Flateyri Bookstore – Flateyri, Iceland - Atlas Obscura

Flateyri Bookstore

Flateyri, Iceland

The oldest bookstore in Iceland.  

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Located in a small fishing village in West fjords, this fourth-generation family-owned bookstore was established in 1914. They have kept track of every krona that has come through the store since their opening, displayed in old accounting books showcased throughout. Many of the store’s trappings have remained relatively untouched for more than a century. 

The bookstore sells new books by Icelandic authors, as well as old used books with inscriptions such as “Happy Christmas, from Mom and Dad, 1962,” along with copies of Spiderman and Tarzan comics from the 1980s and many other literary gems. 

Books are sold according to their weight, visitors are even encouraged to weigh books themselves utilizing the shop’s 100-year-old plus scale. Storekeeper Eythor Jóvonsson is the great-grandson of original owners Jón Eyjólfsson and Gudrún Arnbjarnardóttir.

When Eythor’s grandmother passed, they kept everything as she left it. Since then, the apartment next to the store has been turned into a museum.

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