Category: shopping
Zhongshuge 钟书阁 – A Surreal Literary Labyrinth in Beijing 北京
Zhongshuge 钟书阁 has a reputation across China for having “the most beautiful bookstores,” and their location inside Beijing’s Galeries Lafayette department store (北京老佛爷百货商店, 100 Xidan North St.) certainly lives up to the title. While many modern bookstores these days opt for boxy minimalist cubes, Zhongshuge leans into the surreal. The journey begins at the main…
Getting Lost in Skoob, London’s Basement Book Maze
Hunting for the best second-hand bookshop in London? Skoob Books in Bloomsbury—tucked beneath the Brunswick Centre near Russell Square—offers one of the city’s broadest selections of used and out-of-print titles. Enjoy a tune while browsing. Bloomsbury has long been London’s intellectual heartland—home to the University of London’s central precinct (Senate House). Surrounded by University College…
Browsing in Librairie de L’Hôtel de Sully, Paris
During our stay in Paris, we stumbled upon another hidden gem for book lovers in Le Marais—an excellent complement to the Bibliothèque Forney, which we featured in a previous post [here]. Enjoy this while browsing… Nestled within the historic Hôtel de Sully, this discovery is not a public library but rather a one-of-a-kind bookstore in…
Bookends: South to Arles – Le Buste et l’Oreille x Louis Vuitton
We like books and love to discover interesting bookstore on our trips. In this two-part series, we visit two very different bookstores—contrasting in location, longevity, and content—but both sit squarely in the flow of tourist traffic. In our previous post, we focus on Skaguay News Depot & Books, an independent shop in Skagway, a cruise…