the shop curates a comparatively narrow list across literary fiction, crime and thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, travel writing, and award-winning children's books, aiming for depth within genres rather than breadth across every category a chain bookstore would carry. It has been repeatedly included in local roundups of Singapore's independent bookshops, alongside houses such as BooksActually, as one of the city's smaller literary-fiction specialists rather than a general bestseller retailer.
Wardah Books is an English-language Islamic bookshop founded in 2002 by Ibrahim Tahir in Singapore's Kampong Gelam. Its subjects also include regional history and literature, with children's reading among the wider selection. Book clubs and author sessions form part of its community work, continuing the area's bookselling tradition without making the modern business as old as its premises.
Best for English-language Islamic books and regional literature
Wardah Books is a Kampong Gelam bookshop specialising in English-language books on Islam, founded by Ibrahim Tahir in 2002. Its selection also reaches into literature and regional history, giving readers several ways into the subjects it covers. The shop occupies part of Bussorah Street's longer history of printing and bookselling in Singapore.
The National Heritage Board's account connects its premises with Chief Kadi Haji Ali, who previously lived and worked at the address. That earlier history belongs to the building and neighbourhood, rather than making Wardah itself a nineteenth-century business. The current bookshop's founding responded to a gap between the English Islamic texts readers wanted and what local shops offered.
Wardah supports reading through book clubs and author sessions, alongside the ordinary work of selecting and selling books. Begin with the subject or level of reading you want rather than assuming that every Islamic title serves the same purpose. Literature for children and a work of philosophy require different choices, even when both appear within the same shop's selection.
Illustrated-book and children's bookstore founded 2009 in Tiong Bahru; that flagship closed in 2024 after 11 years, with a Katong branch at 206 East Coast Road (opened 2023) now the main storefront.
Best for Illustrated books and children's titles since 2009
FOX Book Café is a café-bookshop and cultural centre in Sofia that sells a selection of books. It hosts literary events, exhibitions and musical events, and offers a gallery, a photo studio and a co-working space for writing.
Best for Selected books, literary events and gallery exhibitions
Umberto & Co., opened in April 2025 at ul. Slavyanska 14 in central Sofia, is an independent bookshop selling Bulgarian and foreign prose and poetry, author-autographed books, and sections on cinema, visual arts, biography, cuisine, philosophy and history. It also runs a café with pastries by Chef Miglena Pavlova.
Auntie's Bookstore is a long-running independent bookstore in downtown Spokane selling new hardcovers, paperbacks, and staff picks alongside a full events calendar and book clubs. The shop runs a robust online store with signed copies, audiobooks, and gift cards.
Best for Signed copies, audiobooks, and gift cards
Shop at the UNESCO World Heritage Abbey Library — one of the world's most beautiful libraries — for manuscript reproductions, art books, and scholarly publications.
Best for Manuscript reproductions, art books, and scholarly publications
Billed as Sweden's largest children's bookshop, Junibacken's store on Djurgården stocks picture books and classics mostly in Swedish, alongside titles in other languages, posters, dolls, and soft toys. Its in-store Archive lets visitors borrow books to read on the spot or join weekday read-aloud sessions.
The English Bookshop's Stockholm branch offers English-language book shopping in the Sofo district of Södermalm, on Södermannagatan 22. It first opened in Gamla stan in 2008 before moving to the location listed by the shop today. The branch also offers newsletter sign-ups for reading-group invitations, providing a way to follow its local literary activities.
Best for English-language books and Stockholm reading-group events
The English Bookshop operates English-language bookshops in Uppsala, Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. Its first Uppsala shop opened in 1995, establishing a Swedish bookselling business around English titles rather than a single imported-books shelf. Handpicked selections and bookseller recommendations remain central to the merchant's identity. The programme also moves beyond ordinary sales. Reading groups create recurring communities around books. Workshops and monthly selections add structured ways to discover new writing. Subscriptions give the booksellers an ongoing editorial role, and audiobooks extend the offer beyond print. Each city has its own shop information, but the four locations share the same emphasis on conversation and recommendation. That network gives the business both local presence and a coherent specialism. The English Bookshop is defined by language and bookseller judgement over time: an operation dating to 1995 that now serves four Swedish cities. Its value lies in combining a focused English-language catalogue with programmes that help readers encounter titles through staff knowledge and group discussion, followed by repeat selection.
Sydney genre bookshop founded 1968 by Ron and Eve Abbey, now at 131 York Street opposite the Queen Victoria Building, with sci-fi/fantasy sister store Galaxy Bookshop upstairs.
Best for Specialist sci-fi and crime bookshop.
Abbey's Bookshop was founded in Sydney in 1968 by Ron and Eve Abbey at 115 Pitt Street, moving a year later into the Queen Victoria Building. Following the QVB's 1980s restoration it relocated to 66 King Street, where the family also ran Penguin Bookshop (from 1977) and Oxford and Cambridge Bookshop (from 1978); all three moved to the current premises at 131 York Street, opposite the QVB, in 1986. A dedicated genre imprint, Galaxy Bookshop, specializing in science fiction, fantasy and horror, opened separately in 1975 and now operates from the same building. Ron Abbey retired in 1994; after later co-shareholders also retired, Eve Abbey became sole shareholder, with her son Alan Abbey serving as managing director.
Ariel Booksellers, established in 1985 and now at 326 Oxford Street, Paddington, is one of Sydney's oldest independent bookshops, focused heavily on art, design and architecture titles. It also stocks poetry, plays, film history and literature alongside cards, tarot decks and gift items.
Berkelouw Books operates as an online and independent bookshop network with its customer support based at the Paddington store, selling both new and rare books. The site also buys books from customers and lists additional store locations and events.
