When I travel, I always make a point to seek out a really great bookstore. I don’t mean the Barnes & Noble hawking the latest celebrity memoir or the tourist trap that’s designed more for Instagram than reading. I mean the niche bookstore: the hole-in-the-wall, lovingly curated with independent magazines, design books in strange shapes and sizes, artist monographs in foreign languages, and vintage vinyl. I mean the dusty used bookstore with stacks from floor to ceiling, first editions locked in a cabinet, and a cat slumbering on the shelf. I mean the shop where the city’s artists, students, and designers converge to pour over esoterica, local zines, and out-of-print treasures.
The niche bookstore is a haven of spontaneous discovery in a world full of sponsored content and algorithmic suggestions. They’re usually a labor of love, part of the delicate interconnected web of underground creative spaces that drive a city. And they can be found anywhere, from the cobblestone streets of Glasgow to the packed bazaars of Baghdad.
We reached out to 11 of our favorites across the globe to ask them where they go to find books they love.
Librairie des Femmes in Paris
Recommended by: Johanna Stein of Gato Sem Rabo in São Paulo
What Makes It Great: “One bookstore in Paris that has been a lasting source of inspiration for me is Librairie des Femmes. Founded in 1974 by Antoinette Fouque, the space has become a beacon for feminist literature, a mission that continues today under the leadership of co-directrices Christine and Élisabeth. I love it for its unwavering commitment to centering women’s voices in literature and thought.”
What You’ll Find: “It’s where I bought a paperback edition of Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.”
Abu Fatima in Baghdad
Recommended by: Sundus Abdul Hadi of Maktaba in Montreal
What Makes It Great: “One of my favorite bookshops is tucked into one of the buildings on the famed Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. The bookseller usually displays his best crop on the sidewalk, and if your curiosity piques, he’ll take you up to his bookshop to scour the shelves.”
What You’ll Find: “The dusty shelves are stacked with books in Arabic and English, with rare gems about Iraqi art and the Arab cultural scene of the 1960s and ’70s. I found the catalog of the first ever Biennale of Arab Art, which took place in Baghdad in 1974, and bought back issues of Funoun Arabiya, a pioneering magazine about Arab art and culture. As an Iraqi artist and writer living in Montreal, Al-Mutanabbi Street and booksellers like Abu Fatima are the inspiration for my bookshop, Maktaba.”
After8Books in Paris
Recommended by: Pieter Koenders of San Serriffe in Amsterdam
What Makes It Great: “After8 carries a fine selection of books on contemporary art and theory, as well as hosts many intimate events with authors and publishers. Just like at San Serriffe, there’s a close relation between author and audience.”
What You’ll Find: “Apart from the fantastic books that they publish themselves, we once visited an event with the American writer and artist Richard Kostelanetz during which you had to negotiate the price of each of his available books with him, and we ended up going home with a beautiful publication of concrete poetry.”
Neurotica Books in Los Angeles
Recommended by: Madeleine Alpert of Left Bank Books in New York
What Makes It Great: “As a psychoanalyst-in-training and esoterica aficionado harboring a passion for all things perverse, Kristin’s collection represents the intersection of my interests with uncanny precision.”
What You’ll Find: “I recently purchased sociologist T.R. Young’s New Sources of Self, 1972, a radical manifesto arguing that the modern subject is being supplanted if not completely be displaced by machinery, corporate systems, and technology. Eerily prescient as AI displaces jobs and puts humanity at existential risk, it offers a black mirror to the precariousness of our era.”
Dashwood Books in New York
Recommended by: Andreas Kokkino of Hyper Hypo in Athens
What Makes It Great: “David and Miwa always know what book you need. They are both so knowledgeable about photography and so sweet.”
What You’ll Find: “David sold me my first book by Daido Moriyama 15 years ago or so and opened my eyes to the (for me) yet unexplored world of Japanese photography.”
Codex Books in New York
Recommended by: David Strettell of Dashwood Books in New York
What Makes It Great: “It’s got a really good selection of used 19th- and 20th-century fiction. I’ve rediscovered reading fiction in the past decade or so. Like a lot of English schoolboys I found the syllabus of my youth spirit-crushing and horribly limited. Does anybody ever want to read Chaucer under the age of 50?”
What You’ll Find: “I go through phases of trying to read everything by one author, but this can be challenging, as I like buying secondhand books whenever possible. They have a history to them (with inscriptions or train tickets laid in), and I like the fatalistic idea of an object finding you by chance. Codex have a really well-curated selection that intersects with my own taste. Over a three-year period, I found almost the entire 12 books series of Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time in all sorts of offbeat editions.”
Yvon Lambert in Paris
Recommended by: Jorge de la Garza of Casa Bosques in Mexico City
What Makes It Great: “It has the right amount of every art discipline, from conceptual, writing, to photography, enough to discover, enough to feel welcomed.”
What You’ll Find: “I bought the writings of Simone Fattal, A Breeze Over the Mediterranean. I read it through the summer of 2022 around Marseille. To me, it represents peaches and the sea.”
Burning House Books in Glasgow
Recommended by: Linda McIntosh of Ripe Mags in Glasgow
What Makes It Great: “I love it because Aimee, who owns the shop, has the best curation so you really can’t go wrong. You know that any book you choose will make you feel something.”
What You’ll Find: “I have been loving her most recent monthly Book Club pick, Valencia by Michelle Tea. It makes me want to live bigger and louder.”
A Balzac A Rodin in Paris
Recommended by: Luis Cerveró of Terranova in Barcelona
What Makes It Great: “It specializes in secondhand art and architecture books. It has an amazing history related to a very special little street; an incomparable setting in a basement you access through a spiral staircase; an accurate, personal selection that’s a mix of gut feeling and deep knowledge; and, above all, the coolest, zero-bullshit owners, a father and son who are a pleasure to chat with and always welcome you with a glass of wine and the most authentic mix of grumpiness and charm.”
What You’ll Find: “I’ve gotten many, many books there, but maybe the one that means more to me is January 5-31, 1969 by Seth Siegelaub. I love Siegelaub’s books, I love conceptual art and I love small-run, DIY publications. But I have to say that what makes this one so special is actually that I found it at this Parisian bookstore. That has surely left a special trace on it.”
Monograph Bookwerks in Portland
Recommended by: Fawn Gehweiler of Hi Books in Portland
What Makes It Great: “Monograph is artist-run, delightfully small-ish, covered in flowering vines, and absolutely perfect! Along with a truly incredible collection of rare art, design, and architecture books, vintage studio ceramics, and objects d’art, they have a deep archive of counterculture ephemera, which will forever be my number one weakness.”
What You’ll Find: “As someone raised by drifters, dropouts, and dreamers, leafing through this collection (think commune newsletters, underground newspapers, ’60s and ’70s handbills, nomadic furniture and geodesic dome plans) is always a highlight, and one of my absolute favorite purchases has been The Official Cockettes Paper Doll Book, published in 1971, featuring the many looks of San Francisco’s the Cockettes, aka my forever dream gang!”
Donlon Books in London
Recommended by: Aimee Ballinger of Burning House Books in Glasgow
What Makes It Great: “The selection at Donlon Books is absolutely perfect and there isn’t a single thing in the whole store that could be considered boring. I was lucky enough to work there for a bit many many years ago but I think I was bad at my job.”
What You’ll Find: “I bought a copy of Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller by Chloe Griffin from Donlon over a decade ago and I pick it up all the time. It remains the most innovative and original biography I have ever read.”
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