8 Libraries and Bookstores I Want To Visit

Who doesn’t love a good bookstore or library? I mean, we all love them at least. My local library actually isn’t that bad. It has nearly every new release, it’s huge, it’s in the middle of a park so it has great views. Still, I got a case of wanderlust and need to visit more! This is not a complete list of stores and libraries I want to visit, but it has the ones that are at the top of my list! So, let’s go look at pretty bookshelves, shall we?

Ps; if any of you live in these areas and have visited them, share about your visit! Or, if you haven’t visited them, what are you doing?! Go!

Shakespeare and Company – Paris, France

Some of you have the wonderful regular opportunity to go to this historic bookstore. This bookstore has been around for 65 years, the building originally being a monastery. I just think it’s such a cute bookstore, to be honest, that’s pretty much the only reason. I mean, look at this interior:

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The Last Bookstore – Los Angeles, California

If any of you know where I live, you’re probably shaking your head at me for not just checking this one off the list already. I could technically go here whenever I want. I just have never made it (shame on me). I love all the set ups they do with their books – it’s very bookstagram worthy  😉

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Livraria Lello  – Porto, Portugal

The staircase, guys. That staircase is enough to get me to travel to Portugal. This bookstore is gorgeous. It wouldn’t even need to be a bookstore for me to want to come see this architecture. But then you look at the books and the thing is just a wonderful sight.

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Atlantis Books – Santorini, Greece

Greece is on my top 5 countries I want to visit as that is where my family is from. And this bookstore is the icing on the cake of an already beautiful place. I mean, look at where you can sit to read!

Drool. But you probably want to see inside too:

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Baroque Library – Prague, Czech Republic

The Baroque Library is part of the Clementinum (Klementinum), a collection of buildings like the astronomical tower and the meridian hall. I want to visit the entire thing, but since this is a post about libraries, I’m only sharing that one. I’ll let the photo do the talking.

The Walker Library of The History of Human Imagination – Ridgefield, Connecticut

Unfortunately, this is a private library in Jay Walker’s home. You have to be invited to tour this one. So, I’ll probably never get to visit it. Either way, I’m including it on the list because I love it. It even has artifacts from the original 1957 Russian Sputnik, and a 1699 atlas containing one of the first maps showing the sun as the center of the universe, not the Earth. Also, the blend of old and new in the design is stunning.

The Abbey Library of Admont – Admont, Austria

This library looks like it belongs in a fairytale. I just imagine a princess walking through this, don’t you? Maybe even Belle  😉  I’m not the only one who thinks this, either. Photographer Benjamin Von Wong took – quite literally – a fairytale photoshoot inside this library. You should look at his photos, they’re beautiful.

Trinity College Library – Dublin, Ireland

This is probably the first library that ever caught my eye making me want to visit it. It will probably even be the first one I cross off this list! The Long Room in the library is what drew me in,

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Are any of these are your bucket list? Have you already been to them? What other libraries or bookstores around the world do you want to visit? 

*Photos without a source underneath are found on the link provided to the library/bookstore website.