Bookstores, libraries, ...

[nnyhav]

Where to go to discuss where to go to procure reading matter? This is this place to talk about the places where books are the main topic without the topic being about the books in and of themshelves.

One resource, which was a must-see feature of Usenet's rec.arts.books and remains essential, is Evelyn C. Leeper's Bookstore Lists, a compilation of reader reports from around the world.

[nnyhav]

One thing that prompted me to set up this thread: one of Owen Hatherley's recent postings:

Bibbly-O-Tek
Some Machines for Reading In



'Hitler's Headquarters'

What should a library look like? What are its functions, what spaces does it need, and what should it (sigh) symbolise? I'm writing this next to Charles Holden's Senate House. A portland stone skyscraper built in the late 1930s, it is best known as one of those urban-myth 'Hitler's headquarters' (there were a few), and was certainly the inspiration for Nineteen Eighty-Four's Ministry of Truth. Hearteningly, the actual content of this block is mainly educational, including two floors devoted to the University of London Library, which, if Market Stalinists have their way, will become fee-paying, thus shoving more people into the already cramped British Library up the road. When I was working in there on my MA, I loved the narrow alcoves, the endless Kafka corridors, the strange views - all free, unlike hoity middlebrow antiquarian arsehole-fests like the London Library.

more ...

[Mirabell]

lots of awesome libraries here.

my university's beautiful (*coughs*) library.



God I love libraries.

[nnyhav]

Back in January, the Guardian provided two top tens for bookshops: Jeremy Mercer's and Sean Dodson's.

(I confess my partiality for bookstores. Once I take something out I don't want to have to bring it back.)

[fausto]

Mercer's features Shakepseare & co in Paris. Sigh. So the place has its charms but the books selection is really poor and prices very expensive, even for Paris. This is turning more and more into a place for US & UK tourists looking for some literary anecdotes -- most think that it's actually the authentic pre-war Sylvia Bleach bookshop they are visiting evoking souvenirs of Hemingway, Joyce or Gide although the location is not the same and Bleach had nothing to do with its reopening by George Whitman, friend of the beats.
Dodson's list features Posada indeed an amazing bookshop. Looking for an art book? If it's not there, you will have huge problems finding it anywhere else in the Low countries and probably even in the rest of Europe. The first bookshop on his list is spectacular, but unfortunatel not for its books.

[Eric]

I like bookshops where you can buy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, such as the very posh one in Tallinn called Rahva Raamat, and the Academic Bookstore in Helsinki. Even in Edinburgh I seem to remember a bookshop with a coffee & cakes corner about a decade ago.

But bookshops can be relatively functionally designed for me (e.g. Foyle's in London), whereas libraries are nicer if the architecture and design is harmonious, for the banal reason that you probably spend longer in libraries than bookshops, so the ambience is important. Swedish public libraries tend to be well laid out.

The Heffers in Cambridge and Blackwells in Oxford (I think) amazed me when I first went into them on account of the sheer size.

For ambience, there is a nice bookshop in an arcade in central Brussels, whose name escapes me.

In Stockholm, Hedengren's has a pleasant atmosphere.

Amsterdam has several nice bookshops, including a Waterstone's and an American Bookshop. But there are no refreshments there, as Amsterdam is so full of pubs and cafés.

Owing to my circumscribed buying power (i.e. I'm often broke) I spend far more time in second-hand bookshops than ones selling new books. But these can be higgledy-piggledy affairs with lots of funny staircases and dust.

[fausto]

Would the Brussels one be Tropismes?

[Stewart]

Originally Posted by nnyhav

Sean Dodson's

I remember that list. The Borders that's number five is one of my favourite haunts. He's right about the interior, though, as it's a bit flat and has the illogical combination of escalators going up, but only stairs going back down...if you discount the elevator as doing both.




Still, lovely on the outside, even if the image Borders shows on the website is the rear entrance (above). The main entrance is a tad different (below):

[Sybarite]

Foyles on Charing Cross Road is legendary – although it's a different proposition from just a decade ago when it was a rabbit warren, crammed from floor to ceiling with books at any angle, piled on the floor and in every available space, gathering dust as grumpy, underpaid assistants tried to avoid the eye of any potential customers.

There's a new Foyles in the revamped St Pancras, which is only five minutes from work.

We also have a new, independent bookshop on Broadway Market in Hackney (around the corner from where I live) that I try to give trade to as much as possible.

