Best bookshops?

>thinking sitting on your ass browsing Amazon replicates the feel of a good bookshop discovery

I feel sorry for you user and also for your local area

>only bookshops locally are ones like Waterstones

There's a nice little place in Dalbeattie where I am called Dalbeattie Books where most books are under a fiver. Same idea as Voltaire & Rousseau with the old man adding it up. I've been to Voltaire & Rousseau, and I have to say I found the atmosphere as false as it was in Tchai-Ovna next door. Not to say it isn't still comfy though. I used to know one of the guys that ran it as he goes to Icafe on GWR a lot where I used to work.

In Dalbeattie books I was able to nab Portrait of a Young Artist, The Iliad, The Art of War and Die Verwanderlung for £6 because the guy knocked off 50p to keep his till on a round number. He genuinely seemed like he just wanted as stress-free a day as possible. It was great.

>paying £3 for a book you could get in a charity shop in the same condition for 99p and talk to the shopkeeper about the book

>paying

Anybody know any comfy bookshops in West Sussex?

holy consumerkek
Of course I buy where it's the cheapest but that's not what the one I was replying to was talking about.

anyone know of any neat-o book stores in philadelphia?

McKay's Used Books. It's this warehouse that's a bookstore in TN. Everything is organized too so it's not like the shitholes you all have been posting where you're lucky to find what you're looking for.

Someone made an AESTHETIC picture of the inside

Forgot pic

On amazon you can always find the book you want. I've got a local bookshop with piles rather than shelves, and it's great to buy from there but they never have a specific book I want. You just go for the comfy finds.

The other user is right though, talking to the shopkeepers is great. I ended up spending half an hour talking to a shopkeeper about logic, history of maths, thomism and universities after I asked him if he had anything by Russell.

Did you bought anything or you just made him waste his time?
Bet the whole time the dude was thinking "Is this faggot gonna buy anything? I have been talking for half an hour with him. I have a business to manage, I am not a talkshow host. "

Same, user. Same. Thriftbooks is all I have. Either that, or... Walmart. Ew.

I bought something, yeah. But he seemed to honestly enjoy the conversation for it's own sake, since he brought it up. Unless you're autistic it's easy to tell if someone is genuinely interested in your conversation or not.

He didn't seem to give a shit about business or money either. Just an old guy who liked books and talking about them.

Bookbarn in Somerset, England. Over 1million used books, all cost £1.

Comfy cafe inside as well.

>there's no charity shops

>all cost £1
I need to go the somerset soon.

>The last word bookshop
>The book trader
>The book corner
Are my favorites.

Honestly the huge Penn bookstore on their campus can be great for finding different editions of things. I know it's not supporting ur local businesses but their selection is really great if you want something specific

Head house looks comfy too but I haven't been there

OH and I forgot to mention the little shop in the northeast corner of reading terminal market. That one has some cool shit too

Voltaire and Rousseau are in a weird spot, whenever I turn up now there's a younger guy with a laptop shouting that they need an online presence and need to catalogue their books on eBay. You can tell on the old guy's faces they don't really give a shit. I assume the younger guy is a grandson or similar who wants to faggot the place up. Imo having no asshole with a laptop open price checking each and every book makes a bookshop a comfy place to be. I don't go to a local bookshop to get a local version of eBay.

Only a matter of time until the old guys retire and some Veeky Forumsfag steps in wanting to ruin it all with internet addicted bullshit.

The best in my area (DFW) is supposed to be Recycled Books, but I still haven't been.

My favorite would be the Lucky Dog Books/Paperbacks Plus triad, if only because they have a super reasonable trade-in policy (25% of cover price).

Book Exchange Amsterdam
They are pricey for 2ndhand but the owner is nice.

The guy who owns the place knows how to use the internet. He's the one sitting on the left in the 3rd picture in OP's video - with the moustache. As I said I worked in an internet cafe he used to frequent and spend hours online there. My guess is he just doesn't want to catalogue everything and is happy with how it's been running for years now.

