20 bookstores to see at least once in a lifetime

On September 26, 1966, on Rue de Tournon in Paris, on the Left Bank of the Seine, Yves Saint Laurent opened his first ready-to-wear boutique. The interior design was entrusted to Isabelle Hebey, who chose deep red partition walls, Akari lamps by Isamu Noguchi, furniture designed by Olivier Mourgue, and sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle. This radically modern interior, groundbreaking for its time, inspired the design of the bookshop at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech, housed within the Studio KO–designed building. The Moroccan version rigorously reprises the character of the original: saturated wall colors, aluminum display cases, Mourgue’s furnishings, and Noguchi’s iconic paper lamps. Located at the end of the museum route, the bookshop extends the visitor experience through a curated selection of volumes dedicated to Yves Saint Laurent, fashion, Morocco, and the museum’s programming.

The idea at the core of architect Eduardo Aizenman’s project for Cafebrería El Péndulo San Ángel in Mexico City is the ancient Greek agora, conceived as a place of gathering and the heart of civic life. Part of the Centro Cultural Helénico complex, the building unfolds across a nearly 1,000-square-meter plan organized around a century-old palm tree that acts as the spatial focal point. The design engages both the urban scale and the existing built fabric. Facades clad in metal panels, wood, and large glass surfaces integrate with the surroundings, offering a welcoming entrance from busy Avenida Revolución into a more intimate internal garden. The space is dominated by a single large volume where multiple levels unfold, also accommodating a bar and restaurant. Full-height bookshelves contribute to the dynamic spatial experience.

In the forest of Qinglongwu Village in Zhejiang Province, the Chinese studio Atelier tao+c has carried out an architectural regeneration project where the bookstore is the core around which common areas and capsule hotel rooms revolve. The intervention takes place within a traditional timber-and-earth building covering 232 square meters and just over seven meters in height. While preserving the original exterior structure, the interior was completely reorganized. After removing existing floors and partitions, the ground level was dedicated to the bookstore and community library, with full-height bamboo bookshelves defining the walls and housing the collection. Large glazed openings create a connection between the act of reading and the surrounding natural landscape. Above this volume, Atelier tao+c inserted two “suspended” structures containing twenty sleeping capsules, divided into separate wings for male and female guests. The capsules are integrated into the shelving system itself, ensuring privacy without complete isolation from the shared environment.

Boekhandel Dominicanen in Maastricht is one of the most evocative examples of contemporary architectural reuse of historic space: a 13th-century Gothic church transformed into a bookstore while preserving its original spatial qualities. Located in the historic city center, the building was restored by architects Evelyne Merkx and Patrice Girod of Merkx+Girod Architecten, in collaboration with Satijn Plus Restauration Architects. Completed in 2007, the project introduced a two-story steel structure that runs along the nave without touching the historic Gothic walls or elements. This internal volume, defined by monumental and visually permeable shelving made of perforated steel panels, houses more than 25,000 titles. It enters into dialogue with the pointed vaults, columns, and remnants of medieval frescoes, preserving the perception of height and spatial monumentality. The choir area has been converted into a café.

Grand Granary Bookstore emerged from the regeneration of disused agricultural structures in the rural village of Tangkou, in Jiangmen (Guangdong Province). A cluster of abandoned 1970s granaries has been transformed into a contemporary cultural landmark through a project by SEU-ARCH Art+Zen Architects. Developed across approximately 1,600 square meters, the intervention renovated seven existing buildings, five of them former granaries, preserving the original cylindrical forms and roof profiles. Inside, the bookstore houses around 38,000 volumes organized into sections devoted to literature, poetry, social sciences, and visual arts, each located in one of the former granary buildings. The result is a cultural hub open to the local community.

Founded in 1990 by James Daunt, Daunt Books in London’s Marylebone district is a true institution. Housed in a 1910 building in full Edwardian style, the space is characterized by oak galleries, long sightlines, and a luminous, welcoming atmosphere. The architecture plays a central role: upper floors overlook a wooden gallery running along the central nave, while bookshelves extend all the way to the ceiling, emphasizing the verticality of the historic structure. The bookstore is also known for its distinctive classification system, with books arranged by geographical setting or by the authors’ country of origin rather than by surname. This curatorial logic reinforces the idea of travel through literature, turning browsing into a spatial and narrative journey.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires is one of the world’s most celebrated examples of transforming a theatrical space into a commercial cultural venue. Opened in 1919 as the Teatro Grand Splendid, the neobaroque building was designed by architect Francisco Gianotti and quickly became one of the city’s most spectacular theaters, with a main hall seating over a thousand spectators, balconies, a large stage, and a ceiling frescoed by artist Nazareno Orlandi. After the theater closed in the 1960s, the space was converted into a bookstore by the El Ateneo chain in 2000. The adaptation preserved the original architecture almost in its entirety: the horseshoe-shaped auditorium, balconies, stage, and galleries remain intact. Bookshelves follow the curved geometry of the stuccoes and parapets, while the stage has been transformed into a café overlooking the main book hall.

