Weekly Lists #18: Book Buying Places

Every Wednesday, I post a list of random stuff. This week: 5 of my favourite places/towns where I’ve bought books.

Now, of course, everybody has their own, personal place where they like to let their inner book-shopaholic out – however, one can never have too much information, or too many such places, so here are some of mine – that they may serve as inspiration to you and remain there for me!

1. Harrods, London

The first time ever I went to London was during the summer of 2013 – we visited as much as we could within the course of 2 days, but then we were travelling on to Ireland, so we just knew we had to go back, to see more of the city.

In early February 2014, right after all exams were finished, we went again and this time, we managed to get to Harrods. It was at the end of a very long day, it was already dark out, we’d been walking all day, but the minute we walked in there, we just sort of spread through the store, trying to see as much of it as possible. Of course, the moment we saw the book department, we didn’t actually leave that place for about an hour- and I came out of there having spent more money that I would’ve liked, but loving all the books I’d bought.

When I went back to London for a couple of days last summer, of course we had to go to Harrods – and, basically, the same thing happened: too much money, but such lovely books… Harrods has put a sort of spell on me 🙂

2. Waterstones, Glasgow

This one is the most recent: early September last year, I went on a holiday to England and Scotland (if you want to, you can find more on that here and here) and because it was pouring when we got to Glasgow, we basically just spend almost 3 hours in the Waterstones there – I loved how extensive their catalogue was, but I especially liked the service. Seriously, these were some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met behind the counter of any bookshop, and I feel like this place should get serious kuddos for that!

3. Shakespeare and Company, Paris

I went here while I was staying in Paris for 3 weeks in the summer of 2014, and this was basically the one thing I had to have done – I’d first read about the existence of this series in Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins, and I immediately knew I just had to go there. And so I did – and although the books aren’t the cheapest, even just the atmosphere of the shop would’ve been enough to make me go back (which I did, by the way, obviously)

4. Le Gibert Jeune, Paris

Another shop from my trip to Paris, I mainly liked this store because they had so many books – they basically have different stores, all really close to each other, all dedicated to one specific Branch, for example: there was one store dedicated to languages, one to law, one to stationary, etc. – I loved it, I spent way too much money in it, and I didn’t regret it for a minute!

5. The good old internet

No matter how much I love bookstores, sometimes I just don’t want to leave the house, or even my room, just to get new books – and it’s cases like those where I’m even more grateful than usual that the internet exists, because it basically allows me to buy books from my bed, and that is something I can appreciate an extreme amount 🙂

So there you have it, 5 of my favourite places to buy books – have you been to any of these? What are your favourite places to buy your books? Let me know below!

-Saar