The fact there's some Veeky Forums faggot in there shouting at him only makes me sorry for the guy; he was very timid.

Anons how long do you spend in book shops? and if there are chairs do you sit and read books for a prolonged amount of time?

I usually feel uncomfortable just picking up and sitting on a chair and reading the book before purchasing it. Whereas if i have bought it and decide to continue browsing and then decide to sit, i will sit for however long i please, seeing as i have made a purchase.
I don't mean to sound entitled but do you see where i'm coming from?

>Anons how long do you spend in book shops?
More than I need but not that much.
>if there are chairs do you sit and read books for a prolonged amount of time?
Of course not.

My shop is very small so there's no chairs, I usually spend about 15 minutes looking around and picking stuff up

I don't sit down to read, but I go meticulously through all the shelves in the sections I'm interested in every time, so it tends to take me about 30 minutes to an hour each visit.

I don't really feel comfortable reading in public like that; I'd rather just take it home and read there.

No one has mentioned Strand? Jesus, I take entire trips to NYC just so I can spend 3 days in that fucking store.

>Favorite of all time
I know it's a popular choice, but I really love Shakespeare & Company. It's a quality bookstore that is very cozy, plus you can stay there for a night if you're a poorfaggot in Paris, like I was.
>Favorite in Bongistan
Lemuria in Jackson, MS. I'm not some Southern shill, I'm from the Midwest, but the place has an incredible amount of space dedicated to literature. Not just books, but actual literature. They seem to really love books there, and the employees aren't just some kid who needed work but also love reading. I once asked if they had Soumission when it came out, and they didn't, but then one of them ordered the book, reviewed it on their blog, and they stocked up on our boy Hollaback.
>Honorable mention
The Book Table in Oak Park. Steeply discounted NYRB Classics and other good stuff.

I generally just sit on the floor and read - even if there are chairs provided. I just prefer to cross my legs over each other.

Usually spend about an hour in bookshops when I only intend to go in for 10 minutes.

the lantern in georgetown - run by a bunch of old ladies who went to swarthmore

I know a qt who worked there every summer. Small world, user.
Best charity shops are in Cambridge. It's worth a trip just for the books.
Not as good as it used to be. I feel like it's cruising on it's reputation.

If it's one of those bookstores that's a maze with narrow passageways and overflowing shelves, little nooks and crannies, I'll spend hours in there going through esoteric shit, dime store pulp novels, nun-chuck instruction manuals, whatever

And I get where you're coming from, I was raised catholic in the south so I have all these weird anxieties about manners and being perceived as an asshole. For me, I think as long as you buy something at some point, you're good. But of course the truth is almost always that you care way more than whomever you're worried about offending; that's what I try to remind myself.

I do think buying something and then remaining in the store is a bit odd

Dickson Street Bookshop - Fayetteville, AR

HPB on Broadway - San Antonio, TX

Story time lads
>work at bookstore that carries some college textbooks because college town
>they're absurdly expensive, of course
>old lady comes in one day during the summer, first day we even started putting the textbooks out
>calls me over to help her find a math textbook
>talks to me for 15 minutes
>basically keeps talking in circles about how math is important
>she taught it for 25 years etc.
>she tries to buy 4 $200 textbooks
>i try to stop her, but she's insistent
>her grandson comes in and herds her away before she blows $800
>she starts coming in daily trying to buy the textbooks
>since both me and the store owner were betas, we just went and hid in back until she left
>did this every day for two months until she was finally stopped showing up
>mfw she probably died
>mfw no face

The flagship HPB, closest bookshop as well.

I kek'd, but i also exhibited some feel. It's good that you stopped her from spending crazy money that she probably would have needed for hospital treatment or food.

bad

A bookstore in my city that's run by this eccentric old man who is a frequent guest in a literary show.
Here is a video if anyone's interested, it's from the show.
youtube.com/watch?v=5JMCuKGy-zM

Don't think I've ever been to a non-chain/non-charity book shop.