Another Saint Laurent bookstore, this time in Paris and curated by the brand’s current creative director, Anthony Vaccarello. Babylone is located in the urban fabric of the 7th arrondissement and functions as a boutique for books, rare vinyl, magazines, and art objects. The name refers to the apartment at 55 Rue de Babylone, where Yves Saint Laurent lived with his partner Pierre Bergé from 1970 until his death in 2008. With Donald Judd stools, a vintage table designed by Pierre Jeanneret, weathered walls, and precious marbles, the space reads less like a shop than a sophisticated interior. Monolithic volumes and textured surfaces define a compact, highly controlled environment that reflects the brand’s aesthetic universe.

Looking at photographs of the Dujiangyan Zhongshuge Bookstore, it is hard not to think of the enigmatic spaces in M.C. Escher’s prints. Located in Dujiangyan, a city famous for its ancient irrigation system, the bookstore is distinguished by an interior conceived by X+LIVING to evoke wonder and spatial disorientation. Bookshelves unfold like waves, pathways wrap in fluid curves, and reflective surfaces multiply perspectives and fragment space. The visitor’s movement is central to the project, which reads as a kind of landscape where circulation mirrors the idea of reading as an exploratory process.

The Academic Bookstore in Helsinki, designed by Alvar Aalto and completed in 1969, is housed in the building known as Kirjatalo (“Book House”). Considered one of Aalto’s masterpieces in commercial architecture, the bookstore stands out for its masterful use of natural light as a structural component of the project. The spatial layout revolves around a large central atrium rising through three floors, topped by prismatic skylights that cut into the roof and channel light toward the heart of the building. This ensures even illumination of the main hall while reducing the need for artificial lighting. On the second floor is the renowned Café Aalto, furnished exclusively with original pieces designed by the Finnish architect and designer, reinforcing the bookstore’s role as a fully integrated public space within the city’s cultural life.

Set within a pine forest in La Juanita, near José Ignacio, Rizoma is a small cultural compound that combines a bookstore, gallery, café, and hospitality in a domestic-scale project deeply connected to the landscape. Commissioned by Argentine entrepreneur Eduardo Ballester and designed by architect Diego Montero, the structure responds to local climatic conditions with red-stained pine cladding, conceived to protect a collection of around 15,000 volumes from the intense summer sun. The bookstore is accompanied by a gallery that hosts the ceramics and studio of artist Marcela Jacob as well as drawings by Mary Ballester. On the opposite side, four independent guest suites clad in eucalyptus complete the complex, reinforcing the idea of the bookstore as an immersive cultural retreat.

Enfants Riches Déprimés is among the most exclusive brands in contemporary fashion, known for its high price point, one-of-a-kind garments, and only two mono-brand stores worldwide, in Paris and Seoul. In 2024, the brand’s founder Henri Alexander Levy opened a bookstore in Paris’s Marais district, near the Paris boutique, called The Anti Public Library. Designed by Levy himself with architect Didier Faustino, the project rejects the traditional idea of the bookstore as a public gathering space. Characterized by dark wood paneling, checkerboard marble floors, and French mid-century furnishings by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand, the space operates as a hybrid environment dedicated to art, photography, architecture, and music. The editorial and music selection includes rare vinyl and hard-to-find publications, from American underground culture to zines and books published by Enfants Riches Déprimés.

Founded in 1996 by Elena Ochoa Foster as a publishing house specializing in artist books, Ivorypress has gradually evolved into a cultural platform dedicated to contemporary art. Its Madrid headquarters, designed by Foster + Partners, brings together a bookstore, exhibition spaces, and work areas through the adaptive reuse of two industrial buildings and a former underground garage in the city center. Glass entrances on Calle del Aviador Zorita clarify the different functions, guiding visitors either to the bookshop or to the gallery on level –1, accessible by appointment. Inside, the former vehicle ramp has been replaced by a sequence of steps flanked by display cases for rare editions, while skylights and light wells illuminate exposed concrete elements. The more intimate bookshop area is defined by very high ceilings, Seville stone floors, and custom furnishings, creating a setting tailored to the discovery of Ivorypress’s distinctive editions.

Founded in 1872 as a branch of the Genoese bookshop “Le Beuf” in Piazza Carignano, Libreria Internazionale Luxemburg is Turin’s oldest bookstore and among the oldest in Italy. After more than a century of history, it recently opened a new location within the historic Galleria Subalpina, an elegant 19th-century passage connecting Piazza Castello and Piazza Carlo Alberto in the city center. The renovation project by the Turin-based studio BRH+ (Barbara Brondi and Marco Rainò) orchestrates an intervention where historical memory and contemporary taste intertwine. Ceramic surfaces by Mutina, designed by figures such as Michael Anastassiades and Nathalie Du Pasquier, enrich the space. Spanning about 216 square meters created by merging three adjacent units, the bookstore preserves restored and repositioned elements of the historic furnishings, while lighting enhances surfaces and browsing paths. A small literary café developed in collaboration with the historic brand Caffè Baratti & Milano is also part of the space.

