**Newly opened and currently open til 6pm but they are looking to expand their hours shortly. If…read moreyou're unsure about opening hours and you want to visit, I recommend firing off a tweet to @SECONDHOMELDN ** Popped in to Libreria last night for a quick reconnaissance mission. New independent bookshops aren't exactly ten a penny. It also happened to be World Book Day, I have just realised. It was meant to be. I love how it looks from the outside. Like a portal to another world. You go down Hanbury Street, think you must've missed it and then...suddenly it's there. Stylish black shopfront with a nice inviting glow. This was only a very quick visit but I like how they do things in Libreria. First, I have to note that there was a Riga RP-1 record player with Velvet Underground & Nico on the turntable so...good start. No espresso bar here. No mobiles allowed. Comfy seating and little nooks to sit down and check out a book. Tick tick tick. Sally, Libreria's director, introduced herself to me and explained how things were laid out. Very friendly and helpful. Books are largely organised alphabetically, fiction on the left and nonfic on the right. However, within that, books are clustered into themes or ideas, in order to promote interesting combinations of books nestling next to each other. Great idea. Pure A-Z is so 2015. Also, they have asked celebs to do a mini-curation of their favourite books. Shami Chakrabarti's faves are currently on display. I think the idea is to change everything round every quarter. Events are also gonna happen here. I dutifully added my email to the mailing list on the front desk. Waterstones can do one.

A quaint independent bookstore in the eastern part of London…read more https://prashantmudgal.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/the-cost-of-living/

A great place to eavesdrop on intellectual conversations between the shopkeeper and the oldies…read morewho've been coming here for years. Minus one star 'cause it's so dusty you can barely breathe. Guess that's what happens when you're all historical and whatnot.

This quaint second hand book shop has an admirable range of books (19, 000!) from first editions,…read morerare finds to the academic sort. Conveniently located only a short walk from Soho as well as Leicester Square tube, Any Amount of Books is a safe haven to escape to from the busy streets of central London. They sell books as cheap as a pound to thousands. The choice is immense. If you go to their website you can see the books they sell and see if anything catches your fancy.

Best bookstore in London for language books (Celtic, German, English, Italian, Spanish, French,…read moreHebrew, Arabic, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Dutch, etc.!!) and it has a cafe upstairs as well as a huge kids books area.

In 2018, after 115 years of independent bookselling, then-Chairman Christopher Foyle and the Board…read moreof Directors sold the company to Waterstones, with the proviso that the Foyles name must endure. Based on our recent visit, let's now call this place a chain on steroids. I just wonder how much the inevitable Corporate culture has robbed the old independent Foyles of its soul. Gayle and I spend a fair amount of time on various floors and sections. I found a nice Judaica book, a BBC publication for an upcoming PROMS program, and some filing folders. Gayle found a book she was looking for and a gift for back home. It was a fun and good outing, but not a great one. The place was clean and shiny, and with attentive and helpful employees. That's good and sometimes not. And if given more time, I'd would have preferred to be in a dusty independent specialty bookseller.

When I have a break in-between lectures I normally come here to dream of all the books I wish I…read morecould buy! They also do amazing stationary and cards. I sometimes buy books from here if I need it in a hurry. But although they do 3 for 2 offers on books, the prices are just too expensive for me as a student. They also do book clubs here, and also a children's reading club every week. It really is a lovely shop.

I went to Pages of Hackney to buy a present for a friend of mine who is a woman…read more The person who served me (a woman in her mid-30s with long black hair) suggested a new book about feminism. I said my friend wouldn't read a book about that subject. Well - the clerk didn't take that lightly and said that no woman is uninterested in feminism. And it was probably me not liking the subject. For the following 5 minutes, she behaved incredibly grumpy and was of no help. Ultimately, she went behind the counter and stopped helping me in the most unprofessional fashion. I didn't give her nasty provocations any space and kept doing my thing. After all, I was there for my friend. Eventually, I found an interesting title, paid and left. On my way out, I noticed another book in the window that I thought would have been a much better choice. So I went straight back in and asked the lady if she knew anything about the book. Unfortunately, she didn't. So, I grabbed my phone and checked the reviews online. The woman didn't miss the opportunity to be nasty once again. And in a very snobbish and pseudo-intellectual way, she said, "Oh wow! So you trust reviews on Google?" YO! I JUST ASKED YOU TO GIVE ME YOUR REVIEW OF THE BOOK, AND YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THAT. Of course, I will trust the reviews of a thousand people who read the book over your bloody ignorance. Don't you think? GROW UP, GIRL. I know it's hard. But it would help if you make an effort. Grow the f* up!

