Best bookshop in the world?

[K.C. Blackbyrn]

Ophelia's Books in Fremont, WA is a pretty cool place. I don't have any pictures, but it's got a neat spiral staircase leading to an underground floor for the fiction books.

http://www.opheliasbooks.com/Welcome_to_Ophelias_Books.html

 

[Windshadow]

I agree with Powell’s Books, Portland, USA as one of the best and beautiful bookshops in the world. It is the largest actually!

I just had a lovely box of old used hard cover SF&F sent to me as a gift from an old girlfriend of 30 years ago (I guess as a sort of thank you for putting her and her number 4 husband up here on the Maine coast for a week).
Totally unexpected and in the box was this little extra. and as it was not on the packing slip I wonder if it was a gift add-on from Powell's Books due to the size of the Gift (12 books) I have sent my friend a thank you note inquiring about it but no reply yet.

Powell's Books Portland is a class act and several times I have found what I needed with them when searching for books I needed.
Recommended strongly

 

[Everett D]

When we were kids, the Children's Bookshop in Beecroft was mysterious and magical, but I'd be scared to go back there now...what if it's small and crap when you're an adult?

Gould's, now, that's probably still cool. Found a dry, dead mouse there once.

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/people-bob-gould-rip.html

 

[Av Demeisen]

Totally unexpected and in the box was this little extra. and as it was not on the packing slip I wonder if it was a gift add-on from Powell's Books due to the size of the Gift (12 books) I have sent my friend a thank you note inquiring about it but no reply yet.

Powell's Books Portland is a class act and several times I have found what I needed with them when searching for books I needed.
Recommended strongly

Hmm. Isn't legalized recreational marijuana a fact now in Oregon?

 

[Windshadow]

recreational marijuana is legal here in Maine too. it sure is a lot stronger than what we had back in the late 60s when I was in college

 

[nomadman]

I'm a big fan of Skoob, Judd's, Henry Pourdes and Any Amount, all in London. Foyles, The Waterstones in Picadilly, The Waterstones in Gower Street and The London Review opposite the British Museum all get my vote as well.

 

[Jonathan Scott Griffin]

Out of the numerous bookstores that I've been to, there are three that I adore, or I should say two that I adore and once I used to adore.

Waterstones in both London and in Birmingham England is amazing. It's the biggest bookstores, from what I understand, - though correct me if i'm wrong - in Europe. However, Powell's, the largest bookstore in the US, in Portland Oregon is even better, just because I'm a sucker for used and rare books. That said, I can go back to them for days on end. If I could take a sleeping bag in there to sleep, particularly in Powell's, I would. The other bookstore I was fond of was Sam Weller's books in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was an amazing little downtown bookstore that also carried obscure and rare books. Sadly, when they moved to a smaller building they had to get rid of a lot of their inventory. Thus the store lost a lot of what made it special.

 

[Hobbit]

Been to the Waterstones in London & Birmingham, Jonathan. Really liked the Birmingham one: lots of little nooks and crannies to sit in, though the Fantasy/SF section wasn't huge.

Think they've moved to a new one now, though.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Transreal Fiction in Edinburgh is a bookshop dedicated to science fiction & fantasy. They also sell signed copies of books by Scotland-based authors like Ken Macleod, Charles Stross, etc. In 2011 Charles Stross wrote the following article in the Guardian: My favourite independent bookshop.

I have ordered there twice through the website, though I have never been to Edinburgh.
https://transreal.wordpress.com
https://twitter.com/transrealshop

 

[Hobbit]

I've bought from them online as well, Av. They were pretty good, if I remember right.

 

[Av Demeisen]

Yes, friendly owner, good packaging. I ordered Ken MacLeod's latest, Emergence, this week.

 

[Hobbit]

It's all about the packaging.....

 

[Vince W]

I love the Waterstone's at Piccadilly. It's one of my favourites, but I grew up in Toronto, Canada and I most fondly remember Bakka Books on Queen St. W. It was a pretty run down area at the time and to find this shop dedicated to SFF both new and used was amazing. They've moved and changed names since, but I still have one of their bookmarks stuck in a book somewhere.