For more than thirty years, John K. King Used & Rare Books in Detroit has occupied a four-story former industrial building at the corner of Lafayette Boulevard and the Lodge Expressway. Today it is one of the largest bookspaces in the United States, housing over one million volumes. Built in 1905 as a factory for the Ste. Claire Manufacturing Company, the building went through multiple production phases, from textiles to the manufacture of hats and gloves, reflecting the city’s industrial history. Purchased by John K. King in 1983 and converted into a bookstore the following year, the space still bears clear traces of its past: wooden offices, factory signage, original floors, and industrial details coexist with shelves arranged to create labyrinthine paths.

In 1951, the same year An American in Paris brought Gene Kelly’s romantic vision of the city to the screen, George Whitman, a former American soldier, opened a bookstore at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie called Shakespeare and Company. The name paid tribute to the legendary bookshop founded in 1921 on Rue de l’Odéon by American bookseller and publisher Sylvia Beach, who first published James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1922 and championed English-language literature, including works censored in the UK and US. Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and George Antheil were among the figures associated with the original store, while Whitman’s shop became, in the 1950s, a meeting place for Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and William Burroughs, also thanks to Whitman’s friendship with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Today it remains a pilgrimage site for book lovers visiting Paris, known for its exceptional selection of new titles and rare editions in an atmosphere that feels suspended in time.

Founded in 1953 in San Francisco by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the most important independent bookstores in the United States and a symbol of alternative culture. In 2001 it was designated a National Historic Landmark. Originally the first American bookstore devoted exclusively to paperbacks, it has expanded to occupy three floors with an extensive catalog spanning fiction, poetry, politics, philosophy, film, music, and cultural studies. A gathering place for Beat Generation writers, City Lights is also a publishing house. Since 1955 it has published key Beat works, including Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, one of the movement’s defining texts. To date, more than two hundred titles have been released, guided by a strong stance against censorship and cultural conformity.

Founded in 1959 in West Philadelphia by Dawud Hakim, Hakim’s Bookstore is the city’s oldest Black-owned bookstore and one of the longest-running in the United States. The idea of opening a bookstore was closely tied to Hakim’s encounter with Joel Augustus Rogers’s 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof (1934), which offered a global history of Black people and inspired him to create a space dedicated to this body of knowledge. The bookstore specializes in works by and about African American authors, African studies, politics, religion, education, and Black culture, and has become a key community reference point and space for learning and debate. Today, under the leadership of Hakim’s daughter Yvonne Blake, the bookstore continues its founder’s mission.

Gay’s the Word is an independent bookstore in London’s Bloomsbury district, founded on January 17, 1979, by a group of gay socialists known as the Gay Icebreakers. It is the UK’s oldest LGBTQ+ bookstore. Inspired by queer bookstores in the United States, its founders set out to create a space dedicated to lesbian, gay, and queer literature at a time when such books were difficult to find elsewhere. More than a specialist retail space for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and queer studies, the bookstore functions as a meeting place and forum for the LGBTQ+ community, hosting events, readings, and discussion groups. Over the years it has faced significant challenges, including a well-known 1984 customs raid targeting materials deemed “obscene,” and has served as a hub for activist groups such as Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.

Clarke’s Africana & Rare Books is a historic independent bookstore in Cape Town, active since 1957–58 in the heart of Long Street and widely regarded as a key reference point for books on African history, culture, and narratives, with particular attention to southern Africa. Founded by Anthony Clarke, a former British army officer who later became a journalist at the Cape Times, the bookstore began as a used bookshop. From the 1970s onward it specialized in publications related to sub-Saharan Africa, gradually expanding its catalog to include new, out-of-print, and antiquarian volumes, as well as prints, maps, and objects linked to African art and society. Today it is valued by local readers and international institutions alike for the quality and rarity of its collections.

Even a single day in Paris makes it almost impossible not to browse the books displayed in the stalls of the bouquinistes along the Seine, a historic form of open-air bookstore fully integrated into the urban landscape. Originating as itinerant sellers on the Pont Neuf in the early 17th century, the bouquinistes were moved to the riverbanks in 1756 and formally regulated by the City of Paris from 1859, when they were granted the characteristic green boxes that are closed at night. Their dimensions were standardized in 1930. Part of the UNESCO World Heritage site “Paris, Banks of the Seine” since 1991, today more than two hundred bouquinistes occupy roughly three kilometers of riverfront with nearly a thousand display boxes holding hundreds of thousands of antiquarian and used books, magazines, and photographs.