Best bookshops in Berlin

Leave your e-book readers on the plane, because Berlin is chockablock with hardcopy. Second-hand bookshops survive in this city, where rents are low and enthusiasm for thrift runs high.

Streets here are often bookended with bookshops, providing an index to neighbourhood life; the more involved ones put themselves at the heart of the locality with tailored selections and in-house events. In addition to our top picks, there are small antiquarian shops all over the place, and many have at least a shelf or two of English books. Good starting points for book hunts are the areas around Knesebeckstraße and Pestalozzistraße in Charlottenburg, Winterfeldtstraße in Schöneberg and Kollwitzstraße and Husemannstraße in Prenzlauer Berg: follow the trail from musty back rooms to pristine shelves of artists' books.

Best for English-language

Dialogue Books

This is Berlin’s best boutique for new English-language titles. In summer 2011 the shop moved from its former home in Prenzlauer Berg down to a new space, a neat room off Kottbusser Damm. Its 3,000 titles are selected with curatorial nous and convey an infectious appetite for reading on the part of proprietor Sharmaine Lovegrove. A wall of shelves down one side of the shop presents fiction, cookery books, current affairs and cultural studies, while small shelves float across the opposite wall like thought bubbles and are devoted to specific themes – be it Berlin-based literature, classics texts or history. There is a judicious array of journals and magazines on contemporary art, architecture, design, literature and food culture, and a regular programme of author talks focusses on new writing.

Dialogue Books, Schönleinstraße 31, 10967 Berlin (030 6273 5111, www.dialoguebooks.org). U8 Schönleinstraße. Open 11am-7pm Mon-Sat.

Marga Schoeller Bücherstube

This bookseller off gracious Savignyplatz in the west of Berlin was founded in 1930 and won renown when owner Marga shook a fist at the Nazi regime by cutting all related texts from her shelves. Licensed to sell English books since the post-war years, it now boasts, alongside German books, one of Berlin’s most interesting English-language sections. Having relocated in the 1970s down the road from its original Ku’damm spot, the shop displays English books in an inviting alcove; the range is special, as it goes easy on the classics and further than most to provide new non-fiction titles, from philosophical and political texts to theatre studies.

Marga Schoeller Bücherstube, Knesebeckstrasse 33, 10632 Berlin (030 881 1112, www.margaschoeller.de). S-bahn Savignyplatz. Open 9.30am-7pm Mon-Wed; 9.30am-8pm Thur, Fri; 9.30am-5pm Sat.

Shakespeare and Sons

Nothing to do with Paris’ famous Shakespeare and Co., this new kid on the Prenzlauer Berg block is the offshoot of a duo of bookshops in Prague. As with its Czech big brothers, this branch supplies French as well as English books, both new and used, in every genre, but its unique selling point has to be the range of Eastern European literature available in English translations. It is a cute space, and encourages browsing, with the graphic novels section presented cover-out. On spending €50 all purchases thereafter have a 10% off.

Shakespeare and Sons, Raumerstraße 36, 10437 Berlin (030 4000 3685, www.shakesbooks.de). U2 Eberswalder straße. Open 11am-7pm Mon-Sat.

Best for second-hand

Fair Exchange

This snug bookshop adds to the charms of the Graefekiez neighbourhood in Kreuzberg. It’s a two-roomed affair, stacked from floor to ceiling: enter through a preliminary room of German books and from here the second room contains a big selection of second-hand English-language books. Among a full range of genres, including more expensive hardbacks and rare editions, there is an emphasis on literature, with shelves of classics and crime paperbacks.

Fair Exchange, Dieffenbachstraße 58, 10967 Berlin (030 694 4675, www.fair-exchange.de). U8 Schönleinstraße. Open 11am-7pm Mon-Fri; 10am-6pm Sat.

Another Country

A second-hand bookshop with legendary status and a whiff of bohemia: Another Country is a window into a Kreuzberg of the past. Its proprietor, Sophia Raphaeline, established the shop at a time before the area was laden with the cafes, restaurants and shops that now dominate Bergmannstrasse. The set of rooms have the feel of a private study, with homely blue paintwork, piles of books laid out on tables and a fridge for beers; a projector in the back room is set up for film nights and the shop also hosts quizzes and dinners. Another Country operates a quasi-library system, whereby certain books can be returned for a partial refund – it’s a social service which encourages scarcer titles to stay in circulation. Although a rather fiddly system, it’s good for those who are on the move, short of pocket or low on storage space.

Another Country, Riemannstraße 7, 10961 Berlin (030 6940 1160, www.anothercountry.de). U7 Gneisenaustraße. Open 11am-8pm Mon-Fri; 11am-4pm Sat. 

Saint George’s

Just off genteel Kollwitz Platz, St George’s has been flying the flag for English literature since 2003. Founded by Paul and Daniel Gurner, a pair of twin brothers from England, the shops harks back to the heyday of London’s Charing Cross Road. It’s a sweet spot, where leather sofas coax readers to peruse at leisure. Housing around 10,000 English-language books, there's lots in the way of biographies and contemporary fiction, and it is reliable for used books being in good condition. There is a regular turnover of classics, thanks to the shop’s policy of buying back books for in-store credit at half the original sale price.