I like the Waterstones over the road from UCL's English department because it has a pretty large range and there are lots of areas to sit down in and not be disturbed. The charity shops in Cambridge are good as well, as another user pointed out.

But my fave is probably a British Red Cross near me with a great selection. An old academic left hundreds and hundreds of books to them and my town is clearly not a good market for them, so I get to essentially take my pick. They let me in their back room whenever I want now and the guy there usually knocks a small but not insignificant amount off if I buy a couple which is nice.

Will never understand why college books in America are so freaking expensive. The same books can be bought in South America at a quarter of the price (new and original, translated of course). I found out this while studying economics, that I could buy the Latin version for pennies (and it was the same, just different language)

BMV is great so much great stuff for so cheap.

Do you really think it's so great? It always seems to be filled with garbage that's never actually half price. And almost every time I've visited there seems to be a fuckload of dogs or screaming happening. I don't know why there are dogs at all in a bookstore.

>Will never understand why college books in America are so freaking expensive. The same books can be bought in South America at a quarter of the price (new and original, translated of course).

Because those yachts aren't going to buy themselves, user.

John K. King books in Detroit

It's in an old glove factory like 4 stories high. Books are packed in and it feels very old. It's hard to find shit so they give you a map. Could be cheaper so I don't buy too much stuff there but it's fun to walk around

M A S T B O O K S
A
S
T
O
O
K
S

I grew up reading in Labyrinth Bookstore in Princeton, NJ. Got most of my books from the university but occasionally would buy a present for a friend from there. For affordability, Otter Creek Used Books in Vermont. Crazy cheap, crazy amount of books.

Blackwells in Oxford

My hometown book store; it was fucking tiny but so cozy, ran by one old lady. Mostly genre shit, but some great sci fi/fantasy and she'd tried to find any book you might request.

I could walk out of there with 20 books for 5 bucks

Any good bookstores in Philadelphia?

I'm honestly interested. What do you mean when you say the atmosphere felt false? I can understand that for Tchai-Ovna (even though I still kind of like it more than I should, since it's o chill, despite it being the worst kind of hipsterish and unself-aware), but Voltaire and Rousseau just seems like it's a disorganized book shop run by two old Veeky Forums guys. What's fake about it to you?

It has the best fiction section I've seen so far in Dallas.

Agree about the dogs tho

It has the best fiction section I've seen so far and you can find some interesting used books among the new ones in the art sections. The big red sticker deals are good sometimes, I've gotten new NYRB classics for $3.

Agree about the dogs tho

Either this,
Or Richard Booth's in Hay-on-Wye

I could spend hours going up and down the shelves, and you can pick up pre-War editions of a lot of novels for under £5 often.

They have shelves and shelves of orange cover penguin classics. Lots of old books too, with notes and other interesting tidbits in them. Definitely worth a day trip. Foods decent and fairly priced too.

Yeah I never got the sense the place had a false atmosphere, I think the old guys are very sincere about being old disorganised Veeky Forums enthusiasts. The customers are obviously 99% student hipsters but that's because the shop is right next to the university. Also I'm sure most of Veeky Forums resembles a student hipster at a glance anyway.

To clarify, I did not mean that it is as hipsterish as Tchai-Ovna (which I agree I also enjoy because of the chill, but hate their attitude toward the chill, which honestly ruins my chill when I'm in there) but more that their disorganised attitude is as false as Chai-Ovna's false chill.

If they were truly disorganised they would be as disgruntled with the mess as anyone and willing to reclaim some semblance of structure. Any bookshop owner should strive to adhere to a system; and those disorganised ones would fail dramatically and be bitter about it the entire time. These two guys know that mess is what people like so don't give two fucks. I like the guys - they're cool - but I feel it gives the place a false atmosphere. The grandson with the laptop: now he seems to be creating that atmosphere. I haven't been in the place for over five years so maybe I should stick my head in next time I'm up.

Just my opinion, don't berate me for it please.

What do I need to open a bookshop somewhere in Europe like Prague or something? How much money? Do I need any connections or can I just do it?

