The world’s prettiest bookshops

Founded in 1906, today Livraria Lello sells 280,000 books a year and is visited by more than 3,000 people every day. It has a special room where signed works, first editions, manuscripts and unusual items costing up to €20,000 are kept. There’s a €5 charge to visit, but it’s taken off the bill if you buy a book. Must read: Os Maias.

Although it first opened in Bairro Alto and then moved to various locations, this bookstore settled in LX Factory, Lisbon’s most alternative market, in 2009. Ler Devagar means ‘slow reading’, which is precisely the pace at which you should visit this bookshop, where concerts and exhibitions are also held.

This former theatre in the Recoleta neighbourhood is now home to El Ateneo. The beauty of this bookshop lies in the fact that the theatre’s original architecture has been left intact – its seats are now used for perusing books before purchasing them. Must read: Conozcamos lo nuestro (The Gaucho’s Heritage) by Enrique Rapela, a tribute to the lone horseman.

In 1993, El Péndulo opened in the Condesa neighbourhood as a coffee shop/library (cafebrería) and cultural meeting place. There are now seven branches (pictured is the one in Condesa, the first to open). One of Latin America’s leading cultural centres, it hosts all kinds of events, workshops and classes. Must read: El infinito en un junco (Infinity in a Reed), an essay that recounts the history of literature.

Home to books… and cats. There are books piled up in bathtubs and boats that serve as shelves, and titles that are out of print. Acqua Alta is Venice’s (and probably the world’s) most original bookstore and an unmissable diversion on your trip to the city of canals. Must read: Ai confini dell’Asia (On Asia’s Borders), a travel book by Mario Cimarosti, should be in your library.

The Netherlands is well known for repurposing its abandoned churches as exhibition centres, museums, bars and even discos. In Maastricht, just over an hour from Dusseldorf or Brussels, a Gothic church belonging to the Dominican order has exchanged faith for a love of literature and become a spectacular bookshop. Must read: De avond is ongemak (The Discomfort of Evening), by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize.

Word on the Water is a Dutch barge located on Regent’s Canal in London. The bookshop is enjoyably weird, as are some of the things that take place there: it’s not unusual for the owners to find new books on their own shelves – ones they haven’t paid for – only to open them and find them signed by the authors, or for visitors to run into a jazz concert, or a poetry recital or the presentation of some book... right on the bookshop’s roof. Must read: Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, a poem for children written by Maya Angelou, which Paddy Screech, one of Word on the Water’s owners, says is the perfect message for this year.

Very close to Notre Dame, the façade of Shakespeare and Company – a lovely bookshop with leather chairs and wooden stairs for climbing up to the oldest books – is quite eye-catching. Specialising in English-language literature, the history of this shop is well worth getting to know. Must read: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. / Image by Kiren

Founded in 1947 by Luis Bardón – grandfather of the current owners – this lovely bookshop specialises in antique editions and incunabula (books printed before 1501). Bardón’s collection has works that are so exclusive that sometimes permission from the Ministry of Culture is required to remove a book from Spain. Must read: first edition from 1797 of The Voyage of La Pérouse Around the World (Voyage de la Pérouse autour du monde), by Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse.