by Nick Hagan / September 20, 2024
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
Craving downtime among the stacks? Discover beautiful and unique bookstores from around the world, perfect for any bookworm.
We may live in a digital world, but our connection to physical books – and the bookstores they call home – only seems to be strengthening.
In fact, bookstores are in the midst of a healthy comeback all over the world. In the USA, over 200 new independent bookstores launched in 2023, continuing a long trend for flourishing indies. Since 2016, the membership size of the American Booksellers Association has nearly doubled.
The pattern was likewise noted in the UK, where despite the number of high street shops plummeting due to economic stagnation and rising costs, 50 new independent bookshops opened their doors. The physical bookshop’s offering of an inspiring, emotive space is fundamentally different, scratching an itch for readers that online sellers can’t reach.
And it’s not just the indies which are thriving. In the states, Barnes and Noble will open a staggering 58 new outlets in 2024 – the most it’s launched since 2009. From New York to New Orleans to Santa Monica, this wave of new stores will throw down a gauntlet to the power and convenience of Amazon and other online booksellers.
From veteran libraries that ooze character, charm and history to the new literary upstarts offering a radical alternative to the traditional bookshop experience, here are our top 9 places to go book hunting.
Table of Contents
- Cafebreria El Pendulo, Mexico City, Mexico
- Cook & Book, Brussels, Belgium
- Wuguan Books, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Treadwells, London, UK
- Honesty Bookshop, Hay on Wye, UK
- The Writer’s Block, Las Vegas, US
- The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, US
- Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice, Italy
- El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Your Next Bookish Adventure Awaits
Cafebreria El Pendulo, Mexico City, Mexico
Books, it has been observed, are pieces of dead trees that we print letters on and then use to hallucinate.
Perhaps that’s why there’s something uniquely fitting about incorporating lush foliage into a bookshop’s decor – an environmental feature that is one of the trademarks of the Cafebreria El Pendulo chain in Mexico City. In fact, their youngest store (the San Angel branch) even features a towering palm tree that stretches up to a generous skylight, smack in its center. Surrounded by dead friends they may be, but leafy beings are integral to Cafebreria El Pendulo’s striking blend of peaceful, bohemian and studious energies.
Seven branches of these expansive, inspiring bookstores can be visited at the time of writing, each one containing some familiar visual cues and themes while also being uniquely its own. The Polanco branch is particularly irresistible, boasting industrial-style rafters and bulbs that dangle over two dense floor-to-ceiling stories of books (no pun intended), plus curvy green railings and bright wooden floors. You’d be forgiven for thinking you’ve been transported to the coolest library you’ve ever been to.
As Spanish speakers will instantly be able to tell, Cafebreria El Pendulo places the emphasis on both food and reading – combining the cafe with the libreria (bookstore). The Letter restaurant and terraces offers a varied menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner and takeaway, while Bukowski’s Bar at the Zona Rosa branch is an homage to alcohol’s role as both muse and curse of so many renegade writers. Find your own inspiration with the help of cocktails, wines, snacks and live jazz sessions.
With their open, expansive spaces, breathtaking verticality and impressive program of free events, Pendulo branches place a strong focus on neighborhood cohesion and creativity. The books on offer are just as far-reaching, from classics to poetry, philosophy and, as you’d hope, a large amount of Spanish language literature. Each store tailors its sweet spot of titles and events in response to its local area.
To quote Eduardo Aizenmann, the founder of this unique cultural entity, books “offer a very intimate way to grow infinitely”. Cafebreria El Pendulo certainly embodies that ethos.
Cook & Book, Brussels, Belgium
The best bookstores are often those which manage, in their own special way, to transport you to a multitude of different worlds. Just like the books they host do.
Cook & Book takes that impulse quite literally, by presenting the bewildered visitor with nine dazzlingly distinct themed sections, each creating a microcosm of the books found there.
Head to the travel department, for example, and you’ll find yourself face-to-face with a chrome Airstream trailer straight out of the Nevada desert, surrounded on all sides by gorgeous coffee table travel literature. Cucina, meanwhile, adds a dash of Italian flair, plonking a tiny Fiat center stage among a check floor, deli counter, candelabra and a clutch of mouth-watering cook books.
