The Best Egyptian Books | A Top 10
It’s amazing how we read about different countries and cities being destroyed by war and natural calamities, etc. And then people rebuilt everything into something
As they say, never judge a book by its cover. But you can certainly judge a book store by the way it looks.
If you are a booklover, you will never find a bookstore boring or less charming. After all, the crisp smell of books is always enticing when you enter the book store.
If you have ever read books about bookstores, you will notice that writers do find bookstores charming, mysterious, and alluring to talk about.
So, why can’t we say that some book stores are more beautiful than others? They have great architecture, history, and atmosphere.
Today, of all places, I want to talk about the best book stores in Barcelona. It is one of the most beautiful cosmopolitan cities with a great history, architecture, and art.
And, there are scores of book shops in Barcelona that you will find beautiful. I have compiled a list of the best book stores in Barcelona just for that.
Librería Nocturama is a small independent bookstore in the popular El Raval neighborhood of Barcelona. It is not one of your glossy chain bookstores, but a bookstore with an agenda. And that agenda is to support independent publishers and writers.
It specializes in independent and alternative publishing, with a great selection of books on art, politics, philosophy, gender studies, and critical theory. It also features fiction, poetry, graphic novels, and zines, many from local authors and small presses.
Librería Noctur regularly hosts cultural events such as book presentations, readings, and workshops. Overall, it has quite a welcoming environment, especially if you want to support independent bookstores in Barcelona and publishers.
La Central del Raval is another independent bookstore in the El Raval district. It occupies the former Capella de la Misericòrdia, a mid-18th-century chapel. It spans over 850 square meters, with a strong focus on the humanities, among other genres.
Beyond its impressive selection of books, it has a dedicated children’s section. Another charming feature is its green space and patio, where you can enjoy the food from the Bar Central, an on-site café.
La Central del Raval is part of La Central bookstores, which also has another store in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain.
Taifa Llibres is one of the best bookstores in Barcelona’s Gràcia neighborhood. José Batlló, the famous Spanish poet, editor, and critic, founded the store. The store was originally started as a publishing house, but is now a bookstore as well.
The best thing about this Barcelona bookstore is that they offer both new and second-hand books. And approximately half of its collection is dedicated to each section. Taifa also specializes in the humanities, among other genres.
Taifa Llibres regularly hosts monthly book presentations and discussions, especially for independent publishers.
Llibreria Byron is an independent bookstore with a café located on Sant Antoni and Eixample. It has nearly 500 meters of bookshelves, with almost every genre, fiction or nonfiction.
The bookstore also provides services like wishlists, reading logs, out-of-print book searches, and personalized recommendations. It also has cozy reading spaces, including a fireplace. There’s also a special kids’ area and a rotating pop-up art and design showroom.
In addition to all of the above, Byron also offers a continuous music program in the evenings, featuring jazz, flamenco, classical music, tango, Cuban music, and more — all aimed at enriching their cultural space, which has already hosted artists with over 20 Grammy Awards.
There’s also a cozy Cafè Byron that serves locally sourced, eco-friendly drinks and food, and doubles as an event space for book launches and “five o’clock tea.” Altogether, Byron is one of the best bookstores in Barcelona, if you want to search for unique books about migration or soccer books.
As the name suggests, Re-Read Llibreria Lowcost is a chain of secondhand bookstores in Barcelona. However, there’s a catch as it offers nearly new books at affordable prices. With multiple locations across the city, including Carrer de Muntaner 270, Carrer de Rosselló 158, and Carrer de Diputació 296, Re-Read provides easy access.
The store’s pricing is straightforward: one book for €4, two for €6, or five for €12. They organize books by genre and theme, making it easy to find what readers are looking for. Re-Read also buys used books in good condition and resells them.
If you can’t find your favourite book, you can opt for a book alert service, when your title becomes available. Additionally, Re-Read provides gift cards, “Re-galo,” if you want to share the joy of reading with others.
Hibernian Books is the only secondhand English book store in Barcelona. The starting of this Barcelona bookstore is interesting because the owners began to import 30,000 books from Dublin to address the scarcity of English literature in the city.
Now, it has a collection of over 40,000 titles, which includes fiction, non-fiction, children’s books, and antique novels. While the majority of the inventory is secondhand, Hibernian also has a selection of new books and nearly-new overstocks.
Hibernian operates as a part-exchange program, which basically lets customers bring in their used English-language books in exchange for store credit. Store credits range from €0.25 to €1.50 per book, as per the condition and title. This credit can be used to purchase more second-hand books.
Llibreria Altaïr is Europe’s largest travel-focused bookstore. They have well over 60,000 titles in the library, which they organize geographically by continent, country, and region. The collection includes travel guides, maps, literature, and cultural studies in multiple languages.
Altaïr also has a cozy café on the lower floor, which is unfortunately temporarily closed. The bookstore also has an Altaïr Magazine, a publication that regularly posts about travel culture and journalism.
The bookstore also hosts the Altaïr Forum, a venue for cultural events, book presentations, and discussions. Overall, it is one of the best bookstores in Barcelona for travel enthusiasts.
Casa del Llibre is a bookstore chain in Spain, with its flagship location at Rambla de Catalunya, 37, in Barcelona. It is one of the oldest bookstores in Barcelona, from 1923, and it has grown into a successful bookstore chain. Now, it has over 60 bookstores in Spain.
The Rambla de Catalunya branch has quite an open and airy ambiance. It also provides dedicated spaces for presentations and cultural activities.
The Passeig de Gràcia branch features a beautiful garden area for talks about art, entertainment, and music. It mostly has Spanish and Catalan sections, but a good selection of English books as well.
Please note that this bookstore chain is only in Spain with physical stores. However, you can order online from, say Netherlands or France, or anywhere fro, Europe.
Llibreria Inglesa Come In is another famous English bookstore in Barcelona. Come In also has a dedicated language learning center. This branch specializes in educational materials for English and other languages, including Spanish, German, French, and Italian.
Come In also has a variety of educational games and stationery. With over three decades of existence, the bookstore surely will inspire you to buy new books especially if you are a noob in languages.
Also, don’t forget to check out my helpful guide if you want to learn Spanish.
Llibreria Gigamesh is one of the most famous English bookstores in Barcelona. It specializes in science fiction, fantasy, horror literature, and comics. It also has a wide range of non-electronic games like board games, role-playing games, 2 player card games, and collectible card games.
If you are a science fiction fan, you will find an extensive collection of books in Spanish, Catalan, and English, featuring works of J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, and H.P. Lovecraft.
An interesting thing about this Barcelona bookstore is its use of unique and playful shelf labels for a cute browsing experience. Since the store is near the memorial arch Arc de Triomf, it is easily accessible via multiple metro lines.
Barcelona is a beautiful city, full of marvelous architecture, churches, modernist landmarks, history, art, and so much more. When a city is this charming, it generally means that it also has a great food and and drink culture.
For that very purpose, I wrote about the top Barcelona food and drink places that you can visit. Now that I have also shares some of the best book stores in Barcelona, you can pin your favourite ones for your Barcelona visit.
If you have already been to Barcelona and know of any English book stores in Barcelona, please share!
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