Weird and wonderful bookshops worldwide – in pictures
From a Canadian bookshop opened by Alice Munro in the 1960s to one in the island of Santorini started by drunk Oxford students, some of the world’s most exotic booksellers feature in The Bookshop Book, published as part of a UK-wide Books are My Bag campaign to support the bookselling industry in the run-up to Christmas. Its author Jen Campbell introduces some of the finest.
Do you know of other great bookshops worth visiting? Share your knowledge and photos here and we will publish the best
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Leakey’s, Inverness, Scotland
This independent second-hand bookshop, opened in 1979, is in an old Gaelic church in Inverness: “It’s huge, with a log fire”, says Campbell. It also happens to be one of novelist Ali Smith’s favourite places – “she used to work at a cafe down the road as a teenager and would spend her money at the bookshop”.Photograph: Charles Leakey
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Atlantis Books, Santorini, Greece
In 2004, two Oxford students were on holiday in Santorini, got drunk and decided to open a bookshop. Despite niggling doubts once they sobered up, after graduating they filled up a van and drove back. They run a small printing press in the back room and have signs saying you can ‘rent a cat’ while you read.Photograph: Will Brady
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The Bookshop, Wigtown, Scotland
The biggest second-hand store in Scotland has a mile of shelving and over 100,000 books. It also has a lovely story: “Jessica Fox worked for NASA in LA, loved books and had always wanted to visit Scotland. She Googled ‘Secondhand bookshop, Scotland’, and this was the first to pop up. She ended up working there”. -
Tell a Story, Portugal
The concept of Tell A Story is as simple as it is effective: a bookshop in a van. The project aims to promote Portuguese literature, in English, to tourists. The team travels around the country and also sells pens and postcards so people can write stories for their friends and so start a chain-reaction of story-telling.Photograph: Douglas Cabel
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Barter Books, Alnwick, England
“With lines of poetry written along its shelves, and model trains running along the top of the bookcases, this is a bit of a booklover’s dream”, says Campbell. This giant shop is also where the second world war poster campaign that nobody ever saw, Keep Calm and Carry On, was uncovered. Watch the story here.Photograph: Hana Louise Makin
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Libreria Palazzo Roberti, Bassano del Grappa, Italy
This bookshop is in an 18th-century palazzo which sprawls over three floors, with grand frescos by Giovanni Scajaro, a student of Giambattista Tiepolo. It also regularly hosts photography exhibitions and classical concerts. -
The Book Barge, Lichfield (and environs), England
This 60-feet narrow boat, which is also a bookshop, has toured the canals of Britain since 2011, along with bookshop rabbit Napoleon Bunnyparte. “Owner Sarah Henshaw has just bought a plot of land in France and is determined to take Le Book Barge across the sea,” says Campbell. -
Munro’s, Victoria, Canada
In 1963 Jim Munro and his first wife, the Nobel-winning short story-writer Alice Munro, opened a bookshop in a narrow space near Victoria’s movie theatres. Now Munro’s is in a neo-classical building designed for the Royal Bank of Canada in 1909. “They keep their overstock in the old bank’s vaults,” says Campbell. -
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George Bayntun, Bath, England
George Bayntun’s bindery has been open since the 1800s, and even now there are eleven binders working there, with clients across the globe. Between them they’ve been in the field for 337 years. The bindery also claims to have the largest collection of hand tools and blocks in the world – over 15,000. -
Singing Wind Bookstore, Benson, Arizona
Winifred Bundy has been selling books here for 40 years. It’s a little tricky to find, situated on a working cattle farm four miles from the nearest town. It doesn’t have a website, Twitter, Facebook or email address. “It doesn’t even have opening hours: you just have to turn up and hope for the best.”Photograph: Greg Alford
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Bookseller in Calcutta, India
“College Street in Calcutta, India, is known as Boi Para (Colony of Books). Many publishers are based there, and book stalls stretch for half a mile along it”, with pamphlets, paperbacks, out-of-print editions and all kinds of publications in many languages spilling over onto the road.Photograph: Pradipta Basu
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The Bookworm, Beijing, China
This store combines reading and partying: “The Bookworm often has impromptu music evenings that bubble up out of nowhere, normally huddled around the bookshop piano. In some rooms the bookshelves are floor-to-ceiling, and there is an outdoor terrace where they serve cocktails,” says Campbell. -
John K King Used & Rare Books, Detroit, USA
Kings is located in a huge 1940s glove factory , which John bought in the early 1980s after having outgrown his former premises in the Michigan Theatre Building. The shop has twenty employees, two dogs and two canaries.Photograph: FTG Designs
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D’s Books, Pnomh Penh, Cambodia
Vantha Douk, like many Khmers, had a poor and difficult upbringing in rural Cambodia. She worked many jobs to afford English classes, and when her aunt met an American bookseller who was opening D’s Books, she got a job as a bookseller. Six years later, she managed to buy all three branches of D’s Books in Cambodia. -
Fjaerland book town, Norway
Fjaerland is one of Norway’s Book Towns near Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in mainland Europe. Old sheds, houses and even a hotel have been converted into bookshops. “During the winter, the bookshop owners have to transport the books from place to place, over the snow, on kick-sleds,” says Campbell.Photograph: Jan Klovstad
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