Better Read Than Dead is a Newtown bookstore described on its site as a literary landmark that nourishes the neighbourhood's intellectual dynamics. It hosts regular author and community events.
Sydney's Newtown bookshop since 1967 — 25,000+ titles spanning history, politics, rare out-of-print, and Australiana.
Best for Dense second-hand books and specialist subjects
Gould's Book Arcade was established in 1967 as a literary hub serving Sydney University and Newtown's intellectually engaged community. The shop moved to its current location at 536 King Street, Newtown in late 2018 (opposite Alice Street, near the New Theatre). It is a local, family-run bookshop and member of the Australian Booksellers Association (ABA). Gould's specializes in out-of-print books, publishers' remainders from the last 40 years, and second-hand books, with Australian history, politics, and Australiana as core specialties. The shop stocks over 25,000 books, mostly non-fiction but including literary fiction, medical journals, New Age self-help, biographies, and rare pamphlets. Established over 50 years ago, Gould's remains a Newtown institution.
Red Eye Records, at 143 York Street, Sydney, sells new and secondhand vinyl, CDs, cassettes and 7-inch singles across genres from rock and jazz to hip-hop, electronic and soundtracks. It also stocks DVDs, Blu-rays, books and magazines, with a dedicated Australian and New Zealand releases section.
Livraria da Vila is an independent São Paulo bookseller with a verified Vila Madalena branch. Its broad catalogue and event programme make it a genuine current door, though no official URL was supplied.
Four-story culture-retail store in Taipei's Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, part of the Eslite chain — books, design goods, a glass-blowing studio and a basement cinema, 24-hour since 2023.
Best for Taiwanese books, design goods and cultural retail
Eslite Spectrum Songyan is a four-story branch of Taiwan's Eslite retail/bookstore chain, built on the grounds of the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, a former tobacco factory site that today functions as an arts and culture center. Beyond books in Chinese and English, the store carries music and vinyl, stationery and design goods, and hosts book signings, exhibitions and workshops; the complex also includes independent brand shops, a glass-blowing studio, a concert hall and a basement cinema showing arthouse film. In 2023 it took over the Eslite chain's 24-hour operating slot, becoming the group's round-the-clock location.
2F, No. 7, Ln. 56, Sec. 3, Xinsheng S. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan / Taipei / Taiwan
Opened 17 April 1994 as the first feminist bookstore in the Chinese-speaking world; designated a Taiwan Landmark of Women’s Culture in 2007 (Wikipedia; official about).
Best for Opened 17 April 1994 as the first feminist bookstore in the Chinese-speaking world.
An independent Taipei art and photography bookstore opened in 2016, specializing in photobooks and magazines from international independent publishers. The Da’an shop also hosts exhibitions and talks focused on photobooks.
Best for Photobooks and magazines from international small publishers, since 2016
moom bookshop opened in 2016 in the Da'an district of Taipei, about five minutes on foot from exit 1 of Zhongxiao Fuxing station. It specialises in photography, stocking new titles and established classics from independent publishers around the world. It set out to give Taiwanese readers open access to photobooks, including exclusive editions. The interior is painted white throughout, and the shop treats the space as a small gallery. Exhibitions and talks run through the year. They range from retrospectives of contemporary photographers to presentations of single publishers. Past shows have included MACK, AKAAKA, Pioneers of Color Photography and the work of Masafumi Sanai. One exhibition was built around the Japanese magazine Provoke. Obscura magazine first visited in the spring of 2019. It described a whitewashed facade with two narrow windows set among older apartment blocks. It also noted an exhibition of the shop's unsold books that gave slow-moving titles a second chance with new owners. The shop sells online and ships overseas as well. Customers outside Taiwan pay by card or PayPal, and cash on delivery is offered within the island. Its former domain, moom.cat, has been retired in favour of moom.com.tw.
Openbook: founded 1976 by Wei Dewen as Southern Material Center; Taiwan / Hakka / Indigenous / historical-map research. CTS News (26 Apr 2018): 40 years of Taiwan-history academic publishing and a Gongguan-alley walk-in scholars visit.
PAPERWORK (紙本作業) is a PAPERWORK describes itself in its own words as "a letterpress studio, based in Taipei, Taiwan.
Best for Original letterpress-printed stationery and custom letterpress runs on vintage presses in Taipei.
PAPERWORK describes itself in its own words as "a letterpress studio, based in Taipei, Taiwan. We specialize in printing & designing stationery by old-fashioned way, using vintage cast-iron presses, with our printing passions." That self-description sets the studio's primary identity as letterpress production, not general paper retail — the vintage presses are working equipment, not decor.
The studio's own line consists of original paper goods produced by letterpress: greeting cards, postcards, notecards, envelopes and letter sets, each carrying the characteristic debossed impression the process leaves behind. Custom letterpress printing runs through an associated service, FuFu Print, and the studio also teaches letterpress technique through workshops, giving PAPERWORK both a commercial-production side and an instructional one — a structure shared with Taiwan's other surviving letterpress operators, including the historic Ri Xing Type Foundry, also in Taipei, which still casts the traditional Chinese lead type the wider craft depends on.
PAPERWORK sits within a small but active Taipei cluster of letterpress-dedicated studios working to keep the process commercially viable rather than museum-only, and its own stated focus — traditional printing methods and vintage presses, not digital shortcuts — is the distinguishing claim that survives direct verification against its site.
An independently owned stationery and homeware shop with an online store and a café-style Taipei location. Founded in 2013; its official social profile lists the current Zhongxiao Xinsheng address.