Tragically, Unsworths (antiquarian and remaindered books), opposite the British Library, has recently closed, since the landlord took the opportunity of the end of the lease to rack up the rent and drive them out. Doubtless we'll get another coffee chain opening. We need such things, after all.

Otherwise, I can think of a delightful bookshop in Amsterdam (although I cannot remember the name) Leidsestraat, just over the Prinsengraacht, on the way from the Leidseplein, if I remember correctly.

[fausto]

Oh yes, Sybarite! Whenever I'm in London, I make sure my planning allows for a couple of hours at Foyles (Charing Cross). Great shop, with a wide choice. It also helps that the staff is knowledgeable. I remember chatting for a good ten minutes twice -- once after buying Gaddis' The Recognitions, the second time after buying a collection of essays by Gass -- about what I was carrying to the til. Almost never happen to me even in independent shops and obviously never, ever in Borders or Waterstones.

In Barcelona, La Central is the place to go. I think they now have four different locations. The main one is located quite close to La pedrera. Housed in old fin de siècle bourgeois home, it's Heaven on earth, really. Incredible choice in Spanish, Catalan, French, English, German and Italian. I remember standing mouth agape in front of the Literary criticism shelves: if the author wasn't Spanish or Latin American, they had his translated texts in Spanish plus the original language version and a couple more non-translated books. I actually saw there a few books in French I had never seen in a French or Belgian bookshop before. Amazing. I'll go nuts if I lived there. No wonder writers living in Barcelona consider it the best bookshop in the world. They might be not far from the truth. Their shop located a few hundre meters from Las Ramblas in old chapel is visually stunning and offers yet again an astounding variety of books, slightly different from the other other shop -- I think this one is stronger on arts.

In Madrid, in the Museo Reina Sofia, the bookshop is handled by the people from La Central too. Modern architecture (Jean Nouvel) make again for stunning scenery. In terms of literature, it's like a smaller scale version on the Barcelona shops. Less books, but quite a good choice with a strong focus on difficult to find books published in South America. The place to go if you're looking for something you do not find any place else. There are a few more good bookshops in Madrid, but the places are more functional and in terms of selection, the sad truth is that you might have to do 5 or 6 bookshops before you find the book you want, even if recently published. I have a soft spot for El bandido doblemente armado, half-bar half-bookshop. Open from 5pm to 1am, nice place to drink a good Gin Tonic, a tea, a beer or a bit of wine. Although the books on sale are good -- only literary fiction -- it lacks personality: you won't find here something you wouldn't find any place else.

Regarding Paris, as I said: avoid Shakespeare & co at all costs. The place to go for books in English is undoubtedly Village Voice. Normal prices, great stock, knowledgeable if a bit disagreeable staff. For French books, loads of choice in Paris. People with a taste for Saint-Germain-des-Prés history might go for La Hune, located right bewteen Le café de Flore and Les deux magots.

[nnyhav]

Originally Posted by Sybarite

Foyles on Charing Cross Road is legendary – although it's a different proposition from just a decade ago when it was a rabbit warren, crammed from floor to ceiling with books at any angle, piled on the floor and in every available space, gathering dust as grumpy, underpaid assistants tried to avoid the eye of any potential customers.
[...]
Tragically, Unsworths (antiquarian and remaindered books), opposite the British Library, has recently closed, since the landlord took the opportunity of the end of the lease to rack up the rent and drive them out. Doubtless we'll get another coffee chain opening. We need such things, after all.
[...]

As I recall, Foyle's had already cleaned up their act a decade ago. But I'm glad I got to see it before that happened ... similarly, in NYC, The Strand went bland when it expanded from 8 to 18 miles of books. And, tragically, their Fulton St annex is closing. Not as tragic as the loss of Gotham Book Mart, nor Coliseum Books, within the last couple of years, but still a loss.

[Irene Wilde]

Los Angeles Public Library | Central Library | Art & Architecture in Central Library <-- The library across from my office. It caught fire in the 1980s and was nearly destroyed.

The Scene of the Crime in Sherman Oaks used to be favorite haunt before traffic and gas prices made it an unreasonable journey to make. I've heard they are no longer on Ventura Boulevard and exist only on the web and in the memories of readers like me.

The Borders at Union Square in San Francisco has that same crazy escalators up, stairs down, or it did the one time I visited. Still a great selection.

Another great selection is the B&N in Glendale.

