Melbourne bookstore on ‘world’s coolest’ list
Melbourne bookstore Books For Cooks has been included in CNN’s list of the world’s coolest bookstores.
The pint-sized Fitzroy store – unsurprisingly devoted to culinary titles – joins a rich and diverse list of retailers from around the world, from Argentina to Italy.
Every type of cuisine and culinary category imaginable can be found on its floor-to-ceiling shelves
“Our customers are chefs, foodies and armchair gourmets,” co-owner Tim White says.
Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Ottolenghi,” “Plenty” and “Jerusalem” the current top sellers.
Despite a global decline in hard-copy book sales, these stores buck the trend by offering unique, stay-all-day environments to uncover your next favourite read.
Here are the other international book havens on the list.
Shakespeare and Company
Opened in 1951, this legendary store on Paris’s Left Bank is ‘like something straight out of a Hemingway book’.
Eslite
This 17,000 square meter store in Taipei is open 24-hours a day and stocks an array of books and magazines in a raft of languages.
El Ateneo
This majestic former theatre in Buenos Aires retains its ornate architecture, the stage converted into reading spaces.
Librairie Avant-Garde
China’s most beautiful bookstore is located inside a massive underground parking lot in Nanjing once used as a bomb shelter.
Assouline Venezia
Housed in a restored 18th-century palazzo in Venice, Italy, this deluxe store offers niche books priced from $500 to $7000.
Livraria Lello
Arguably the world’s most beautiful bookstore is in Porto, Portugal, with neo-Gothic architecture stained glass and a sweeping staircase.
Powell’s City of Books
This Portland landmark claims to be the largest used and new bookstore in the world.
Strand
This beloved New York City store has a whopping 2.5 million new, used and rare books. The most expensive is a copy of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ illustrated by Henri Matisse priced at $45,000.
Foyles
In June 2014, the iconic London bookshop moved into spacious new venue with an in-store digital book search map.
John K. King Used & Rare Books
This is one of Detroit’s must-visit venues housed in an old glove factory with more than a million books in stock.
Stanfords
This store in London’s Covent Garden is one of the world’s finest travel book shops.
Parnassus Books
Parnassus in Nashville, Tennessee features the world’s most famous writers reading from their latest books.
Cafebreria El Pendulo
This store in Polanco, Mexico City is as known for its breakfasts as it is for its books.
The Last Bookstore
An epic Los Angeles warehouse bookstore buys and sells new and used books.
Has your favourite bookstore been left off the list? Let us know in the comments below.
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