Incredible book for Art / Design / Architecture. Possibly the most mesmerizing art and book store I…read morehave been to. It's a nice walk from downtown past the waterways. I arrived about 30 min before close before I had to travel to the next town the following day, so not too much time. I could have spent many wonderful hours here. Till next time!

Sautter + Lackmann is one of my favorite places in Hamburg to spend a few lonely hours. The…read morebookstore makes a focus on art, design and photography books, which range from pocket readers to coffee table editions. The amount of inspiring material in this large bookshop is close to unbelievable; rows and rows, shelves and shelves of books about anything and everything having to do with both historical and modern visual culture. Graphic designers will find their entire bookshelf toolkit here - with books ranging from typography to layouts, corporate identity to portfolios. Illustrators will find hard to find artist portfolios and illustration compilations from all over the world. Photographers will find books ranging from portfolios to mastering the digital darkroom, history of photography to books on every stream of photographic art. Sautter + Lackmann is easily a place to lose yourself in, so make sure you have at least an hour of your free time. They close on weekdays at 19:00, don't take credit cards, and accept EC for purchases over 15eu. Trust me, this is for your own good. If they would have accepted credit cards, I'd have to take up a job there to repay the debt.

Basically, a British corner shop removed from any small town in the UK and transplanted into…read moreHamburg. Pretty bloody essential, as one could go mad here having to drink German 'tea'. You can also pick up most of the ingredients for a full English breakfast, real crisps, and....wait for it... bitter! Yes indeed, for a paltry EUR3.60 you can savour a bottle of Theakston's Old Peculiar, a Tim Taylor's Landlord, or a Moorhouses' Old Speckled Hen. Makes living in Germany seem not half as bad really...

There's nothing like it anywhere in Hamburg: Robert Berridge's used bookshop selling only English…read morebooks. Mr. Berridge himself reminds me of a hobbit, and if hobbits were capable of living in complete chaos, they'd feel right at home in this shop. Overfilled, dusty and musty, the cheap (and mostly dangerously leaning) shelves are packed in no particular order with used books in English, in wildly varying states of decomposition. However, despite the haphazard state of his shelves, Mr. Berridge has surprised me time and time again by laying his hand on the book I'm looking for within seconds. If the shop were slightly cleaner and more organised, it'd get a five, but it's simply the only place to go for a large selection in Hamburg, so a three will have to do. As for the attached "English Foods" shop, I can't really judge. I've never been impressed enough with English cuisine to bother going in it, but I guess it'd be a comfort for poms over from the island.

if you are looking for english books this is your place!…read more you can also start reading in there because they have an armchair (or more). especially before the holidays this place is overcrowded! i didn't speak to the workers but i guess if they work in a book store they must be nice? i think thalia in general could have better books but that's just me. it's definitely the best bookstore in hamburg :)

Mrs. Lakeberg is rude and made our stay at the otherwise…read morenice Thalia bookstore very unpleasant. We recommend avoiding her since all she cares about is to get out of the shop in time. Customers she treats like little school kids. In customer and service friendly America she would have been fired on the spot. I also recommend reminding your customers kindly at least once ahead of time of your closing times. Do not patronize your customers. We are the most valuable asset you have.

Cohen's is a fantastic little bookshop just behind Knust on Sternstrasse. They stock a lot of…read morecoffee table material on art, architecture, design and what have you. In fact, we even found the bus stops designed by my friend V when we came! There is a small English section with a selection of classics and some modern stuff, but this is primarily a German-language shop.

The Thalia at Obernstrasse 50 is a fully inventoried, three level extravaganza of a book store. I…read morewas fortunate to find two paperbacks in there reasonably extensive English language section, which contains both hardbound and paperbacks. Any English-speaker in need of a novel should give this store a try. It's really worth the time and trouble caused by this crowded shopping area.

Odd that this shop hasn't been reviewed yet…read more Schanzenbuchhandlung is the classic in the area, with a nice mix of fiction and nonfiction, periodicals and a small books-on-CD selection. What makes this place special is the service and the politics: it's a very tolerable, very decent place to shop at, and - I imagine - to work at. Still another small, owner-run shop that manages to hold its own against amazon and the big chains.

The best 1st hand bookshop in the area. They have an interesting sectioning with e.g. USA, South…read moreAmerica, Spain, Benelux authors. Due to their location (and history?), you will also find 'leftist' books here on the Spanish Civil War, the colonial period of Germany and even an occasional Marx or Lenin. There is also a small section with books in Englishd