35+ Uniquely Designed Bookstores And Libraries That’ll Unite Book Lovers And Architects Alike

“There is no friend as loyal as a book,” Hemingway once said—which might explain why libraries and bookstores always feel like sacred ground for the chronically overstimulated.

Sure, you can buy a book online in 30 seconds or pirate a PDF like a gremlin, but there’s still nothing like walking into a space built entirely around stories. These places aren’t just shelves and silence—they’re weird, beautiful, sometimes accidentally haunted corners of the world where books live (and occasionally dominate the architecture).

Here are some of the most unique libraries and bookstores people have stumbled across—equal parts cozy, chaotic, and magical.

1. Corner Bookstore Selling Vintage Books In Buxton, A Market Town In High Peak, Derbyshire, England

2. Livraria Lello, Porto, Portugal

3. Used (Books) Bookstore In Edinburgh, Scotland

4. The Book Of Kells, Dublin, Ireland

5. Netherlands Bookstore

6. Perhaps One Of The Most Beautiful Bookstores In Europe, Cărturești Carusel, In Bucharest

7. Antlantis Books, Oia, Santorini, Greece

8. Snowy Book Stand In Madrid, Spain

9. Starfield Suwon Library, Suwon, South Korea

10. Haunted Bookshop, Cambridge, United Kingdom

11. Boston Public Library, Boston, United States

12. Bath Old Books, United Kingdom

13. Peabody Institute Library, United States

14. Istanbul University Library, Turkey

15. Cook&book, Brussels, Belgium

16. Trento, Italy

17. Library Of Congress, Washington, D.c., United States

18. Waterstones, Bradford, England

19. Atticos, Budapest, Hungary

20. Itap In A Bookstore, Osaka, Japan

21. The Norwegian Book Town

22. Shakespeare & Co Books, Paris, France

23. Jondi Shapour Library, Tehran, Iran

24. “Word On The Water” The Floating Bookshop On The Regent’s Canal, London, United Kingdom

25. Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris, France

26. Coziest Bookstore I’ve Ever Seen

27. The New York Public Library, New York, United States

28. Library Of Alexandria, Egypt

29. The Old Cincinnati Library Before Being Demolished, United States

30. The King’s Reference Library, Denmark

31. New Bookstore In Chengdu, China

32. Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

33. National Library Of The Czech Republic, Prague, Czechia

34. Stift Admont Bibliothek And Museum, Admont, Austria

35. Juristische Bibliothek, Munich, Germany

36. Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland

37. Chongqing Bookstore, China

38. Biblioteca Vasconcelos, Mexico City, Mexico