Saint George’s, Wörther straße 27, 10405 Berlin (030 8179 8333, www.saintgeorgesbookshop.com). U1 Senerfelderplatz, M2 Marienburger straße. Open 11am-8pm Mon-Fri; 11am-7pm Sat.

Best for art and magazines

Do you read me?

This hidey-hole in Mitte is a hub for design aficionados. It stocks a great variety of quality, international specialist magazines and journals – hip, academic, obscure, gorgeous – about art, architecture, fashion and cultural issues, from typography to philosophy. Neat, packed and content-rich, browsing in here is a more-ish experience; book placements are often made in consultation with the shop’s set of devoted customers.

Do you read me?, Auguststraße 28, 10117 Berlin (030 6954 9695, www.doyoureadme.de). U8 Rosenthaler Platz. Open 10am-7.30pm Mon-Sat.

Walther König

Overlooking Museum Island, this is one of several stores in Berlin managed by the leading art publisher Walter König – you can find other König outlets in the city’s museums, from the Hamburger Bahnhof to Martin Gropius Bau and the Museum für Fotografie (where, natürlich, there is an excellent choice of books on photography). This bookshop feels like a luxurious library: behind its glass façade, you’ll find a high-spec cavern of desirable books. A suite of rooms have been knocked through and floor-to-ceiling shelves offer contemporary exhibition catalogues, luxe coffee table volumes and older, harder to find publications. 

Walter König, An der Museumsinsel, Burgstraße 27, 10178 Berlin (030 2576 0980, www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de). S-bahn Hackesher Markt. Open 10am-8pm Mon-Sat.

Motto

You have to know what you’re looking for with this one, tucked away as it is in a disused frame factory in a courtyard just off Schlesisches Tor. Motto is Swiss by origin and Swiss in its super design consciousness. Besides shops in Zurich, Wiels and Vancouver, this Kreuzberg branch was the first permanent one, opened in 2008, and remains the most inviting. A softly lit array of fanzines, back-issues, artist’s books, posters, rare print-runs and cult classics are spread in a come-hither way across a long central table; altogether some 3,000 changing titles are carried by the store. Look out for book launches and evening events.

Motto, Skalitzer straße 68, 10997 Berlin (030 7544 2119, www.mottodistribution.com). U1 Schlesisches Tor. Open 12noon-8pm Mon-Sat.

PRO qm

This airy, strip-lit bookshop has been put together with care, and the layout encourages customers to feel like guests in a tastefully designed home. The interior of the shop revolves around a skeletal structure and books and magazines are arranged in inviting piles on tables and steps around the rest of the space. It reflects the interests of its owners, the artist Katja Reichard and Jesko Fezer, a Professor of architectural theory. Together they present an expert and urbane selection of new and used books and periodicals on architecture, art, design, pop culture, urban life and cultural theory in composed surroundings. The range includes a selection of English titles.

PRO qm, Almstadtstraße 48-50, 10119 Berlin (030 2472 8520, www.pro-qm.de). U2 Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Open 12noon-8pm Mon-Sat.

Specialist

Otherland

Otherland is the mothership of Sci-Fi in Berlin. It landed on a street just off Bergmannstraße in 1998 and has since become a draw for addicts of space travel, epic fantasy, dungeons and dragons and nuclear apocalypses. Run by real fans, with knowledge and passion, they promise to order in whatever niche fiction you are after, but in the meantime, there is a whole back wall devoted to English-language novels – classics, comics and the latest fiction.
   
Otherland, Bergmannstraße 25, 10961 Berlin (030 6950 5117, www.otherland-berlin.de). U7 Gneisenaustraße. Open 11am-7pm Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm Sat.

Berlin Story

A bookstore that provides a compass point for navigation of the city – its history, geography and tales. You won’t find a better selection of Berlin-related books in German and English: everything from novels with Berlin settings to memoirs, picture books and biographies. Come here to stock up on mementos, educational, quirky or naff – besides servicing researching pleasures, it offers souvenirs of the t-shirt, poster and DVD variety.

Berlin Story, Unter den Linden 40, 10117 Berlin (030 2045 3842, www.berlin-
story.de). U6 Französische straße. Open 10am-7pm daily.

Bibliotheca-Culinaria Kochbuchantiquariat

Culinary folk, drop your wooden spoons and leave the dog a juicy bone. This charming lower-ground shop holds 15,000 titles of antique cookbooks on its shelves, making it one of the largest selections in Germany. Expect a few toothsome platefuls in English, as well as a fascinating array of source material charting changing trends in food illustration and book design. Your genial host Swen Kernemann-Mohr might even complement the browse with coffee and chats.

Bibliotheca-Culinaria Kochbuchantiquariat, Zehdenicker Straße. 16, 10119 Berlin (030 4737 7570, www.bibliotheca-culinaria.de). U8 Rosenthaler Platz. Open 11am-7pm Tue-Fri; 11am-4pm Sat.

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