Book
Vibes Only. If you like to travel and if you like reading, check out what comes
now. Books are like friends. I find non-readers highly suspicious. Why would
one want to miss out on all these stories?
Book
Vibes Only
There
is not a day in my life when I wouldn’t read. From an early age, I would answer
“reading” when asked for my hobby. Reading is not my hobby; it is as important
to me as breathing and eating. I remember one afternoon in Australia. An
English friend told me that her boss would visit bookshops on weekends for
hours on end. I was waiting for the punchline of the story, but nothing. That
was it, that was the story.
She
was confused and shocked that her boss voluntary visits bookshops in his
pastime. That was probably the first time I heard that there was a person who
wouldn't hang out at bookshops in her spare time. I told her I search for and
visit bookshops when I travel. The silence between us. She tried to control the
serious look of doubt on her face. If you are like her, please leave the
article now, otherwise, you will end up utterly bored.
Visit
bookshops in: New York City in the USA, Berlin in Germany, Frankfurt Main in
Germany, Bogota in Colombia, Cartagena in Colombia, Krakow in Poland, Paris in
France, Lisbon in Portugal, Stellenbosch in South Africa, Venice in Italy, Helsinki
in Finland, London in England, Brussels in Belgium.
USA - Strand in New York City
This bookshop, named
after Strand Street in Central London in England, opened its doors in 1927.
Once this shop was one of 48 bookshops on six blocks and today, Strand
Bookstore is the only survivor. The shop is an (organized) maze of used, new or
rare books. You can browse a total of 2.5 Million books, on 28.96 kilometres of
books. This means you can spend days browsing the latest bestseller, stories or
second-hand classics. Heaven.
Germany - Taschen in Berlin
Five rooms in 300 square meters just a few steps from famous Kurfürstendamm. The bookshop is designed by Italian duo Stampanoni Bassi and Salvatore Licitra. There are blue-and-white Ponti tiles from the sixties and Ponti exhibition tables. Armchairs and bookshelves are by French architect Michel Roux-Spitz from the 1930s.
Taschen Store, Schlüterstraße 39, 10629 Berlin. Hours Monday to Saturday 11am to 7pm.
Germany - Dussmann in Berlin
Five floors full of books, audiobooks, music, films, and stationery. There are an English Bookshop and an International Bookshop. They sell books in eleven languages. The restaurant has got a hanging garden (Monday to Saturday from 9am to 9pm). Have breakfast, lunch afternoon tea, or early dinner. All is cooked from locally sourced ingredients. At the bookshop lives a 3500 years old sphinx. The
Egyptian museum was so lovely to lend the sculpture to the shop.
Friedrichstraße 90, 10117 Berlin. Information: Dussmann, Friedrichstraße 90, 10117 Berlin. Hours: Monday to Friday 9am to 12pm, Saturday 9am to 11.30pm. This is fantastic, considering that most shops in Germany usually close at 8pm. Sunday closed.
Germany - Hugendubel in Frankfurt Main
Hugendubel opened its doors in 1893 in beautiful Munich. It is Germany's largest owner-run bookseller. The Frankfurt shop that looks like a lighthouse offers books on several levels. Readers are invited to stay as long as they want, and to read before they buy.
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read "Unpacking Berlin’s Mysterious, Ubiquitous Tote Bag" in the New York Times. It was entertaining since pretty much everyone in Munich owns at least one of these cotton bags. I ask what followed the hype for the bag. The cashier at a shop in Munich laughs. "As a result of the article in the New York Times we had lots of fun for a few days." Buy the cotton bag when you visit.
Hugendubel. Steinweg 12, 60313 Frankfurt/Main. Hours: Monday to Wednesday 09.30am to 8pm, Thursday to Saturday 9.30am to 9pm.
Colombia - LibrerÃa Ibañez in Bogota
You are in La Candelaria, Bogota's downtown district. There is this small bookshop on the ground floor, which is specialized in legal books. On the second floor, there is a cafe, called Cafe Ibañez. The atmosphere is enticingly captivating. The coffee is of awesome quality (and so are the sweet treats on offer).
Information: LibrerÃa Ibañez. Calle 12 b # 7-12, Bogota, Colombia.
Colombia - Abaco Libros y Café in Cartagena
Books, books, books. You are surrounded by books in this little bookshop plus cafe. Order the coldest drink you can get (it is hot) and an espresso and enjoy the view of all these pretty books.