Theatrical decor and quirky touches like this are woven into the very heart of Cook & Book’s DNA. Life-sized figures of Asterix and Obelix, two of Belgium’s most famous comic book exports, can also be found at the start of the comics section. A baby grand piano and vinyl records await you in music. The joy of Cook & Book is largely found in its huge capacity for exploration and discovery in a playful, multidimensional space.
As if the abundance of themed literature wasn’t enough, each of the bookstore’s nine zones comes complete with its own eatery. Choose from a wide variety of delicious Belgian and French favorites, including entrees, toast options, salads and classics. Plus a good range of beers and wines to wash it down with. A staggering amount of dining permutations are catered to, from counter-top service to communal dining tables and small single covers.
Best of all, they’re quite happy for visitors to enjoy a glass of champagne while reading their book of choice. Cook & Book’s outdoor terrace is enormous – a trend that the site as a whole tends to follow. Be prepared for a busy day if you plan to explore every nook and cranny. But oh, is it worth it – few bookstores can offer the remarkable breadth of this ambitious, endlessly imaginative marvel.
Wuguan Books, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
If books illuminate our inner and outer worlds alike, maybe we should let them shine as only they can. Such is the approach of Taiwan’s remarkable Wuguan Books – where customers select carefully curated literature in almost total darkness.
This experimental bookshop only launched in 2018 in Taiwan’s second-largest city, Kaohsiung. However, it has already made waves with its jaw-dropping approach to lighting and the book browsing experience. The designers of Wuguan Books maintain that the reader’s relationship to the book changes in the dark; that the enticing blend of obscurity and quiet allows visitors to feel a pronounced sense of privacy that gives them permission to choose and read whichever books they want, without fear of onlookers judging or interrupting.
To this end, Wuguan’s selection spans various mature and intimate themes, including gender, body, emotion, psychology and art. Pull back the curtain, step slowly into the darkness and across carpeted floors, and perhaps alight on a book calling to some as-yet unknown part of you. If you need to center yourself in the darkness, a yakisugi reading table offers a place to sit in a halo of light.
This bookstore is the brainchild of celebrated architect and designer Chu Chih-kang, and a visit is undeniably unique. Its fusion of high-concept design and sensory script-flipping prompts an almost out-of-body experience, while also foregrounding the 400 books on display in an unforgettably different way.
At a deeper level, the designer and staff believe that such an environment allows visitors to throw off their personas and approach literature from a more essential part of themselves – the bookshop’s slogan is ‘about soul reading’. To this end, be aware that the use of torches on phones or flash photography is prohibited. It’s all about what happens between you and the book in the dark.
Treadwells, London, UK
Could we build a list like this without including a bookstore which actually specializes in magic?
London’s Treadwells opened its doors in 2003, and for over 20 years has offered browsers a bespoke collection of books covering mysticism, religion, spirituality, magic, the occult and other waystations between. Beautifully decked out in dark wood and soft fabrics, this bookstore is dedicated to ancient, overlooked and suppressed wisdom of all stripes, with eye-opening and expansive esoterica spread over two floors. As well as books on everything from witchcraft to alchemy and herbalism to astrology, you’ll find a large array of trinkets and ritual objects to tempt your curiosity.
One-to-one tarot readings are available inside the shop, while a varied calendar of events provides everything from lectures to workshops to live music. Folk-indie superstars Mumford & Sons even started their globetrotting career with the help of Treadwells, playing ‘bookshop sessions’ in the early noughties. The store was founded by academic Christina Oakley-Harrington, partly inspired by the intellectual salons of the 18th century – and the spirit of such far-roaming endeavors still burns bright in one of London’s most striking and interesting book-based spaces.
For lovers of all things unique and unusual, Treadwells is truly a magical sanctuary in the heart of the big city.
Honesty Bookshop, Hay on Wye, UK
Discovery is surely at theabsolute epicenter of any good bookshop experience. From the intrigue a room or building full of books presents to the thrill of cherry picking an absolute humdinger of a hardback, the noble art of book hunting reconnects us with some of our most primal – and most satisfying – foraging instincts.