Best for Stationery and homeware in a café-style space in Taipei's Zhongxiao Xinsheng, since 2013
Pon Ding combines an art bookshop with coffee and exhibition space in a former three-storey apartment building in Taipei's Zhongshan district, opened in 2016 by Chen Yichiu and Kenyon Yeh. Its books cover art and photography alongside design and culture, complemented by a range of magazines and zines. Its catalogue also lists print and poster artworks alongside objects, and the shop issues publications under its own name.
Best for Art books, zines and artist-made objects in Taipei
Pon Ding occupies a former three-storey apartment building in Taipei's Zhongshan district, combining an art bookshop with coffee and exhibition space. The name draws on the idea of water gathering, but the practical appeal lies in several activities sharing one building. You can browse printed work and objects while also considering whatever exhibition or event is currently being presented.
The book catalogue separates photography and art from design and culture, with zines providing another format alongside larger publications. Magazines form a distinct section, and the shop also publishes work under its own Pon Ding label. These categories make it useful to approach with a subject in mind rather than expecting a general-interest bookstore.
Beyond books, the catalogue includes prints and photographic works, together with home objects and other pieces by named artists. The shop's own objects sit alongside that broader selection, so not everything shares a single maker or production source. Coffee and the exhibition setting give the visit another dimension without changing the bookshop's emphasis on visual and creative work. Online orders can be collected free at the shop, or sent by post, to a 7-Eleven store, or freight-collect by SF Express for large or fragile works; the shop says orders leave in about two to four working days.
Sanmin has anchored Taiwanese bookselling and publishing since 1953 — floors of Chinese-language scholarship, literature and its own imprints. The serious reader's Taipei.
B1, No. 9, Ln. 333, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan / Taipei / Taiwan
Official about (visited 2026): publisher 1982, walk-in 1984; Chen Longhao; 2026 is year 44. Veins of Taipei (8 Dec 2025): Gongguan basement humanities/social-science independent; same alley address. Liberty Times (18 Jan 2026): 43-year independent; 羅斯福路三段333巷9號B1.
A Taipei stationery boutique founded by graphic designer Karen Yang in 2013, mixing its own brass-and-steel tools with carefully selected global stationery classics.
Best for Karen Yang's own brass-and-steel stationery tools alongside curated global classics
A Tangier-based collective whose bio describes itself through books paired with food, rhythms and palettes ("des livres et des vivres, des livres et des rythmes, des livres et des palettes"). It combines literary, culinary, musical and artistic programming.
Les Insolites describes itself on Instagram as a bookshop and gallery themed around "irreverence and anti-conformism," delivering across Morocco with personalized advice. It is based in Tangier, per its account name.
HaSifriya is an independent Tel Aviv bookshop specialising in art, photography and architecture monographs. Author events and launches add context, while the focused catalogue serves readers beyond general trade fiction.
Best for Art, photography, and architecture monographs, with regular author events.
Cow Books is an independent bookshop that opened in September 2002 beside the Meguro river in Nakameguro. Its founders were book critic Yataro Matsuura and Setsumasa Kobayashi. The two thousand or so titles have no fixed genre and are chosen for what they stir in a reader, alongside vintage magazines and a small line of cow-logo goods. Coffee is served at a long wooden table under the statement Everything for the Freedom.
Best for Out-of-print books and vintage magazines, read over coffee by the Meguro river
Cow Books opened on 14 September 2002 beside the Meguro river in Nakameguro, Tokyo. Its founders were the book critic Yataro Matsuura and Setsumasa Kobayashi of the neighbouring label General Research. Matsuura selects the stock, more than two thousand titles at any time, and the staff add their own voices to the choice. The shop has no fixed genre. It is built instead around books that stir something in the reader, from Beat Generation writers and photography anthologies to vintage magazines such as old copies of Brutus. Since opening it has carried the statement Everything for the Freedom. Before the shop existed the founders ran a travelling bookstore from a truck, an idea that survives as the occasional Traveling Cowbooks. Inside there is a long wooden table where customers read over coffee. Outside, wooden benches line the front of the shop and the river. A small line of original goods carries the cow logo. The shop still trades from 1-14-11 Aobadai in Meguro-ku, in the neighbourhood the founders already called home when they opened.
Renovated 1950s apartment building turned cultural space with gallery, café, and guesthouse. The shop sells art books, local crafts, and design objects.
Best for Renovated 1950s apartment building turned cultural space with gallery, café
Curated lifestyle store in the JP Tower with Japanese design objects, stationery, and home goods. Emphasises products that tell a story of Japanese craftsmanship.
Best for Curated lifestyle store in the JP Tower with Japanese design objects, stationery
A stationery shop in Kuramae selling fountain, rollerball, dip and glass-nib pens, inks, notebooks and letter papers, with a custom notebook binding and refill service and a bespoke ink-blending counter for made-to-order ink.
The bible — Lightning, CLUTCH, and The Rake Japan editions. The publishing house that defines, documents, and shapes Japanese heritage fashion culture. Every issue is archival quality.
Best for Bible of heritage, Lightning CLUTCH, archival quality.
Seven floors of Japanese lifestyle goods — stationery, homeware, beauty, and quirky gadgets. Known for exclusive collaborations and limited-edition collections.
Best for Stationery, homeware, beauty, and quirky gadgets
Shibuya LOFT is a large-format branch of Japan's household-goods specialist at 21-1 Udagawacho. LOFT traces its origins to the 1987 opening of the LOFT Annex at Seibu Shibuya, where the company developed an edited alternative to conventional supplies stores. Its "Showcase of Time" concept still explains the mix: practical objects appear beside trend-led discoveries, and browsing forms part of the store's stated purpose rather than simply a route to a predetermined purchase. The wider assortment spans stationery and planners. Writing tools form another category. Cosmetics and personal-care goods sit beside tableware and kitchenware, while interior accessories and travel goods widen the selection. Gifts extend it again. That breadth allows several everyday Japanese product categories to be compared under one roof. The company classifies Shibuya as a large store and has stated that the branch will continue after Seibu Shibuya's announced September 2026 closure. Shibuya LOFT therefore remains part of the retailer's original Shibuya story rather than an interchangeable location in the national chain.
