Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Favorite Bookstores OR Bookstores I’d Love to Visit. Having just returned from a one-week vacation during which I visited about five different bookstores, I feel like this topic is just perfect for me!
Some of my favorites are:
1. Borderlands Books (San Francisco, CA): An awesome independent bookstore that’s been around for 20+ years, specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I’ve attended some truly great events here — and fun fact: This bookstore is featured in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. How cool is that?
2. Green Apple Books (San Francisco, CA): A huge used book store that’s a San Francisco institution!
3. The Strand (New York, NY) — I don’t get to New York nearly as often as I’d like, but when I do go, a visit to The Strand is a must!
4. Title Wave Books (Anchorage, AK): I’ve managed to visit Title Wave Books (and how awesome is that name?) on two different trips to Anchorage. It’s a big, sprawling used book store — so much to look at and explore.
5. Book Worm (Boulder, CO): Another used book store that I’ve now been to twice. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but inside it’s an absolute maze of shelving and great books and weird, unusual finds. I could (and have) spent hours there!
6. Russell Books (Victoria, BC): Another terrific used book store that I stumbled upon once during a vacation. Are we detecting a theme yet? Hint: I can’t resist a great used book store!!
7. Sefer Ve Sefel (Jerusalem, Israel): I’m just amazed to discover that this bookstore still exists! I remember going there to stock up on American paperbacks while studying abroad in Israel many, many (MANY!) years ago.
And bookstores I’d love to visit are:
8. Powell’s Books (Portland, OR): I mean, Powell’s is just legendary! I’ve never been to Portland, but I’d very much like to get there someday… and if I do, this store will be a must-see.
9. Shakespeare and Company (Paris): Dreaming big here! A trip to Paris + books??? What could be better?
10. Poisoned Pen (Phoenix, AZ): I’ve been to an author event sponsored by this store, but have never actually been inside. Poisoned Pen is the local bookstore for a few favorite authors, including Diana Gabaldon, and is an amazing source for signed editions of new releases.
Have you been to any of my favorites? What do you love most about your favorite bookstores?
If you wrote a TTT post, please share your link!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Yes! I have the Strand on my list too!
https://www.abookiesbooks.com/bookstores-i-love-want-to-visit/
It’s such an amazing place to visit!
The Strand has been such a popular pick this week! I hope we all get to see it someday.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-fictional-bookstores-id-love-to-visit/
I haven’t been to New York since before the pandemic, but I hope to get there in the next few months… and if I do, I’ll definitely be stopping by the Strand!
Such a fun post idea! The only one I’ve been to is the Strand. Maybe I’ll get to some others someday!
I love finding cute indie bookstores whenever I travel — and shelves of used books are absolute heaven!
I’ve been to Powell’s a couple times – it’s huge and as amazing as you might imagine. There’s something about Green Apple Books that appeals to me – it seems inviting. Hope you have a great week and find time to read a good book.
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/ttt-bookstores-to-visit
Green Apple can be really fun! I sometimes take a bag or so of books over there to sell as well, and can always find plenty to use my store credits on. 🙂
Green Apple Books is so cute!
It’s definitely a fun place to visit, and the vibe is really positive.
Shakespeare and Company would be such a dream to visit! Green Apple Books looks so cozy. Something about it screams fall shopping.
Shakespeare and Company would absolutely be wonderful!
Someone else had The Strand and Shakespeare and Company on their list today. How fun. I love hearing about other bookstores. Thanks for sharing.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2022/10/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-places-where-i.html
Bookstores are definitely my happy place!
Shakespeare and Company is like dream tier vacation material! 🤩
https://bookbabenails.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/top-ten-tuesday-bookstores-id-love-to-visit/
Right??? I mean, I would jump at the chance to go to Paris, and adding a great bookstore on top of that?
I’d love to go to Powells someday! I order books from them sometimes online, but it’s just not the same. And I actually got to go to Shakespeare & Company when I went to Paris with my sisters several years ago. It was awesome! 😀
Ah, you’re so lucky to have been to Shakespeare & Company! That sounds like a dream trip for sure!
I’d love to visit Powell’s someday and I forgot about Shakespeare and Company. I’d love to go there too. 😀
My TTT
Dream vacation — travel the world visiting awesome bookstores!
OMG, I never thought anyone would have Sefer Ve Sefel on their list. I live in Jerusalem, and I’m glad you liked it. Sadly, it is one of the only English language book stores left, and I haven’t been back for years. It is right in the middle of downtown, and I really have no reason to go to the area. But you know what… maybe I’ll make the effort to get there, now that I can park near the light railway and take that into the city (because parking there is IMPOSSIBLE)!
I remember back when it had a little cafe attached, which I don’t think exists anymore. It was such a treat to visit this store! I guess otherwise there’s just Steimatzky’s, but I always found their books too expensive to really consider.
There is another chain of book stores in Israel, but they are also expensive. Plus, there are no real libraries in Israel with any amount of books in English since the British Council closed all of their libraries. This is part of the reason why I started my blog – so I could get ARCs of novels!
Oh, and when we were last in Paris, we made a point of visiting Shakespeare & Co. The day we went they had an event on, and had to come back the next day. But it was worth the wait!
That’s awesome! If I ever get a chance to get to Paris, I will absolutely visit. 🙂
Awesome list! Poisoned Pen and Powell’s are two I’d love to get to myself😁
Someday, I hope!
There’s a little used bookstore in Reykjavík called Bókin that I loved. It’s crammed so full of books that they’re stacked up on the floor and overflowing the shelves. I didn’t even care that I couldn’t read the titles. Leakey’s Books in Inverness, Scotland was great, too. It’s a used bookstore in an old church. They didn’t have the fireplace going when I was there (it was summer), but it was still so cozy, even with the super high ceiling.
But mu favorite used bookshop is my local one, where I know the whole staff and they know me. I’ve been going there since before I even moved here.
That’s fabulous, having a local used bookshop. There used to be a small one near me that I went to constantly, but sadly they closed some years ago.