At Hay on Wye’s Honesty Bookshop, you can fully indulge your desire for a good rummage among the stacks – and do it in the shadow of a castle dramatic enough to make King Arthur blush. Since the 1970s, this open air emporium has offered browsers a wide range of second hand books on all manner of subjects, all operating on an honesty policy that sees customers dropping their change in a paybox once they’re done. All proceeds from the Honesty Bookshop go towards maintaining the crumbling pile of a castle next door, and the prices for books have remained pleasingly low over its six decades.
Hay on Wye’s origin story as a book town is also a thing of magic. In the 60s and 70s the castle’s wealthy new owner, Richard Booth, began buying huge amounts of books from closing libraries around the world, shipping them to the sleepy Welsh town in order to open several bookshops. Before long he had an excess of stock, and it made sense to open the Honesty Bookshop to manage the overflow.
The story got weirder still when, in 1977, with an audacity that would put Game of Thrones many heir apparents to shame, Booth declared Hay on Wye an independent kingdom from the rest of the UK. Styling himself as king Richard Coeur de Livre (Book Heart), Booth even named his horse Prime Minister (literally and figuratively) of the new dominion.
No, it wasn’t a mental breakdown – rather a provocatively silly publicity stunt which drew massive attention to the burgeoning town of books. And, for most observers, it worked: The Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, created as a result of the stunt, has since become the UK’s premier bookish gathering, attracting a staggering 250,000 visitors for 10 days every year.
An Englishman’s home is his castle, so the saying goes – but for Booth, who sadly passed away in 2019, it was almost the other way around. From his own castle’s grounds he created a spiritual home for books and book lovers that endures to this day. Despite a population of just 2,000, Hay on Wye has around 30 bookstores to explore, making it a Mecca for bibliophiles the world over. It can be reached by just an hour and a half’s drive from Bristol.
The Writer’s Block, Las Vegas, US
Books may not be the first thing that springs to mind when one thinks of Vegas, but the boxy premises of The Writer’s Block (geddit?) makes no bones about its role as a hotbed for literature and developing the careers of young writers in Sin City.
With a focus on free creative writing workshops and courses in schools, The Writer’s Block comes complete with its own social and cultural mission. Co-founder Scott Seeley was also one of the regional founders of literacy charity 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the USA – established by bestselling author Dave Eggers – making the drive for better literacy a personal passion.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, so the saying goes; and as outside appearances go, The Writer’s Block’s stark monochrome facade is certainly somewhat deceptive. Inside, this bookshop instead leans towards quirky old world glamor, boasting wooden beams, black wood bookcases, and street lamp and lantern light sources. Billing itself as an ‘artificial bird sanctuary’ as well as a bookstore and coffee shop, the space is also home to a large flock of handmade feathered friends, from peacock to penguin. These can be adopted, along with a souvenir story, for just a few dollars. An enormous birdcage brimming with books completes the avian explosion.
Aesthetically pleasing, socially conscious and balancing an incomparable array of different elements, The Writer’s Block will make you want to spread your wings and sing.
The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles, US
Downtown LA occupies a particular place in the creative imaginary, linking the hard boiled noir of Raymond Chandler with the gritty cyberpunk sci-fi of Phillip K. Dick via Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Perhaps that’s why those wide avenues and heavy old skyscrapers feel like such a perfect spot for a truly multidimensional palace to the written word. LA’s The Last Bookstore is the biggest new and used bookshop in California, made up of a cavernous 22,000 square feet of books, records and comics. This treasure trove of media rubs shoulders with a coffee bar, artists’ studios and enough inventive interior design to put a Hollywood film set to shame. And it’s all situated in a hundred year old bank to boot. Convinced yet?
The Last Bookstore is particularly good when it comes to second hand titles – you can find some real gems by taking the time to dig through its various rooms and displays. Staff are helpful without being overbearing, and the entire store feels like a cross between a library and a playground as you wander through it. A regular program of literary, musical and theatrical events adds an extra layer of engagement to an already mesmerizing space.
Design highlights include those Biblical-sized pillars in the lobby, plus the undulating overhead book sculpture. A book tunnel can also be walked through, but perhaps the pinnacle is The Last Bookstore’s horror section – tucked away, aptly enough, in the building’s beautiful old bank vault. Elsewhere, true crime fans can rummage for new favorites in a section that emulates an old photo darkroom, complete with teeth-on-edge red lighting.