One of Tokyo's largest bookstores with an impressive foreign language section. Seven floors of books including academic titles, art books, magazines, and Japanese literature. The architecture section.
Best for One of Tokyo's largest bookstores with an impressive foreign language section
Premium bookstore with an extensive art, design, and photography selection. Comfortable reading spaces and a Starbucks. Regular book signings and talks with authors and creatives.
Best for Premium bookstore with an extensive art, design, and photography selection
Sekaido has sold art materials in Shinjuku since 1940. The main store at 3-1-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, fills five selling floors above the street. Stationery and paper give way to paints and modelling supplies, and the upper two floors are given over to frames. Twelve Sekaido shops trade in all, most of them in Tokyo.
Best for Five floors of art materials and framing at the Shinjuku main store
Sekaido opened in Shinjuku in 1940 as a shop selling picture frames and paintings. It was incorporated as a company in 1947, and through wartime shortages, including a cut-off supply of glass, it held to a motto of better goods at lower prices. Over the decades it widened its range to art materials and design supplies as well as stationery. The Shinjuku main store burned in 1990, and the company traded from a temporary shop nearby until a new headquarters and store building opened at Shinjuku 3-1-1 in 1994. That nine-storey building has sales floors on five levels and a gallery on the sixth. The first floor carries stationery and fountain pens, and the second holds papers and drafting tools alongside design and comic supplies. The third is given to paints and printmaking materials, with plaster casts and easels. Frames fill the fourth and fifth floors. Watercolour and photo frames sit below, and larger frames for hanging works and for oil paintings sit above. Canvas stretching and framing are done in house, and a branch opened at Ikebukuro Parco in 1969. Others followed in Nagoya and on two art school campuses, while the Shinjuku store remains the flagship.
Landmark design and cultural center with gallery spaces, a design shop, café, and restaurant. The attached Spiral Market carries curated homeware, stationery, and accessories. A hub for Tokyo's design. Established 1985.
Best for Landmark design and cultural center with gallery spaces, a design shop, café
Independent stationery shop and risograph printing studio. Original notebooks, cards, and prints by Japanese illustrators. Also offers printing services for artists and small publishers.
Best for Original notebooks, cards, and prints by Japanese illustrators
Independent magazine and bookshop with a focus on art, photography, and culture publications. Excellent coffee and a quiet reading atmosphere. Regular events with photographers and editors.
Best for Independent magazine and bookshop with a focus on art, photography
Sunday Issue is a gallery and lounge space in Shibuya, Tokyo, its name drawn from the idea that a Sunday newspaper delivers a week's dose of culture in one sitting. The ground-floor gallery shows post-modern photography, drawings and mixed media that lean into sexuality and taboo subject matter — one documented exhibition, titled "Diary of a Thief," featured French artists working with spider imagery and dreamlike painting. Upstairs, the lounge is styled like an early-20th-century study, with a mahogany bookshelf, an old-fashioned librarian's ladder and a black, dark-brown and forest-green palette; its shelves hold rare and vintage books, mostly in Japanese, on art history, typography and retro advertising. A one-woman bar serves whiskey, a cocktail of the day and other spirits alongside salted nuts. The gallery sits above the café On The Corner, where visitors can get coffee and snacks. Sunday Issue is located at 1-17-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, on the second floor of the Beauty Takeno village building.
Hands Shibuya is a multi-level shop in Udagawacho, with a product-location tool to help visitors find items such as notebooks and pens. Its branch website lists cutting and processing services alongside personalisation, with separate reception times for these activities. Workshops and temporary displays add another reason to consult the store's programme before planning a visit.
Best for Stationery shopping and practical making services in Shibuya
The original creative life store with eight floors of DIY supplies, homeware, stationery, and quirky lifestyle goods. From woodworking tools to skincare to travel accessories.
Best for The original creative life store with eight floors of DIY supplies, homeware
Eclectic novelty store often described as 'the store that sells everything interesting.' Books, toys, accessories, home goods, and quirky Japanese inventions.
Best for Eclectic novelty store often described as 'the store that sells everything inter
Toronto used-book chain that opened its first store in 1997; its Bloor Street West superstore in the Annex, opened in 2005, adds roughly 1,000 secondhand and remaindered items a day alongside vinyl, comics and new releases.
Best for Used books, discounted new releases, academic texts, and a huge inventory
BMV Books opened its first Toronto location in March 1997, next to the since-closed World's Biggest Bookstore, as a secondhand shop that paid the public directly for used titles and supplemented its stock with publisher's overstock and remainders. A second store followed in September 1998 near Yonge and Eglinton. The Bloor Street West location - a larger-format store in the Annex neighborhood, close to downtown - opened in November 2005 and became the chain's flagship for general-interest used books. Alongside secondhand and new-release titles, the store carries DVDs, Blu-rays, vinyl records, CDs, magazines, comics and board games, and adds roughly 1,000 new items to inventory daily.
Canadian book-and-lifestyle chain founded 1996 in Toronto by Heather Reisman; became the country's largest bookseller after acquiring rival Chapters in 2001.
Best for Canadian books, new releases and lifestyle gifts
Indigo Books & Music was founded in 1996 by Heather Reisman, a Toronto entrepreneur who set out to build large-format stores mixing books with stationery, lifestyle goods, and, in many locations, a cafe. In 2001, Indigo acquired its larger rival, Chapters, combining the two chains into the biggest book retailer in Canada by store count and revenue, a position it has held since. The company is headquartered in Toronto and remains publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with Reisman continuing as CEO through much of the chain's history.
