10 Books about Bookshops
There is not a lot we love in life more than a book about books or bookshops. Here are 10 of our favourites!
This is my ultimate favourite book about bookshops, although my edition is a little bit dated now and some of the bookshops no longer exist. Descriptions of bookshops paired with gorgeous pictures and interviews with their owners, including bookshops from all around the world.
A gorgeous book of letters between American Helene Hanff, and her bookseller at Marks & Co, 84 Charing Cross Road. Their friendship develops over 20 years of book ordering and recommendation, but by the time she made it to England her bookseller, Frank Doel, had sadly died.
this is the first in a series of diaries by Shaun Bythell, who owns The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland's book town. They are hilarious and fascinating, filled with information about the ins and outs of acquiring and selling second hand books, as well as the idiosyncracies of the various staff and friends who pass through the bookshop.
Once upon a time, London's Charing Cross Road was home to many different types of indie bookshops, including the Silver Moon Bookshop, a feminist bookshop that I am so sad I never got to visit. This amazing memoir by co-founder of the bookshop Jane Cholmeley documents the fight they had on their hands to open in the first place, and takes us through the incredible history of the bookshop from start to finish.
Sylvia Beech is the original founder of iconic Paris based bookshop Shakespeare and Company. This tiny little memoir tells us all about her time running the bookshop, how she ended up becoming James Joyce's publisher, and her friendships with many other giants of literature at the time.
Lots of you may know our regular haunt, Word on the Water, but this memoir is about a different bookshop on a boat! Set up back in 2009, Sarah Henshaw talks about the ins and outs of opening a bookshop and running it in such an unconventional space. The Book Barge didn't have a permanent home and instead moved about the country, and is now located in France. If you're interested in how to start a bookshop, this is a great one to read!
'Can I just leave my child here while I pop to Tesco?' and other such gems that booksellers the world over will probably recognise, alongside a trove of other, more off the wall things customers have said in bookshops, by bookseller, booktuber and author (of The Bookshop Book) Jen Campbell. There is a second volume of this as well and they both guarantee you to be laughing almost immediately - probably hysterically if you've ever worked in retail.
this is more about the joy of hunting for things in bookshops than it is about any specific bookshop. As a person who is always on the hunt for additions to my Chalet School and Noel Streatfield collections, I really related to Nicholas Royle's quest for the Picador classics with white spines, which he searches for through second hand bookshops and charity shops across the country. It's an interesting look at different bookshops along the way!
This is the book I wish I'd written. After the covid pandemic, Robin Ince decided to tour the indie bookshops of the UK, visiting 100 of them, or as many as possible. He writes about his experiences visiting each one - experiences which were vividly brought back to me when I accidentally began a bookshop crawl route at Mount Florida Books in Glasgow during a football match (please read the book and you'll see exactly what I mean). This book is a joy, and if you love bookshops you'll definitely want to add it to your possibility pile. I re-read it regularly.
I bought this on our members bookshop crawl in Hay on Wye this year, and it is incredibly interesting. Richard Booth's legacy (Hay on Wye, the World's first Book Town) is incredible, so I sort of expected him to be incredible to, and he was in lots of ways, but definitely not unflawed, and often not particularly nice. This book is very interesting to read and find out all about the man himself as well as the foundation of Hay as a book town.
And a bonus one about a publisher
Publisher Not Found: A Decade of Disruption, 404 Ink: 2016 - 2026 by Heather McDaid & Laura Jones-Rivera
I'm actually just starting this, but 404 Ink were very close to my heart as they started their publisher the same year that I launched both Bookshop Crawl UK, and my indie only subscription box Ninja Book Box. This one is the final book they published, and the last one in their gorgeous 'inklings' series, which are a series of little tiny books, each focusing on a different subject. They are very cute and very collectible, and this one is all about how 404 ink was founded, run and eventually ended.
As always, the links if you would like to purchase books from this list, go to Bookshop.org and are affiliate, meaning that we get a small commission and so does an indie bookshop of your choice (except for Publisher not Found, which, ironically, can't be found).
I love making lists, especially bookish ones! You can find our 10 favourite UK Book Podcasts here, and please let me know any other book related subjects you'd like a list about!
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