The Last Bookstore’s mission is ‘to keep the paper and ink book business alive’ – and with an approach this wildly theatrical (not to mention Instagrammable) it seems an entirely reasonable expectation.
Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice, Italy
Billing itself as an ‘authentic reflection of the lagoon city’, Venice’s Libreria Acqua Alta (‘High Water Bookstore’) is a densely packed hermit’s cave of arresting books, magazines, maps and literary expression – all poised, much like the rest of Venice, on the very edge of water. In fact, this bookshop is so true to the city it calls home that flooding is also an unfortunate, but inevitable, part of the deal. Acqua Alta’s unsorted stacks are contained within bathtubs, waterproof tanks, canoes and, famously, a majestic gondola in one of the libreria’s rooms. All to make sure its abundance of reading material stays high and dry in unpredictable surroundings, where the watermark is liable to rise several inches off the floor.
The books on display here often tower so high it practically feels as though they’re part of the building itself. In fact, one area actively encourages visitors to clamber up a staircase made of reused old tomes in order to enjoy the view. In a place where the solid and liquid worlds dissolve into one another, books can also become part of the very fabric of the city. As the bookshop’s website puts it, this ‘is not just a physical space but a living narrative of stories’.
Libreria Alta Acqua’s cats, likewise, are another beloved bonus that channels the Venetian spirit. These quiet guardians of the bookstore can be found traversing the books or nestled in private corners, giving guests bouts of cute aggression and contributing to the tranquility and independence of the space. Quite literally spirit animals.
The battered charm of Acqua Alta is found throughout its narrow corridors, from the oddball objects adorning its various hallways to the handwritten signs, flaking paint and ancient doors and fittings. Of course this also includes the book stacks themselves, which only add to its slightly chaotic, ramshackle charm. There’s something a little Studio Ghibli about it all, and if your idea of magic is a floating bookshop full of roughshod romantic charisma, look no further than a trip to Venice.
El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires, Argentina
As we’ve explored, the best bookshops often inject a potent dash of theatricality into the lives of their visitors. But at El Ateneo Grand Splendid, they take the concept of stage design quite literally.
Since opening its doors in 1919 as an actual theater, this majestic building has always occupied a place in Buenos Aires’ artistic heart. For nearly 80 years the Grand Splendid maintained a sparkling reputation for its plays, shows and film screenings. Until, in the year 2000 architect Fernando Manzone converted it into a books and music emporium of the most aesthetically pleasing variety. Today this landmark cultural hub welcomes over a million browsers every year, and is regularly voted one of the world’s most beautiful bookstores.
It’s not hard to see why. From the pleasingly symmetrical layout to the painstaking preservation of many original features, the Grand Splendid is nothing short of sumptuous, recalling the intellectualism and style of a vanished era. Former theater boxes are now private reading rooms and specialist book sections, opened up to encompass the whole reach of the upper floors. The ceiling’s glorious frescoes remain wholly intact, watching over the book seeking of visitors below. At the heart of it all, the bookstore’s elegant stage, complete with rich crimson curtains, still plays host to live music and performances – and also doubles up as a coffee bar and reading zone. For book lovers who appreciate a little glamor and old school taste, it all adds up to an irresistible experience.
Books have always been a bridge between other artforms like dance, theater and music; at the Grand Splendid the fusion between them is simply seamless.
Your Next Bookish Adventure Awaits
We hope this worldwide whistle stop tour of some of the most magical bookshops on offer has inspired, delighted and given you plenty of fresh ideas for future travel.
Aptly enough, the writer, Nick Hagan, also runs his own bookstore – Curio Books and Culture in Oxford, UK. A hidden haven for second hand books located in a bank vault underneath a popular local cafe, it’s well worth a visit next time you’re in the city of dreaming spires.
Whether it’s Curio or another literary palace, when you’re ready to hit the road, choose Blacklane for a premium chauffeured experience. From airport transfers to in-city rides, we provide the same level of professionalism and convenience everywhere — adventures await in every page and every ride!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Hagan
Nick Hagan is a freelance writer based in Oxford and Reading, UK. He runs Curio Books and Culture in Oxford, and enjoys writing about culture, travel, film, psychology and just about everything in-between.