TYPE Books has operated as an independent bookshop since 2006, now with locations in Toronto's Queen West, the Junction and Forest Hill neighbourhoods. The shop offers free shipping on orders over $150.
This Tunisia-based operation is an independent art book publisher as well as a bookstore and book design studio. It can be reached at [email protected].
Diwan stocks art, history, and Arab-heritage books from a shop in the Tunis medina. Its shelves include a dedicated Arabic literature section and archival photography by Lehnert & Landrock.
Best for Art, history, Arab-heritage books and archival photography
Bottega Fagnola has bound and restored books by hand in Turin since 1955, working on everything from notarial deeds to antique manuscripts at its Via Orvieto workshop under master bookbinder Luciano Fagnola. Its Via San Tommaso shop and online store sell handmade agendas, albums, and notebooks crafted with the same techniques.
Founded Turin 1848 on Piazza San Carlo; ALAI member still trading rare books and prints at Via Po 7 (official site; ALAI directory, catalogue 349-2026).
Best for Rare books and prints from a Turin antiquarian founded in 1848.
Founded 1872 (as Libreria Beuf/Casanova); one of Turin’s oldest bookshops, reopened January 2025 in Galleria Subalpina (MuseoTorino; RAI TGR Piemonte).
Best for International books in one of Turin’s oldest bookshops.
Since 1970 Banyen has been Vancouver's harbour for the inner life — dharma, ecology, poetry and healing across one of North America's deepest metaphysical collections.
Best for The West Coast’s spiritual bookstore
Banyen opened in December 1970 out of a stock of books that had collected at the Golden Lotus, a restaurant and natural food store on Fourth Avenue at Bayswater that its founders had spent three years living in and running. Kolin Lymworth had visited Shambhala Books in Berkeley the year before and came back meaning to do something comparable in Vancouver. The name comes from the banyan tree under which Krishna is said to have spoken the Bhagavad Gita, and from the Banyan Ashram that Gary Snyder and Nanao Sakaki founded in Japan; the spelling was changed on the advice of a friend who practised numerology. The first shop opened at 2739 West 4th Avenue in the summer of 1972, an audio wing was added in 1987, and the store now trades at 3608 West 4th at Dunbar. It describes its range as running from acupuncture to Zen, from childbirth and business to the Hermetic mysteries. Lymworth still owned it at the fiftieth anniversary in 2020. A visitor would not find it without being told: it sits at the far western end of a long commercial street, past the beach and well past the Fourth Avenue shopping run, and its subject has no guidebook category to be listed under.
ScribaVenice hand-paints marbled paper into books, photo frames and wax seals, and pairs it with Murano glass pens and lenses, each sheet made unique by its painting technique. The workshop is located at Salizada San Lio in Venice's Castello district, under proprietor Giuseppe Ferlito.
The Belvedere's store carries the imagery of Vienna 1900 — Klimt editions, Wiener Werkstätte-inspired design and the museum's catalogues — from the palace that houses The Kiss.
Vienna LGBTQ+ bookshop since 1993 — 12,000+ titles across literature, theory, documentary, and community.
Best for LGBTQ+ literature, history and children’s books
Buchhandlung Löwenherz has occupied a central place in Vienna's queer cultural landscape since 1993, operating as an independent LGBTQ+ bookshop that functions simultaneously as library, archive, and community meeting space. The store maintains a curated collection exceeding 12,000 titles spanning fiction, biography, non-fiction essays, documentary film, art books, illustrated volumes, and an extensive children's literature section addressing queer experiences and identities. Staff provide recommendations and maintain expertise across German and English language materials, ensuring accessibility for Vienna's diverse queer demographics. The bookshop occupies Berggasse 6 in Alsergrund, a neighborhood with deep queer history, and shares the building with Café Berg, a café space supporting extended browsing and community gathering. Over three decades of operation, Löwenherz has established itself as a rare institutional space—neither purely commercial nor purely activist—where queer history, literature, and contemporary identity expression interweave.
Buchhandlung Walther König’s MuseumsQuartier branch specialises in exhibition catalogues, monographs, architecture and art theory. Its institutional setting and deep backlist make it more useful than a general museum gift shop.
Best for Exhibition catalogues, monographs, and art theory in the MuseumsQuartier
The Jewish Museum Vienna's shop at its Dorotheergasse location sells exhibition catalogues and a curated selection of books, open Sunday through Friday from 10am to 6pm. The book selection is overseen by a dedicated staff curator, and visitors can arrange to buy exhibition catalogues directly through the shop.
The Leopold Museum Shop in Vienna's MuseumsQuartier sells exhibition catalogues and art books tied to the museum's Klimt, Schiele, and Vienna 1900 collections, with in-person purchase daily and select titles orderable online. Recent releases include catalogues for the Biedermeier and Franz Hagenauer exhibitions.
Best for Klimt and Schiele exhibition catalogues and art books at Vienna's Leopold Museum
A four-level specialist in stationery, office supplies, creative tools, paper goods, school supplies, and selected gifts. The business states that it has served customers for more than 111 years.
Best for Four-level specialist in stationery, office supplies, creative tools, paper goods, school supplies
Phil has run as a cafe, bookshop, and bar at Gumpendorfer Strasse 10-12 since 2004, stocking more than 4,000 books. After dark it becomes a bar serving longdrinks and espresso martinis under disco-ball light.
