It took me three weeks or so but I have determined which are my favourite bookshops in Paris now. Conveniently they are around the corner from one another. (M Odeon)
View Larger Map and both are second hand which is useful considering budgetary constraints.
In no particular order:
Berkeley Books
This seemingly small shop has a wonderful selection, fiction sections for hardcover/trade paperbacks and A format with first editions and all the important authors scattered throughout. The order of the books is refreshing considering some other second hand bookshops visited and the quality is high. The prices are perhaps more expensive that in Sydney, for instance, with a small format paperback costing around 6euros but books generally are expensive here so the price does not seem unreasonable.
And they swap or buy your old books, in case it comes to that. The owner/operator is a grizzled American man with a fittingly white beard. My biggest concern was leaving with less than five books.
The San Francisco Book Company
A fellow customer's question revealed that the owner of Berkeley Books was a former partner in the San Francisco Book company - the storefront of Abe books in Paris. I would like to know that story.
This shop is slightly smaller but has similar quality and you can easily find classics, contemporary favourites, poetry and criticism as well as sci-fi, if you're into that sort of thing. Again, this shop does trades or buys books and a paperback is roughly 6euros.
While Villiage Voice is a pleasure and your Shakespeare and Co sells some second hand books, the traveller mostly can't afford the indulgence of uncut pages, metaphorically speaking, so these are a delightful option.
