Boookstores in Europe - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

sonjica · 11-07-2007, 04:27 AM

Hello everyone,

sorry i had to post this here as well (also in General Tips)
but since it's European bookstores we're after, i figured it's also alright
to post it here..

Do you happen to have a favorite bookstore (with English books)
in Europe? (mostly Spain, Portugal and France but other Western European
countries as well)..

A friend of mine and I are making a list of cool independent bookstores in
Europe for all the book loving travelers on the road..

cheers

**joe7f** · 11-07-2007, 04:33 AM

Welcome to Travel Punk

Don't worry about the double post, I'll take care of it.

Anyhow, there was a pretty good selection in the pedestrian mall in Vienna, I'll see if I can dig up the place.

My understanding is that the UK has a pretty good selection of English book stores

--Joey

**lauren313** · 11-07-2007, 04:35 AM

Joe, I already did it man, sorry!! I've deleted the one in "general" because I thought it was best suited to Western Europe...

And welcome to the boards, of course! I'll try and think of some bookstores, but I tend not to buy books in other countries than the UK. And even then I buy them from the big chain stores, oops!

**joe7f** · 11-07-2007, 04:42 AM

Haha it told me the thread wasn't valid but when I went back it was gone so I was like "Yeah! Take that technology!"

Whoops!

--Joey

sonjica · 11-07-2007, 04:45 AM

wow, a big up for the speed of mods on this forum!

thanks for the welcome.. lovely forum..

i'm not a big fan of bookstore chains.. that's why we're looking for
some smaller, independent bookstores.. they tend to stand out from chain ones
and make you feel more welcome and cozy.. i also love second-hand bookshops

so, if any of you know such stores (and those stores are already not here)
please, recommend some.. i'm sure there are many travelers out there who
have a.. well, fetish isn't the right word but i'll use it here, for bookstores

**lauren313** · 11-07-2007, 04:45 AM

Haha, we can be like the Mod Squad, but you know, every partnership has to have the head honcho... and it seems quite obvious to me that I'm the strongest link here, ha.

**lost in texas** · 11-07-2007, 05:33 AM

I remember visiting a couple of cool little bookstores in Edinburgh, but I couldn't tell you the names or anything. Most of the time I went to one of the chain stores, just because they seem to have better selection and it's easier to find what you what.

**aliz** · 11-07-2007, 02:38 PM

Welcome! the only one i could think of is shakespeare & Co in Paris but that's already there (I thought it would be). I've had to ban myself from looking at bookstores while travelling, books are HEAVY! but as a design student I really love museum bookstores - the one at Victoria & Albert in London is amazing.

**mbo108** · 11-08-2007, 05:59 AM

I found this on Gridskipper today and thought it might be a pro pos.

English Bookstores in Berlin...if you follow the link there might be stories about bookstores in other towns
http://gridskipper.com/travel/berlin...lin-318545.php

sonjica · 11-08-2007, 07:58 AM

thanks mbo108, but that's just one of the things we agreed not to do
(i.e. post bookstores we found on the web).. somehow, we'd like people to
recommend them themselves, people who've actually been there and saw
the places.. definitely, it's a longer and a more difficult process but it's also
more personal.. dunno, maybe we can get in touch with the people who
made the website and ask them if we can use their material - that is, if they
had written it..

but thanks for pointing out to the page.. much appreciated

**tumblezweedz** · 11-08-2007, 10:24 AM

I can't think of any independent bookstores near where we live in rural Germany, but over the course of two years in Lithuania we did stumble across a few sources of English books in Vilnius. Humanitas is next to the Contemporary Art Centre and has a wide selection of art books, the bookstore in the French Cultural centre occasionally has an English language book, and Akademine Knyga near the university has a pretty wide range of english books available. There are also some chain stores, some in the main streets, some in the shopping centres and these are worth checking out because they always have a totally unpredictable and thoroughly bizarre assortment of books available. Our book club chose many of our books based on which ones we could find a half dozen copies of at the bookstores. We covered some very diverse topics!

There also are sometimes great old treasures in the antique stores, I've picked up a very odd assortment of titles that way. I particularly like a coffee table book about Vilnius written in the 70s, extolling the wonders of the Soviet society. It's fascinating to compare to a more recent edition.

sonjica · 11-09-2007, 01:36 AM

thanks tumblezweedz..
we were also missing on the north-western part of the easter europe
(confusing, i know..) well, it's good to have some bookstores in lithuana as well
once again, thanks for the recommendation

**MeTurk** · 11-09-2007, 07:41 AM

In Ireland the big chain store is Easons. They're very good for domestic Irish books from fiction to history.

There are a good few independant book shops in Galway but I can't think of the names of them but Galways small so any spending the day wandering around the town will find them (they don't always look like bookshops though) There is a good one down near Nirvana headshop near the docks. It's all second hand books god knows what you'd find in there. There's another very famous one on shop street it looks like a chain store but it is independant. I'd have to have a look around when I go up there at the weekend.

sonjica · 11-26-2007, 01:31 AM

thanks for the recommendations guys..
and mbo108, gridskipper people were so nice to let us use their material
so now we have a bunch of bookstores from Paris and Berlin