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 Unfortunately, the bookstores are no longer uploaded and may be out of date

Librairie des Archives, Paris

librarie des archives logo

Where? Paris, France



Recommended by
Olivia Farkas

Olivia said: "Concerning Paris you should check out this link: librairiedesarchives.com/ It is really a great bookstore, specialized in XX Century Art, Design, Fashion...They have books from all around the world and most of them are out of print. They are no always cheap (although they also have some remainders) but they really have one of Paris's greatest selection. Concerning the books, apparently about 550 of them are in English on the site (more in the store I guess). If you go on the home page and type "anglais" that means English in the search engine (down right) all the English Books will pop up."

It's common knowledge that French people are usually stereotyped for being ignorant when it comes to English, sometimes going as far as to even refusing to speak the language even though they understand it. Well, the number of recommendations, together with our own "French" experience certainly deny this stereotype, for Paris, at least, is a very diverse and English-language 'librarie' rich city. The new addition, although its French to English language books ratio is considerably different, gains in value due to its specialization: Librairie des Archives is completely devoted to 20th Century Art (fine arts, decorative arts, etc) and is accompanied by various books on 20th century fashion and jewelry. The stock of the bookstore covers the new releases, but also remainders at more favorable prices as well as rare and out of print titles.

This bookstore, established in 2002, is an independent one and it's located in what seems to be an old (no longer in use, of course) hat factory in the heart of the historic district of the Marais right next to the Musée Picasso, the Centre Georges Pompidou and many art galleries. Its location makes it a perfect stop on your way to or from an art exhibition. Librairie des Archives is certainly a good place to find inspiration, learn something new, something useful as well as trivial in the field of art.

librarie des archivesLibrairie des Archives
Address:
83, rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris
librarie des archives paris











Website: http://www.librairiedesarchives.com/

Phone and Email:
+33 (0)1 42 72 13 58
info@librairiedesarchives.com

Working Hours:
Tue-Sat 13-19
N.B. Closed during 1 month in the summer
(usually last week of July and first 3 weeks of August
and also between Christmas and the New Year's Eve)






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Automatic Style Generator for Blurbs



By guest blogger Cristina Cona


Cristina is Italian, lives in Brussels, and has been an enthusiastic reader since the age of three. She likes to combine books and travelling, and would find any city trip incomplete without a visit to one or (preferably) more local bookshops. What else could she do but contribute to Bookstore Guide?

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It's been a while since we've added an article and we have to say that we've been especially looking forward to this one. The whole idea came from our friend and Bookstore Guide contributor Cristina Cona who sent us a link to this great article about the history of blurbs which appeared in The Millions back in February.

blurbs pic1

Since this is not a typical article, as it wasn't written as such, instead of a proper introduction we offer you an excerpt from our email exchange:

Cristina to BSG: "Now, blurbs: I don’t know how you feel about them, but if there is ONE thing that puts me off buying a book it’s seeing, on its cover, the kind of gushing tripe that publishers feel they have to provide by way of a recommendation. You know, things like “magnificent”, “exquisite”, “dazzlingly evocative”, “utterly haunting”, when all they mean is “this book is OK”. My pet hates are “a tour de force” and “s/he writes like an angel”: oh PUH-LEEZ !!!"

In case you were wondering - we feel just the same... After a few funny emails we found out that Cristina's interest in this topic motivated her to create her very own Automatic Style Generator for Blurbs (ASGB) which will surely put many professional blurb writers out of work. So without further ado, we proudly present the utterly dazzling Automatic Style Generator for Blurbs in world premiere right here on Bookstore Guide! Does this sound too pompous? Well it should, this is an article about blurbs after all!

Automatic Style Generator for Blurbs

By combining any one of the six cells in the first column with any one of the six cells in each of the columns 2,3,4,5 and 6, you can generate the perfect blurb, time and time again. No need to read the books!

Exquisite, riveting, awesome. A masterpiece. An author of such monumental storytelling prowess, the only meaningful comparison we can draw is one with Tolstoy. Like him, X (insert name of author) is one of those (increasinglyrare) writers who manageto convey all the bewildering complexity of the world as we find it, with enviable poise, an unfailing ear for dialogue,and an unequalled lyric touch. This is the novel of the century. It will change your life in more ways than one.
An utterly dazzling page- turner. Faced with such a phenomenal accomplishment, one is irresistibly reminded of Proust. The same unerring touch, wealth of imaginative detail and seductive narrative impulse combine to fashion an indelible portrait of our times withan insider’s knowledge of what it really means to be alive. Nobody could write this stuff without a degree of awareness that borders on the divine.
Heart-stoppingly beautiful. X (insert name of author) writes like an angel. Reading this luscious, unputdownable book is akin to revisiting the best of Joyce. Both authors bring to the page a rare, lucid, gracious wisdom and a sharpness of textual exploration that enable them to a unique degree to handle (and celebrate) the most intractable challenges and existential concerns with a quiet power of description, an instinctive apprehension of the most finite nuances of behaviour, a sensitivity to compositional values, that literally bowl you over. This is one of contemporary literature’s most dazzling works ofgenius, staggering in its relentless focus on the postmodern Zeitgeist, yet intensely readable.
A stunning tour de force. Self-evidently a modern classic. It made me laugh and cry by turns until I could laugh and cry no more – a reaction I’d only ever had before when reading (or should I say: conversing with?) Nabokov. Such giants of literature never fail to conjure up a tirelessly magical atmosphere where the music of perfectly articulated rhythms and cadences unfolds to shed new and memorable light on life as a quest and on literature as a testament to the power of memory, with a mystically suffused, compassionate, in-depth exploration of what goes into the heart of human relationships. If you read only one book this year, do yourself a favour and make sure it is (insert title).
Brilliantly evocative, powerfully atmospheric. An amazing combination of richly multilayered texture and sublime delicacy - we hadn’t seen anything like it since George Eliot. You can feel her hand in the sheer narrative drive, the dazzling fluidity of style, the seemingly effortless ability to conjure up a feast of epiphanies that instantly enlighten, disturb and enthrall with astounding turns of phrase such as will inevitably resonate with the reader as infinitely precious verbal dreamscapes. I could truthfully say that I hadn’t enjoyed a novel so much in years. But then, this is more than just a novel: it is the place where heaven and earth meet. Or collide.
Compelling to a nail-biting degree, and almost unbearably moving. So masterfully written, so rich and vibrant a tale; such an unerring gift for characterisation; such astonishing insights into what it means to construct an ethos for the 21st century – a talent to match the mindset of Musil, in whose footsteps X (insert name of author) follows, not last in his/her magnificent knack for dialogue and uncanny power to weave a seamless texture of images that engage the reader’s emotions to an almost supernatural degree, spinning a wistful, consistent parable with a refreshing mixture of lightness and meaning, zest and impish humour, elegance and meticulous crafting. Reading these miraculous pages, you’ll have to remind yourself to keep breathing.