Book lovers of the world might want to know about the Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, which opened in Maastricht just before Christmas. Located in the city’s old Dominican church – which for years had been used as a place to park your bike – the building has been radically redesigned by Dutch architects Merkx + Girod. From the images you can find on the web you can see that it is a bookshop made in heaven. And like many Dutch bookshops, many books are available in English too.
But the most beautiful in the world? It will have to compete with El Ateneo in Buenos Aires which is situated in an old theatre (you can even preview your next purchase while sitting in one of the old boxes); the utterly sumptious Livraria Lello in Porto, the Secret Headquarters comic bookstore in Los Angeles; Full Circle Books in Oklahoma, the neo-classicism of Borders in Glasgow; maybe Hatchard’s in London (which supplies books the the Queen) and perhaps art bookseller Posada in Brussels, the branch of Kinokuniya in the base of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur; or perhaps the rural charm of Scarthin’s in the Peak District … but what others?
Tags: architecture, books, culture, god, holland maastricht, literature, netherlands
December 31, 2007 at 2:59 pm
More debate on this over at metafilter
January 7, 2008 at 3:34 pm
[...] on from my recent post about the world’s most beautiful bookshops, I came across this stunning photomontage of El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires. Splendid [...]
January 16, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Mr. Dodson,
Today I received a forwarded mail from El Ateneo’s press bulletin, stating that you ranked -in an article published at The Guardian- their magnificent library as the world’s second most important bookstore. Now, in spite of the luxurious architecture, the shop ir far from being the best in town. They lack several tomes that should be available in every bookstore, especially in one as vast as this one – even more if they have their own editorial. Classic, crucial books as The Golden Legend, the Eddas and the King James’ Bible are only a few of the titles that I asked for, only to obtain a negative answer. Their employees are noticeable ignorant and they did not receive any training, so they can provide little help, if any, to the experienced reader.
Being a citizen of Buenos Aires, I would suggest the ancient Librería de Ávila (formerly La Librería del Colegio) as the most important in town. They are one of the oldest bookstores in the city, have a great variety as well a notable inventary of rare books, selling their products at reasonable prices. The architecture is typical of the colonial times and it represents better the local fashion.
Your article reminded me of a piece written by someone who used to sign books in El Ateneo:
http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html
February 1, 2008 at 9:03 pm
in your article you said “un lugar de la mancha” and then “el pendulo” like the n.8 beautiful bookstore in mexico city but there’re two different places. which one are you talking about?
February 2, 2008 at 1:39 pm
I actually ranked it as “the most beautiful bookshop in terms of architecture and not in terms of content. The original article makes that quite clear
March 20, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Just noticed that a blog called Blurberati has linked to my Guardian article and added a few beautiful bookshops to the growing list
April 1, 2008 at 11:58 am
[...] for the definitive list of the world’s most beautiful bookshops continues (previous posts here and here). I’ve also started a Flickr group to help collate images from across the world. [...]
April 13, 2009 at 1:03 pm
[...] of Chinatown or an annexe of Oxford Street. Regular readers of the blog will recall that we like a good bookshop at the Northern Light and we regret the street’s passing [...]
August 6, 2009 at 10:26 pm
You should get in touch with us and we’ll write you a review
Looks amazing.