Great bookshop. I went there for an event with the author Owen Jones and for £3 you get an…read moreinteresting evening topped off by a glass (or glasses, as some guests had refills) of wine. Afterwards a friend of the owner so very convincingly raved about what a good book 'We need to talk about Kevin' is that I left with a second hand copy of said book. The staff were all very friendly and lovely and made everyone feel welcome. They have a great selection of books, a special mention goes to the extensive travel book section the owner is apparently a well-travelled bloke and it shows. It is the kind of place you want to return to not because you really need a book but just because you want to support such wonderful independent shops and simply enjoy being in a shop with friendly staff who know what they are talking about and are happy to help.

The girlfriend likes to cook. I couldn't care less about it…read more Today she asked me to buy her "The Jamie Oliver" cookbook. It was on special offer ,8.99 which is a damn good price because it is usually 25.00. As I type this, she is poured over the cookbook and I am utterly amazed how anyone finds cooking interesting. Waterstones Finchley also has a good business section where I like to read about Internet marketing and SEO. The girlfriend is deeply studying Jamie and has expressed an interest in a colander. This is freaking me out.

This waterstones is very small but for it's size it's so well stocked! It's always very tidy and…read morethere's even chairs for you to sit and look at books which you don't expect in a store of this size. The staff are always friendly and willing to help and if they don't have what you want they're always willing to order it in for you and will always do their best to help you. It obviously doesn't compare to the bigger waterstones that you can visit if you go into central London but it's still a nice little shop.

Great bookstore!…read more The selection is well-curated and there is something for everyone in here. The owners are friendly, knowledgeable, and happy to offer recommendations. Definitely worth a visit for anyone into books!!

Really, a lovely little bookshop with a long-standing history in this area. Where it could have…read moresuccumbed to the temptation to sell cool books to all the cool people that pass through this street (y'know how Fopp does it - bit of Orwell, bit of Camus, bit o' Kafka), they actually got a really well-stocked selection of fiction. The kind of fiction you've always wanted to read, or thought you should be reading. like Proust? And they do pretty greetings cards. There is a standard section on design, with big coffee table books about brazillian architecture or pictures of industrial decline. You do know them ones. But that's ok, their local history selection is beautiful and really appropriate for Brick Lane, where it would be easy to forget what it looked like last year. This bit's got nice books on the area's radical history, the stories of the Jewish presence in the area (I'd been looking for a Litvinoff book for ages) and the struggles against fascism and the National Front in London's East End. Which I felt really ties it to the area. It's definitely worth coming in 2 Eastside Books for a browse...

A cute little shop in station road, north chingford. Holds an unbelieveably large and varied stock…read morefor it's size. The staff are friendly and helpful and will order in books on request if they can. The prices aren't particularly 'bargain' prices but there are a few products you wouldn't find cheaper even online. The shop is quite small however, so it's not always easy to find what you want and it does get cramped with only a few customers.

Brilliant shop, been around for years, so doesn't sell the usual 'bargain' books, but has some real…read moregems. Big section on local history too. Highly recommend

A proper bookshop...but more importantly, and independent one!…read more I really like this place and am so happy that they still exist despite the convenience of online shopping. But it's actually at shops like this where I get inspired for a next book. I'm pretty much fed up with the personalisation of Amazon; while they probably know what I like, they cannot tell me what I might also like. And this is where the independent book sellers like The Stoke Newington Bookshop have a real margin: they have passionate and friendly staff who love to read themselves and they in turn can recommend their customers something totally unique...as long as you're willing to let them take you to undiscovered territory.

This large and popular bookstore is a good place to pick up a weekend's worth of reading. I find…read morebookshops cozy places to browse around in, and I enjoyed the experience of this small but well stoked local bookstore. Frequented by many of the literati that live in the whereabouts of Stoke Newington, this spacious store also hosts book readings by local authors, and an occasional poetry night. They have a good range of children's books, as well as several magazines on arcane and current subjects. I found an interesting philosophy journal here, with short articles on the most challenging ideas of our times by eminent philosophers. Another addition to the overflowing bookshelf!