Top Ten Tuesday: Bookstores/Libraries I’ve Always Wanted to Visit

Thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl for another great Top Ten Tuesday!

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Gladstone’s Library, Wales

You can stay at the library overnight. Who wouldn’t want to live in a library?

Cook & Book, Brussels

It’s chic and modern-looking, but with a touch of whimsy with over 800 books are suspended from the ceiling.

The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles

This is perhaps the most whimsical bookstore on this list. With its twisted book towers, tunnels, and arches, it’s probably one of the coolest too. There’s also entire rooms dedicated to various genres. We love the idea of stepping into an entire room filled with sci-fi or poems.

Bookworm, Beijing

It’s a popular chain of bookstores in Beijing and it brings together authors from around the world every year for a book festival. Plus, the lights in one location look like floating candles (think the Great Hall in Harry Potter).

Bart’s Books, Ojai

The largest outdoor bookstore in the United States all started because a guy named Richard couldn’t stop collecting books. His collection outgrew his home so he built shelves and started putting them on the sidewalk. He put a can outside asked people to pay for the books on the honor system. It snowballed and eventually became the largest outdoor bookstore in the U.S.

City Lights Books, San Francisco

It was the first paperback-only bookstore in the United States when it was founded in 1953 and the fact that it’s still going strong today makes us want to make the trek out to San Fran.

Powell’s City of Books, Portland Oregon

Known for being the world’s largest independent bookstore, Powell’s has always been a dream destination for us. Pete worked at the Strand bookstore in New York for a year, and many think of it as the sister bookstore of Powell’s. We’ll probably need several days to fully explore this one! And several shipping boxes…

Livraria Lello, Portugal

You might know this library as “the one with the staircase”—there’s a beautiful staircase in the middle of this historic bookstore in Portugal. Though many of the books are in Portuguese, there are some in English as well.

Saint James Hotel Library Bar, Paris

Tucked in a 19th-century chateau, this bar has over 12,000 books packed into a truly luxurious setting. We probably can’t afford the hotel (or the drinks), but maybe we could get a couple of glasses of water here!

Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice

This bookstore is famous for the fact that it floods once a year—don’t worry, the books are kept in bathtubs and gondolas to keep them dry.