10 most beautiful bookstores in the world

Yes, information technology is rapidly developing in our world today. Yes, there are many gadgets that allow you to download and read any publication (even a rare one). And yet, ordinary paper books still have many readers, buyers and fans around the world. After all, a bookstore is not just a room full of books. This is a special cozy, and even slightly mysterious, atmosphere. No e-book, tablet or Ipad can even come close to being compared with a paper edition – after all, they don’t have that very special smell, they don’t have the rustle of pages, they don’t give pleasant tactile sensations (the weight of a thick volume, the roughness of the cover, the smoothness of the paper …) .

Many booksellers understand the special significance of this purely psychological factor and try to make their store unique. Here are the most beautiful (and often the most unusual) bookstores on the planet.

10 The Last Bookstore – Los Angeles, USA

In 2005, the giant “The Last Bookstore” opened in Los Angeles, occupying the building of a closed bank. Its area is 2040 m²! From the bank there were huge halls with high ceilings and classical columns and large heavy doors. But the rest: leather sofas and armchairs, designer tables and shelving, bizarre lamps and strange sculptures, colored mosaic stucco on the ceiling (and all this in the steampunk style), as well as interesting installations and entire corridors with windows made of books – this is already “The Last Bookstore”. Here you will find not only an excellent selection of a wide variety of publications (up to 250!), but also souvenirs, gifts, CDs and DVDs, “vintage” vinyl records, etc. And then you can have a bite to eat in a cafe with live music.

9. Livraria da Vila – Sao Paulo, Brazil

Livraria da Vila opened in Sao Paulo in 2007. From the outside, it’s just a gray two-story cubic building. But instead of a prosaic entrance, it has huge revolving doors, on the inside of which bookshelves are attached. It’s hard to walk past without looking inside. And there, inside, there is a huge open space, cozy areas with soft ottomans and sofas, and endless shelving along the walls, on the floor and up to the ceiling. The total area of ​​the store is 790 m², the length of the shelves is 1280 m. The basement floor is reserved for children’s literature and a lecture hall, and on the upper two tiers you will find a cafe, a music section and the main book departments. In 2009, the interior design of “Livraria da Vila” received the prestigious Red Hot Award.

8. Shakespeare & Company – Paris, France

Look for the legendary bookstore Shakespeare & Co in the 1919th arrondissement of Paris, not far from Boulevard Saint-Germain. Once upon a time there was a monastery here, then a liquor store, but now it’s a bookstore. In 1940, the institution was founded by American Sylvia Beach. It quickly became popular – Ernest Hemingway, Bernard Shaw, William Burroughs, Andre Gide, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and other famous writers often visited here. In 1951, after the occupation of Paris by the Germans, the store closed. But in XNUMX it was re-founded by George Whitman (also an American), restoring the traditions of literary evenings that his predecessor had introduced.

Until his death (in 2011), Whitman patronized young writers, allowing them not only to use books for free, but also to live on the top floor (on the condition that they work on their next literary opus for at least an hour a day). Now Shakespeare & Co is owned by Whitman’s daughter Sylvia, who fully supports the rules set by her father.

This year, the store will be XNUMX years old, but the very special atmosphere that attracts many “visitors” is still preserved here. “Shakespeare & Co” is just full of books “to the eyeballs”: they are on the shelves (up to the ceiling), lying on the floor, in baskets, in chests, on tables and on stairs. And here, as in some kind of bizarre labyrinth, there are a lot of “secret” niches, intricate corridors and “secret rooms” (and in them you can find both rare copies of books that have not been published for a long time, as well as the latest novelties and bestsellers). Shakespeare & Co has a homely aura. People stand, sit and lie everywhere, buried in books.

7. Popular Kids Republic – Beijing, Shanghai, etc., China

In 2005, the country’s first shop specializing in children’s picture books called “Kids Republic” opened in Beijing. Today it is a whole network of truly amazing stores that has covered many cities in China. And in them you can buy not only Chinese, but also Japanese, American, European, etc. children’s books.

What, besides, in fact, books, attract kids to these stores? Yes, the fact that their designers did their best to ensure that little dreamers get into a real fairy tale right from the doorstep and categorically refuse to leave.

So, for example, in Shanghai “Kids Republic” is 2 floors of real miracles. On the first one there is a “book forest” – bizarre colored shelves and racks seem to “grow” from the floor, walls and ceiling, bend, create grottoes and secluded “minks”. A bright rainbow stretches across the room. Uneven floor and thick colorful carpet create a special “childish” comfort. On the top floor there is an unusual “woody” room in warm shades, the walls of which are decorated with saw cuts, branches and bark, under the ceiling you can climb “vines” and fall into a hammock, and images of leaves are projected onto the floor.

6. Atlantis Books – Santorini, Greece

Santorini is one of the most beautiful (and very romantic) places in the Mediterranean. And, as a group of friends (English and American) once discovered, almost the only thing that was missing here for a long time was a bookstore. Then they converted the basement of one of the old (white and blue) houses into a beautiful and very unusual bookstore. Atlantis Books opened its doors in 2004. In its not too spacious bright halls, lined with books up to the ceiling on the walls, and on a small open terrace (against the backdrop of a view of the beautiful blue Aegean Sea), readings of books at sunset, literary festivals, film screenings and even dance evenings are regularly held.

