About The Guide

Hello! We are Sonja and Ivan. And this is our Bookstore Guide - an amateur guide to book shopping throughout Europe. We hope this Guide will help you find the book(stores) you are looking for. Unfortunately, the bookstores are no longer uploaded and may be out of date

Open Door Bookshop, Rome

Open Door Bookshop Logo

Where?
Rome, Italy


Visited:
February, 2010

One of the first stops on our Rome trip was precisely this jewel of a bookstore, tucked away in the lively and colorful neighborhood of Trastevere. Just walking about this neighborhood is an experience, while visiting the bookstore is just an icing on the cake. Open Door Bookshop is unique in the sense that it is the only purely old school second hand English language bookstore in the whole city of Rome - at least the only one that we could find either online or personally and we did search thoroughly. Moreover, it has been contributing to the Roman literary community for a very long time for it was opened some twenty years ago.

Once you enter Open Door you feel as if time has stopped and nothing can prevent you from browsing its stock for hours. And the selection is excellent as well - unlike some of the second hand bookstores we've seen - those seemingly carrying thousands of books while the stock, in fact, consists mostly of mediocre titles of action, mystery and thriller genres.

Open Door Bookshop is home to thousands of used books - a very decent selection of guidebooks (which were at a discount price of 3EUR at the time of our visit), a whole wall dedicated to books on art, philosophy, politics and other humanistic sciences and a whole other wall filled with a surprisingly rich and tasty selection of fiction works. In front of the store there are books for as low as 1EUR and even free ones (but those are usually the ones which no one wants - perhaps you'll want to give them a home).

The people at Open Door pride themselves at not specializing in anything, which has resulted in an ecclectic selection of titles on offer gathered on their shelves through the years. The other room of the bookstore shelves cookbooks and books in other languages such as Italian, German, French and Spanish. You can check out their catalog or order a book and, moreover, if you have books to sell, Open Door will probably buy them. Don't miss the nostalgic collection of old Penguin paperback editions, which will surely bring many memories. Also, be sure to check out the "various" section where things such as maps and old photographs can be found.

Open Door BookshopOpen Door Bookshop
Address:
Via della Lungaretta 23
00153 Rome
Open Door Bookshop Rome

Phone and Email:
+39065896478
opendoor@books-in-italy.com

Working Hours:
To be added soon...




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Borri Books, Rome

Borri Books Rome logo

Where? Rome, Italy



Visited in
February 2010

Borri Books was the first bookstore we have seen in Rome and it is probably so for many other visitors of the city, which is due to its location at the central train station Termini. Placing a bookstore directly in the train station building is not very common in European cities, but this concrete example in Rome has been very successful. It's not hard to guess why, as spending your time at the train station in a more meaningful way than staring at the arrivals board is appreciated by many. It's also good to have the opportunity to choose some good reading material for your trip, other than the limited selection of thrillers and romance novels available at the kiosks.

The offer of English titles in Borri Books is more than satisfactory. The whole third floor is dedicated to books in foreign languages (other than Italian) and there's a decent selection of titles in Spanish, French or Russian as well. The English section is dominant and we have to say that its offer may satisfy even the more demanding visitors. The selection of titles in the non-fiction section was very well chosen considering its limited size.

Borri Books occupies all three floors of the station building and it's really well integrated into its surroundings. The thing we liked the most are the transparant glass walls, which make the books even more tempting. Besides, it's the sheer size of this bookstore which makes it impressive. The numbers speak for themselves - more than 340 000 books are spread over an area of ca. 2000 square meters, 13 000 titles are available in foreign languages. The opening hours are also very generous, so you will very rarely find yourself waiting for a train without the possibility to browse.

If the Termini station happens to be the gate through which you enter the city and you arrived unprepared for all the sights that Rome has to offer, visiting Borri Books will surely prove to be useful. Several shelves filled with guidebooks for Rome, but also books on the history, nature or even cuisine of Rome and its surroundings can be found on the third floor in several languages. It's also a great place to pick up an Italian phrase book or even a dictionary if your interest in learning Italian is more serious.

Borri Books Termini RomeBorri Books
Address:
Atrio Stazione Termini
Piazza dei Cinquecento
00185 Rome
Borri Books Rome









Website:
http://www.borribooks.com/

Phone and Email:

+39 06 4828422
info@borribooks.com

Working Hours:
Mon-Sun 7:30-23



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Voltaire and Rousseau, Glasgow

Voltaire and Rousseau Glasgow logo
Where? Glasgow, Scotland, UK



Recommended by
Cristina Cona

Cristina said: "The third of the excellent trio in the same hundred square yards in West End, more chaotic than Caledonia or Thistle. You’ve got to (literally) delve into pyramids of books, forget about any kind of order, alphabetical or otherwise, and share the armchair with a large ginger cat. You’ll find a lot of interesting stuff if you’ve got time and patience, though."

Although its name may suggest otherwise, this great second-hand bookstore can be found in the largest city of Scotland - Glasgow. Voltaire and Rousseau was founded by bothers Joe and Gerard McGonnigle in 1972 and since Gerard's retirement, it is run by Joe and his other brother Eddie (both book collectors themselves of course). Almost four decades of the shop's existence are reflected in its character and looks. Although if you try a bit harder the books do seem to be divided into several categories (such as Scottish interest, philosophy, poetry or theology), the randomness factor still dominates the stock's arrangement.

Upon entering, you will find yourselves in a silent world full of words waiting to be read in the thousands of tomes that fill this place. For some a chaotic mess of dusty books, for others an invitation to forget about the outside world and start exploring. In fact, browsing in Voltaire and Rousseau really is an adventurous task, as you have to either dig through the piles or try to avoid them in the limited space, and you never know when you will stumble upon the cat which is at home here.

The bookstore is very popular especially among students and some of its regular customers visit the store for several decades (those are not students anymore, hopefully). However, its future existence in Glasgow's Otago Lane is threatened, as a development project which would change the face of the whole street is presently being considered. As the old-school Voltaire and Rousseau doesn't have it's own website, we're adding a link to their profile on the Save Otago Lane website instead.

Voltaire and Rousseau Otago lane bookshopVoltaire & Rousseau
Address:
12-14 Otago Lane
Glasgow G12 8PB
Voltaire and Rousseau Glasgow









Website:
http://www.saveotagolane.co.uk/VR.html

Phone and Email:
0141-339 1811

Working Hours:
Mon-Sat open
Sun closed



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