Information: Abaco Libros y Café. Calle de La Iglesia con Calle de La Mantilla, Cartagena, Colombia. Hours Monday to Saturday 8am to 10pm, Sundays and Bank Holidays 8am to 8pm.
Poland - Jewish Bookshop in Krakow
A bookshop in a former synagogue. It offers a wide range of books related to Judaism, politics, and the holocaust. You can choose a CD with Klezmer music, to take home with you as a souvenir. On the second floor, there is an exhibition if you want to dig deeper. Books on offer are in Polish as well as in English.
Information: Bookshop Księgarnia Austeria. Józefa 38, 31-056 Kraków, Poland.
France - Shakespeare and Company in Paris
Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, they have all been here. Have you ever queued to enter a bookshop? You can do it here; it is that popular.
The book shop welcomes writers to stay for a few nights. The only thing they must do in return is to read a book a day and write a one-page autobiography for the archives. “Be not inhospitable to strangers, lest they be angels in disguise.” The, by now late owner of the shop, George Whitman, wrote that over one of the doorways in his book shop. There is also a resident cat, please leave her in peace, she needs to rest, a lot, since she reads so much at night.
Information: Shakespeare and Company, 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005 Paris, France, Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 10pm, Sunday 12:30 to 8pm.
Portugal - Bertrand in Lisbon
The oldest bookshop in Lisbon and in the whole wide world opened its doors in 1732. What makes it so real and charming is the fact that the owners didn’t turn this shop into Disneyworld. The shop is just doing what a bookshop does, selling books.
Information: Livraria Bertrand, R. Garrett 73-75, 1200-203 Lisboa, Portugal. Hours Monday to Sunday 9am–10pm.
South Africa - The Book Lounge in Cape
Town
The
Book Lounge comes closest to a bookshop how one imagines it to be. Literally.
It is intimate but gives you enough space to browse the great selection of books,
be it fiction and non-fiction. There are also author events, like for example
talks and readings.
Information:
The Book Lounge. 71 Roeland Street, Cnr Buitenkant & Roeland Street, Cape
Town, 8001, South Africa. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm. Sunday 10am to
4pm.
Italy - Libreria Acqua Alta in Venice
We all know that Venice has got its problems with flooding from mid-September to mid-April. Acqua Alta means high water as in ‘floods’ in Italian. Books at this quirky bookshop are stacked high on stilts and in gondolas and bathtubs. Books come in Italian and in English. There are not only books to discover but also many adorable stray cats to meet.
Information: Libreria Acqua Alta. Calle Lunga Santa Maria Formosa, 5176b, 30122 Venezia VE, Italy. Hours Monday to Sunday 9.15am to 7.45pm.
Finland - Academic Bookshop in Helsinki
The Academic Bookstore was founded in 1893. The building and its interior, designed by Finnish architect and furniture designer Alvar Aalto in 1962 was completed in 1969. On the second floor, there is Cafe Aalto. It celebrates the maestro who received his Diploma of Architecture, that started his stellar career, in Helsinki.
Information: Academic Bookshop, Keskuskatu 1, Pohjoisesplanadi 39, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. Hours Monday to Friday 9am to 9pm, Saturday 9am to 7pm, Sunday 11am to 6pm.
Belgium - Tropismes Libraires in Brussels
In the heart of Brussels, only metres from the
Grand-Place, you find the Galerie Royales Saint-Hubert. Locals and tourists
love to stroll through these three shopping arcades. Crowds gather to window
shop, buy chocolate, eat cake and meet lovers and friends, and buy books. The
bookshop Tropismes Libraires gloriously hidden in one of the three glass-ceilinged
arcades, the Galerie des Princes, offers French and English-language titles on
three levels.
The high-ceilinged mirrored walled space, built in
1847, started as a ballroom before it turned jazz club in the 1960s and the
Tropismes bookshop in 1984.
Information: Tropismes Libraires, 11 Galerie des
Princes, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 6.30pm.
Saturday 10.30am to 7pm. Sunday 1.30pm to 6.30pm.
++++++++++
Make
sure you are not responsible for the death of your local bookshop
Please
buy all books from local bookshops. No one wants to live in a town centre
without independent shops. It is in our hands; we can vote with our purse.
There is no need to support online giants when every one of us can support
their own community. You will not find any links in this article to online
shops. This article is purely written out of love for reading and
travelling and understanding different cultures. Make sure you are not
responsible for the death of your local bookshop. It sounds drastic, but let us
face it, it is true.
From Berlin with love