5. Cafebreria El Pendulo – South, South

El Pendulo is a great place where you can not only pick up a good book according to your personal taste, but also enjoy the coolness in the shade of a green garden while drinking aromatic coffee. The design of this establishment is something absolutely unreal: part of its bookshelves and racks are located both in the picturesque courtyard, immersed in a sea of ​​green plants, and on spacious balconies with many beautiful fresh flowers – that is, not under the roof, but directly “Outdoors”. There is also a small cafeteria where there are readings of poems by local poets, live music concerts and performances by famous comedians.

4. Cook & Book – Brussels, Belgium

To many of us, our mother told us in childhood: “Don’t eat with food, it’s bad!” Two creative Belgians, Deborah Drion and Cedric Legaine, categorically disagreed with this approach. In 2006, they opened a unique bookstore-restaurant, where 1500 sections with a special thematic design fit on an area of ​​​​9 m². So, in the fantasy hall, 8 hundred books “hover” under a black ceiling, the English literature department looks like a London pub, and an old Fiat 500 immediately “takes root” in the cookbook section. In general, the design of Cook & Book is very whimsical, even a little macabre, very, hmm … unusual for bookstores.

Books are also everywhere in the restaurant hall: they lie on the tables, stand on the shelves, and you can read them while waiting for an order. The restaurant is a huge success both because of the excellent menu and because of the opportunity to read while eating. And in the warm season, the Cook & Book (right in the yard) also shows movies.

3. Boekhandel Selexyz Dominikanen (Polare) – Maastricht, The Netherlands

One of the strangest bookstores in the world is, without a doubt, Selexyz Dominikanen (formerly Polare). The “trick” is that he “settled” in a church founded by the Dominicans in the 13th century. This church closed at the end of the 18th century, having stood idle for more than two centuries. At one time, they even stored bicycles (!). And so, in 2007-2008. it was restored and transformed into a bookstore. (But the “fleur” of the Dominican church was carefully preserved).

Multi-storey bookcases, stretching from both sides of the church hall, contain a huge number of publications, including old ones. And from the 3rd level you can see the real frescoes of the 14th century. Particularly eye-catching is the cruciform reading table with round cafeteria tables arranged around it. There used to be a church altar here.

Of course, some local residents and guests of Maastricht are categorically against selling anything in a religious building. But Selexyz Dominikanen is still very popular among book lovers. Not so long ago, when the cathedral store almost went bankrupt, its devoted fans raised a good half of the required amount and helped the owners deal with debts.

Another similar unique bookstore appeared in 2013 in another Dutch city – Zwolle. “Waanders In de Broeren” opened in a 15th century Gothic cathedral. Its beautiful bright interior with interesting solutions is designed to minimize the risk of harm to the old building.

2. El Ateneo Grand Splendid – Buenos Aires, Argentina

The most unusual bookstore in all of South America is considered to be the stunning and majestic “El Ateneo” on Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires, arranged in the building of the Grand Splendid Theater (which, by the way, will turn exactly 2019 years old in 100) and retaining all its brilliance and luxury. Then performances were given here, they sang and danced tango, later – in the late 1920s. – showed the best novelties of sound cinema. And in 2000, a book chain bought the empty building for a long time, creating in it a one-of-a-kind store that preserves the spirit of that old theater: book shelves were placed right in the stalls and on 4 levels of boxes and balconies. All the chic decor remained untouched: gilding, stucco, Italian frescoes, carved stairs and a giant painting on the ceiling. The new owners have retained, among other things, the system of light and spotlights.

El Ateneo offers up to 120 books (of course, there is also a film and music department), and the former orchestra pit has been turned into a mini-metro that takes visitors to the lower floor with children’s literature. Right on the former stage (with a red velvet front curtain) there is a small cozy cafe.

The store is so popular that more than 1 million people visit it every year.

1. Livraria Lello – Porto, Portugal

Livraria Lello is one of the oldest bookstores in the world. And it was his British newspaper “The Guardian” called the most beautiful of them. Millions of people who come to Porto every year visit Lello, not for books, but simply to see its beautiful interiors for themselves.

It all started back in 1894, when editor and book publisher José Pinto Lello decided to build a building to open his own bookstore there. In 1906, this unusual Art Nouveau with neo-Gothic elements (almost in the center of Porto) finally opened its doors to visitors.

Its interior is amazing: wooden carved ceilings, colorful stained-glass roof, luxuriously decorated walls, a magnificent curved staircase with scarlet steps leading upstairs, wooden figures of literary characters, bookcases with glass doors… On the second floor there is a coffee shop for 4 tables (with a great view to the neighborhood) where delicious coffee is served. They also sell cigars (!), which is something you rarely see in a bookstore.

By the way, this chic store is (quite officially!) a national monument of Portugal. But the descendants of José Lello, who now run it, believe that it should still welcome visitors, and not be a boring museum.

Livraria Lello is said to have inspired the famous Hogwarts library for J. K. Rowling, the writer who gave us the wonderful series of books about the “scarred boy” Harry Potter. In the early 1990s, Joan taught English in Porto (just in the area) and often stopped by Lello to leaf through books and drink coffee.