If anything the grandson is trying to stop the disorganisation by selling it all online. You forget these two old guys clear out dead people houses daily and do valuations on thousand of books across the Glasgow area. They probably have too many books to organise it all and not much storage space leading to the messy look. Plus they're both extremely old, I doubt they have the energy to organise things especially in that tiny cramped space.

Their system of loose organisation by genre works for me honestly, it isn't like a random hodge podge across the whole shop. They have it sectioned out. The only frustrating thing is sometimes you want to get a book but it's at the bottom of a pile and it becomes a tense game of Jenga.

Armchair Books in Edinburgh

>start watching video
>pretty comfy feeling
>half way through this potato starts talking like your common memekid

please stop it is so lame to hear this sort of shit in regular conversation like that

The only one near me is 30 minutes away, owned by a smelly hippie girl, and carries almost nothing but YA despite being near a college.

I just use thriftbooks.

>owned by a smelly hippie girl, a
How hairy is she? Is she single?

>prices subject to change according to customer's attitude
oh no ( '._.)

"Dominicanen" this bookstore in the Netherlands, Maastricht is situated inside a church, pretty neat. Sadly I don't live all that close to Maastricht.

One near Penn campus, The Last Word

>Lemuria in Jackson, MS
I'm from Alabama and fucking hate Mississippi, Especially Jackson, yet I travel here a few times a year. Good choice.

I don't know or care. I saw John Green prominently displayed and never went back.

Bristol
>Bloom and Curll
>Amnesty International Gloucester Road
>Park Street Oxfam
>Cotham Hill Oxfam
>The Last Bookshop
>Whiteladies Road British Heart Foundation

Bath
>Topping & Company
>Mr. B's Reading Emporium
>George Bayntun

Bradford on Avon
>Ex-Libris

Bookbarn a shit. A SHIT.

Why would you need division to calculate how much someone has to pay for books?

Isn't it just one line about the biceps?

Shit is overpriced as fuck, faggot. Idle time books in Adams Morgan is better.

Kys, my man.

Please, they aren't that old. As I said I knew the guy about 5-8 years ago now and he wouldn't have even been 50 then. My point was that they're relaxed about their disorganised-ment because that's how they want to portray themselves so they don't have to worry. If they were truly disorganised then they'd be bitter about being so disorganised.

eyy nigga I got to Soas and know that Waterstone's too

If you want some good cheap bookshops in central London there's Skoob Books in Bloomsbury near Russell Square tube. Treasure trove of cheap, good condition second-hand books.

I think you're projecting a little bit, maybe you find it intolerable to be disorganised but some people genuinely don't care. I mean they have a huge variety of books across an insane number of genres and a tiny space to work with, what organisation they do pull off is pretty good. I don't think anybody necessarily either puts up disorganisation as a hipster front or feels "bitter" about being disorganised (?), some people just like it that way. It works for them clearly, the place has been pretty famous since the 70s.

At what point did I call them hipster? It's their fame and popularity that has fueled their falsehood is all I'm saying. Furthermore, I stated it was my own opinion - you are free to have yours.

what kind of a retarded book shop is this? if you take one off of the pile it's gonna be a jenga brick. I buy all my books on amazon. They have multiple selections at different prices, cheaper new than anywhere else, they have any book I want, some of which I'd probably have a hard time finding at your average book store. It's literally the best you can get, besides what I'd imagine some shops in california might be like, where the old beatniks used to be.

Based on news stories they've only ever tidied up once since 1972 and that was for a TV show film crew coming in.

stv.tv/news/west-central/189148-bohemian-bookshop-laments-loss-of-david-goliath-battle/

Your opinion is grounded in nothing but a snap judgement of two people somehow running their business as a falsehood by making it intentionally untidy due to their "fame and fortune". Why would they do that if they've kept the shop the exact same since 1972? It's just how they like to run it. I don't even understand how you think people can live a "falsehood" like that for 40 years. Seems like you're looking for some element of shrewd business thinking where it doesn't exist.