In transports: what's your favourite bookshop abroad?

What a delight it is to wander in a bookshop in a foreign land, even if one can't read most of the books on sale.

In transports: what's your favourite bookshop abroad?

What a delight it is to wander in a bookshop in a foreign land, even if one can't read most of the books on sale.


Stairway to literary heaven... at Lello in Porto.

So we're back here at the desk so hastily left on the 24th, only now with the long stretch of winter before us. Luckily I don't live in Finland, where my friends often discuss the need to hibernate, but you have to admit, everyone needs a little pick-me-up in January.

I know one I will be taking is a trip to Lello in Porto - a fascinating and daring shop with high wooden shelves and a staircase that looks like it will move when you step on it. It's a gothic paradise with many floors and gives you a distinct feeling that you are stepping out of reality to find books you would usually never consider picking up amongst its art nouveau interiors.

It is a pleasure that many of us indulge in when abroad, even if most of the books are not in a language we can read (I like to buy my favourite foreign novels in their original published form).

So here's to the mesmerising bookshop abroad, the haven from the low light and drizzle of January. It's such a true pleasure to pop in, find one of the many little cubby-holes or sit in the top floor cafe and literally disappear.

There must be so many bookshops like this in the world. The Guardian has mapped some of the picks in the UK. I wonder what other gems are out there waiting to be discovered.

PS: One little snippet about this bookshop: before JK Rowling started to write the Harry Potter series she, too, was a resident of Porto. I bet she used to hang out here. Perhaps, along that swirling staircase, there are still specks of inspirational writer dust that might launch another fantastical episode in another person's life.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/jan/03/transportedwhatsyourfavouri
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