Best for More than 4,000 books lining a Vienna cafe-bar open since 2004
Phil has operated as a cafe, bookshop, and bar at Gumpendorfer Strasse 10-12 in Vienna's 6th district since 2004. The shop describes its own shelves as holding 'more than 4,000 books,' a collection it calls sometimes a little unusual and quirky rather than a curated bestseller list, spread through what the cafe calls a cozy Vienna living room. Breakfast is sourced from regional suppliers with an emphasis on organic quality, and a weekday laptop table accommodates working customers, though the cafe asks that laptops stay closed on weekends to preserve the room's atmosphere for everyone else. Past nightfall, the cafe-bookshop turns into a bar, serving longdrinks and espresso martinis under, as the venue puts it, disco-ball light and soft beats -- a genuine format shift rather than just a later closing time. A garden (Schanigarten) opens seasonally from April through October for outdoor coffee, breakfast, and reading. The venue has picked up repeat local press coverage, appearing in Falter's local guide, Falstaff's cafe guide, and Vienna's own tourism site. Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard is quoted on the site describing a lifelong habit of retreating to coffeehouses the way others retreat to a park or forest -- a line the cafe uses to frame its own role as a refuge, in the words of a canonical Viennese literary voice rather than its own marketing copy.
An independent English-language bookshop selling literature, poetry, plays, history, art, academic books, and children’s books. It has sold exclusively English-language books at its Vienna shop since 1982.
Best for Independent English-language bookshop selling literature, poetry, plays, history, art, academic books
The online shop of Vienna's Technisches Museum lists more than a hundred products tied to the museum's collection, including books on Austrian radio history and Viennese trams, Lego and Gobricks model kits, and steam-locomotive magnets. Orders ship worldwide by post, with items organized by age group from young children through adults.
Best for Museum shop, books, science and technology gifts
MO Museum Shop sells books, Lithuanian design pieces and museum souvenirs modeled on artworks. It operates as the retail shop of the MO Museum in Vilnius, offering items intended as gifts for art lovers.
Best for Books, Lithuanian design objects and museum souvenirs
Located on level 0 of Warsaw's POLIN Museum at 6 Anielewicza Street, Austeria at POLIN is run by the Austeria publishing house and sells books on Jewish history, culture, and literature alongside museum catalogues and Judaica. The bookstore is open without a museum admission ticket and also sells through its own online shop.
The official boutique of Poland's Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera sells archival opera and ballet posters, exhibition catalogues, and theatre-branded gadgets through its online store and a physical butik in the theatre's left wing, open daily 11:00-19:00. Its poster collection spans decades of past productions, from historic ballets to recent premieres.
Opened in May 1952 as a Dom Książki and PIW bookshop at Krakowskie Przedmieście 7 — the Grodzicki tenement, and the address Prus gave Wokulski's shop in Lalka. Renamed on 19 May 1962, fifty years after Prus's death. Wprost ranked it Warsaw's best bookshop in 2006.
Best for Books at the Warsaw address associated with Wokulski’s shop in Lalka.
The Museum of Warsaw's online bookshop specializes in Varsaviana, offering books, exhibition catalogues, maps, and city-themed keepsakes drawn from the museum's collections. Running on the Shoper e-commerce platform, it ships across Poland and lists titles such as "In Between: A Short History of Warsaw" alongside historic city map reprints.
Best for Varsaviana books, exhibition catalogues, and historic Warsaw map reprints
Founded in October 2018, Tajfuny is a Warsaw bookshop and publishing house devoted to East Asian literature, with a storefront on Chmielna Street in Śródmieście and a sister location in Kraków, publishing Polish translations of authors including Yoko Ogawa, Hiromi Kawakami and Ranpo Edogawa.
Best for East Asian literature and culture from this publisher-bookshop
Tajfuny was founded in October 2018 as a publishing house specializing narrowly in Japanese and wider East Asian literature translated into Polish, a niche few other Polish publishers had focused on at that scale. Alongside publishing, the company runs its own bookshops, including a storefront on Chmielna Street in Warsaw's central Śródmieście district and a second location in Kraków, both stocking curated selections of Asian literature in translation as well as the press's own titles. Its catalog includes Polish editions of authors such as Kanoko Okamoto, Ranpo Edogawa, Yoko Ogawa and Hiromi Kawakami, produced with qualified translators and editors working from the original Japanese and other East Asian languages. The publisher also maintains an online store that ships internationally, extending its reach beyond its two physical locations. Tajfuny's opening in Warsaw drew a large crowd according to Polish book-trade press coverage at the time, reflecting existing appetite among Polish readers for East Asian fiction previously served mostly by import copies or occasional single-title translations from larger houses.
Iko Iko is an independent, family-owned gift store at 118 Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, selling accessories, books, home decor, stationery and toys. It stocks both its own designs and curated brands including Jellycat, Baggu, Frank Green and Sonny Angels.
Windhoek Book Den describes itself on Instagram as the largest independent book retail store in Namibia. It takes order requests or quotes and offers nationwide shipping.
Railway shop at Zermatt station selling memorabilia from one of Switzerland's most scenic train lines. Model trains, books, and Alpine railway souvenirs.
Best for Books, models and souvenirs connected to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn
Orell Füssli's Kramhof bookshop in Zurich has an English-language section on the third floor at Füsslistrasse 4. Readers can browse English literature there and ask the team for help with an order. The bookseller also offers an online English catalogue, with new releases and reading selections available to explore before visiting.
Best for English-language books at Zurich's Kramhof bookshop
Vastela Books is an independent secondhand English-language bookshop at Birmensdorferstrasse 255 in Zurich, selling books and audiobooks and running a donations programme, subscription swaps and community events such as a bookclub and writing groups.