And what may be the last of the big independent booksellers in Southern California, the wonderful Vroman's in Pasadena.

[Stewart]

There's a second hand book store I've know about for a few years but never found myself off the beaten track to visit. So, when I was heading out for lunch I thought about my usual trip to either Borders or Waterstones and said so it, jumped on the underground to the other end of the city. It's called Voltaire & Rousseau. This article has a few photos of the place, and is complementary about it overall.

My feelings on it were that it's the kind of place a bibliophile imagines liking, probably dreams of, where books teeter over and threaten to spill at the slightest breath. But I couldn't bring myself to buy anything, even though there were a few titles that interested: Beat Sterchi's The Cow and William Maxwell's The Folded Leaf. It's just the idea of books with crumpled covers, yellowed pages, and prices written on them freaks me out. I doubt I'll ever warm to them, even if, amongst all the books, were myriad titles currently out of print and sitting there for a quid or two apiece.

[Sybarite]

Originally Posted by nnyhav

As I recall, Foyle's had already cleaned up their act a decade ago. But I'm glad I got to see it before that happened ...

I agree with you on one level, but I'd also understand Stewart in his response to Voltaire & Rousseau in Glasgow. If I'm buying new books, I want them to be new. And I like to be able to have a reasonable idea of where to look for things. Foyles is far easier to use these days – but still different from the Waterstones and Borders (where else could I find a whole section of 'literary biography'?).

That disorganised approach is what I expect when I find an old antiquarian bookseller, slightly off the beaten track somewhere, and want to browse amongst long-forgotten tomes for things that I might consider a treasure.

[nnyhav]

I should have mentioned that the tragedy of indie closures is not unmitigated: while the closing of Gotham Book Mart in particular was a great loss for everyone involved, it did force me farther afield, and led to a couple of excellent Manhattan bookstores: bookculture, up by Columbia Uni, and St Marks Bookshop, down by Coopers Union. I don't know what will come to replace Cody's on the other shore, though.

The real tragedy is the decline of the university bookstore. Used to be the place for esoterica, uni presses, recommended readings. Hived off to pro mangement, often B&N, now it's largely branded alumni gear and popular offerings (aka bestsellers) with textbooks in the back.

[saliotthomas]

Originally Posted by fausto

Mercer's features Shakepseare & co in Paris. Sigh. So the place has its charms but the books selection is really poor and prices very expensive, even for Paris. This is turning more and more into a place for US & UK tourists looking for some literary anecdotes -- most think that it's actually the authentic pre-war Sylvia Bleach bookshop they are visiting evoking souvenirs of Hemingway, Joyce or Gide although the location is not the same and Bleach had nothing to do with its reopening by George Whitman, friend of the beats.

A very sharp and true description of the place,and it's irritating crew but as you point out still as it's charm,if just for the charming little garden beside and the view on Notredame.Go there on a morning week day when deserted and the place is still charming,there a few sheelves and table outside with cheap segond hand book if not to exigant in your choice you might find something.I would still advise visitors to at least pass by,i often do when back in Paris and it is an island in the greek-tourist-restaurant atmosphere surronding it.

The best in Paris would be WHSmith and Galiniani very close by under the Louvre arcades,near la concorde.A huge choice of book literary and photographic.I nearly always find what i look for.
La hune has also it's unerving side "so rive gauche" bernard henry levis(shoot the buger) and is a bit expensive.

I found in south Spain (san pedro) a tiny but well furnished book store also called shakespear,with dirt cheap segond hand books where i use to go on razia to replenish my supllies.
Since a years we have in Marrakech quite a good and trendy" lounge " book store with good suprise(sometime) and very good food,called Le café du livre.If you come around,make sure to give it a visite.

[Beth]

Oh, yes! Step inside for a look around...

Spent a few hours here in May and when we emerged, my head was spinning so that I couldn't remember the direction we'd entered the store from.

[elcalifornio]

I'm going to be in Rome in a few months, any good bookstore recommendations there? Not particular about English-language selection (i'm going to force myself to learn Italian), but any suggestions help. Thanks!

[Irene Wilde]

I forgot to mention one of my favorite aspects of the LA Central Library: on Wednesdays they have a farmer's market out front! Literature, art, architecture, and fresh strawberries...mmmm!

[Beth]

Ooh, yes, a dynamite combination, Irene. Books and fresh produce, a very good idea. Here this morning at the local farmers market my paws would have stained a book as I got into the black raspberries before I could even get them home.