82 is a Bratislava bookshop and publishing house at Štefanovičova 10, open Thursdays 17-21, stocking illustrated and non-fiction titles on architecture, design, art, psychology, travel and cookbooks, plus rare and antiquarian books. It began as a niche shop focused on architecture, design and art before expanding into publishing, and hosts the U Adama natural-wine bar on Thursdays.
Founded in 1989 in Inman Park, A Cappella Books deals in new, used and rare titles. Its author events and antiquarian selection draw readers and collectors alike.
Best for Independent bookselling, signed and antiquarian titles, author events
This Madison bookstore on Atwood Avenue pairs a deep, staff-curated selection with a busy calendar of book clubs, author launches, and community gatherings in its Reading Room. Shoppers browse titles in person or order books, merch, and subscription boxes through the shop's online store.
Ábaco Libros y Café has occupied a corner of Cartagena’s walled city since May 2002, combining a general bookstore with coffee, wine and light food. It also functions as a cultural meeting place for readings, book launches, discussion groups and events tied to the city’s major festivals.
Best for Books and café service in Cartagena’s historic center
Trading since 1981, this used and rare bookshop stocks deep shelves of science fiction, fantasy, military history, and occult titles that outlast the trend cycles of Strip retail. Staff buy, sell, and trade stock directly with customers, keeping the inventory local rather than routed through a distributor.
Best for Used and rare science fiction and occult books
Annabee is a collective-run, corporation-independent bookshop near the Lindener Markt with strengths in politics, feminism, history, LGBTQ+ writing and children's books. It won the German Bookshop Prize in 2019 and again in 2023.
Best for Political, feminist and LGBTQ+ literature
Antigua Books is located at 7 Av Sur #8-A in Antigua and is open 10am-6pm every day. It stocks new and used books in Spanish and English and ships throughout Guatemala.
Best for New and used books in spanish and english
This Plzeň antiquarian bookshop on Divadelní street has spent decades sourcing Czech and foreign books, old postcards, film posters and vinyl for browsers ranging from casual readers to serious collectors. Every item is individually photographed and described online, and the shop also buys books, maps and records from the public.
Best for Antiquarian Bookstore, Books, Vinyl Records, Postcards
Antikvariát Fiducia is a long-running antiquarian bookshop and cultural club in Moravská Ostrava, stocking fiction, history, art and technical titles alongside rare prints, maps and postcards. Its Nádražní shop is backed by a searchable online catalogue, so collectors can browse the same specialist second-hand and antiquarian material beyond the physical store.
Best for Antiquarian books, maps, postcards, prints, graphics
Antikvariat Rode Orm has traded second-hand and antiquarian books from Haga's historic quarter on Husargatan since 1986. Its shelves run from 16th- to 18th-century volumes and fine bindings to maritime history, chess literature and vintage children's books.
Best for 16th- to 18th-century books, bindings and maritime literature
Founded in 1994 by Alie Berger and Michel de Vries, this antiquarian and secondhand shop on Pelsterstraat carries books from modern to centuries old alongside maps, prints, vinyl records, and photographs. It runs a fortnightly Bookmaker event that puts out around 2,000 secondhand books on alternating Wednesdays.
Best for Centuries-old books, maps, and vinyl at the fortnightly 2,000-book Bookmaker event
For six decades this Poznań antiquarian bookshop on ul. Paderewskiego has stocked rare Polish first editions, historical maps, and postcards for collectors and casual browsers alike. Its online catalogue ranges from a signed Czesław Miłosz volume to century-old prints of the city, all shippable worldwide.
Ark Books (Arka knjiga) is an antiquarian bookshop in Osijek presenting used and out-of-print titles across history, literature, science and reference. Its site displays a rotating stock of individual books by category for buyers to browse and enquire about.
The West Port shop spreads through two adjoining addresses, with second-hand fiction, poetry and philosophy giving way to antiquarian and specialist nonfiction. Narrow aisles and overloaded shelves make browsing slower than a quick title lookup.
Best for Second-hand and rare books in a cosy cavern with vibrant threadbare rugs
Based in Miyanoura on the art island of Naoshima, Art Island Center is a gallery, bookshop and art center that helps visitors explore the Setouchi islands. Its online store sells guidebooks and art, and the center also arranges locally guided island tours.
Image-focused bookshop and gallery at 83 Quai de Valmy on the Canal Saint-Martin, opened in July 2000 by Carl Huguenin, Jerome Fournel and Serge Bensimon as Paris's first concept-store dedicated to photography, design and illustration.
Best for Canal-side art, design, and photography books
Artazart opened in July 2000 at 83 Quai de Valmy, a small standalone building on the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris's 10th arrondissement, founded by Carl Huguenin and Jerome Fournel together with Serge Bensimon. It positioned itself as a bookshop-gallery hybrid, specializing in imported and hard-to-find titles on photography, graphic design and illustration, alongside self-published zines and international magazines. Over its first 25 years it became one of the identifying landmarks of the canal, known for storefront collaborations with artists such as street artist Miss.Tic.
Artforum's Pezinok store, at Kollárova 12, sells fiction and non-fiction books across categories including history, art and natural sciences, plus e-books, audiobooks, music, films, magazines, stationery and merchandise.
Ashanti hand-roasts Arabica coffee grown in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands, selling fresh beans and books from its Thornbury cafe at 39 Bruce Street South plus locations in Hanover and Wiarton. Founded by David Wilding-Davies around a farm-to-cup philosophy, the roaster has operated for more than fifteen years.
Best for Zimbabwe Eastern Highlands Arabica, hand-roasted beans, and the farm-to-cup Thornbury cafe
Atlantis Books occupies a cave-like space near the caldera in Oia, filled with hand-painted decor and a curated multilingual selection. The independent shop is known as much for its literary events as for its books.
Best for Independent bookshop, literary gifts and events
Au Vent des îles is a book publisher based at Hangar G2 in the Papeava zone of Papeete, Tahiti, specializing in literature, guides and illustrated books about the Pacific. Its full catalog, including Pacific noir fiction and children's books, is sold through the publisher's online shop, priced in French Pacific francs.
This downtown shop stocks both new and used books and shares its building with Angry Mom Records, a vinyl, cassette, and comics shop. Members of the PM Press book club get 20% off in-store purchases, reflecting its focus on independent and small-press titles.
This West End independent has been a hub for Brisbane's literary community since 1997, with carefully kept shelves spanning fiction, local writing and ideas. It runs a busy program of author events and book clubs, and shares its Boundary Street home with a cafe.
Best for It runs a busy program of author events and book clubs
A Bengali and English bookseller and publisher with its Dhaka store on Mymensingh Road and branches in Chattogram, Sylhet and Rajshahi. It runs deep sections in Bengali literature, foreign titles and children's books, and mounts its own book-fair collections each year.
A Moab bookstore on North Main Street specializing in natural history and regional titles of the Colorado Plateau, alongside used and rare finds. New books sell through its online catalog and in the store, which also hosts author events.
Barbóék opened in 2015 in a renovated former printing works on Schrijnmakersstraat, pouring Blanche Dael coffee and tea alongside pastries. A second site inside M Leuven museum, added in 2022, hosts author talks and weekend brunch.
Best for Books, Blanche Dael coffee, pastries and author events
Barbóék opened in 2015 on Schrijnmakersstraat, in a tastefully renovated former printing works, combining an independent bookshop with a coffee bar rather than treating either as an add-on to the other. The shop pours coffee and tea from Blanche Dael, a local roastery, alongside espresso drinks and specialty lattes, wines from Convento, and food built around soup and bread plus pastries made in-house or sourced locally - described by the owners as running the place like a second living room, somewhere to browse and linger rather than move through quickly. Staff are self-described book enthusiasts who give personal recommendations, and any title not in stock typically arrives within two days. In summer 2022 the concept expanded to a second site, Barbóék in M, a museum shop and café inside M Leuven, the city's museum for contemporary and classical art on Savoyestraat. That location leans its book selection toward art titles tied to the museum's exhibitions, hosts author talks and reading-club evenings on Thursdays, and runs a seasonal weekend brunch - a plate of quiche, yogurt and granola, and coffee cakes for twenty euros. Between the two addresses, Barbóék has built a single identity around books and coffee shared in the same room, rather than a café that happens to sell books on the side.
Founded in 1964, Bart's is the world's largest outdoor bookstore, its courtyard shelves holding over 130,000 new and used books. Open seven days a week on Matilija Street in Ojai, it welcomes everyone from rare-book hunters to beach-read seekers.
A combined art-supply store, bookshop and café on Bolívar in Cuenca's historic centre, Bauhaus carries brushes, watercolours, oils and sculpture tools alongside titles on art, architecture and literature. It serves the city's art students and working painters, keeping a small café for browsing between the shelves.
Best for Art materials and art/architecture books in the old town
Bear Pond Books is a second-generation, family-owned bookstore covering more than 3,700 square feet inside the historic Depot Building in Stowe, Vermont, and has traded since 1970. Alongside fiction and children's books, it stocks a large selection of Vermont and New England titles, puzzles, and gift wrap, and still offers curbside pickup.
Beaverdale Books has sold new titles across all genres from its Beaver Avenue storefront in Des Moines since 2006. The shop stocks work from more than 500 local authors and runs a steady calendar of readings and events.
Between the Covers is a neighbourhood bookstore at 106 E. Main in Harbor Springs, Michigan, and the official bookseller of the Harbor Springs Festival of the Book. Open daily, it hosts half a dozen local book clubs and sells new titles, audiobooks and staff picks online with shipping and curbside pickup.
Biblion Used Books & Rare Finds occupies a corner shop at Second and Market Streets in Lewes, stocking a curated mix of used, rare and antiquarian volumes alongside literary gifts, stationery and original art. The shop keeps daily hours from 11am to 5pm for browsers hunting first editions and out-of-print finds.
Best for Rare and used books, literary gifts, and antiquarian finds
Biblion is a used bookshop at 205 Second Street in Lewes, Delaware, that also sells cards and gifts, with art on the walls. The shop describes its stock as a thoughtful collection of contemporary and antiquarian books, with the literary and the quirky as its strength. The majority of books arrive from regular guests through a trade credit policy, so the shelves reflect the reading habits of the town. A very small selection of new titles covers local subjects by local authors, joined by History Book Festival titles in the lead-up to that September event. Because the collection is small and turns over quickly, the shop asks callers to phone rather than email about a specific book. Cards and gifts come from other small businesses, with boxed note cards and writing paper alongside. The walls hold original art by local artists and prints by artists from around the country. Nothing is sold online, since the owners prefer the in-person experience and point visitors to their small suppliers instead. The shop does not typically buy books for cash and directs sellers to the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. A quotation on the site calls second-hand books wild books, homeless books that come together in variegated feather.
Owned by author Louise Erdrich, Birchbark Books is a Minneapolis bookstore specializing in Indigenous American writing, language, and art, with shelves 'lovingly chosen' and tended with care. Open daily on West 21st Street, it sells books, Native crafts, and gifts in the shop and online.
Best for Bookstore, Indigenous Books, Native Arts, Gifts
An independent shop in the Old Bisbee Convention Center stocking new and used books, vinyl records, and instruments such as guitars, ukuleles, and flutes alongside art supplies and games. It has been voted best or second-best specialty store in Bisbee every year since 2020.
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