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I was a bookish child. It should come as no surprise that my absolute favorite book throughout much of my childhood was Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story, which I must have read at least 20 times.
Let’s set the scene. Bastian Balthazar Bux, a quiet, misunderstood boy who loves to read, is running from a group of bullies. Employing some evasive maneuvering, he ducks into a shop, which just so happens to be an antiquarian bookstore. His true journey begins when he steals a beautiful book from this shop and spends a significant amount of this novel reading it. He is eventually catapulted into the magical world of the book, in which he has many adventures before eventually returning home.
As a quiet, misunderstood girl who loved to read, this book was like catnip for me.
And the bookstore was the catalyst for the entire story.
I still can’t resist a good bookshop-based novel. Traveling to distant lands, magical or otherwise, is all well and good. But for me, nothing beats the magic that can be found in a brick-and-mortar shop just bursting with books.
Below, I share nine books whose stories take place in bookshops.
The Book Tour by Andi Watson
As someone who has suffered through her own poorly attended book events, I got a kick out of this graphic novel, which takes place mainly at a series of bookshops on the protagonist’s book tour itinerary. Each ill-fated tour stop feels more humiliating than the last. To add insult to injury, the author at the center of this story somehow gets wrapped up in a local case of mysterious disappearances. Things only become more absurd as the book goes on while still hewing to those feelings of indignity and disappointment many authors experience while promoting their books.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
I’m reading this one right now, so I don’t know how it’ll all shake out, but I’m enjoying the ride. This story centers around Tookie, a formerly incarcerated woman whose love of books got her through an overblown sentence and who eventually ends up working in an indigenous bookstore in Minneapolis. When her most annoying customer dies, the customer’s ghost starts appearing in the shop during Tookie’s shifts. What does Tookie have to do in order to help her move on? This story—which takes place during COVID, George Floyd’s murder, and the ensuing protests—feels like a love letter to both readers and booksellers.
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan
This 2024 Korean novel is about a burnt-out woman whose life is falling apart…so she quits her job and opens a bookshop in a charming neighborhood in Seoul. As the book goes on, readers meet an increasing number of bookshop regulars, learning how each of them has found healing in the books they’ve read and finding family in the people who populate the shop. Reviewers have called this one a cozy read, with more than one saying it feels like a warm hug.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
This charming tale starts off on shaky ground when the widowed A.J. Fikry—a bookstore owner—makes a sales rep cry. But what can he do? He’s grieving his late wife. His bookstore sales are down. Is it any wonder he’s cranky as hell? But when an unexpected package appears in his bookstore, A.J. is forced to take a hard look at how he’s been living and is given the opportunity to change everything for the better.
How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
This book, which just came out, revolves around three characters. There’s the woman who was recently released from prison after a drunk driving accident that resulted in the death of a local Kindergarten teacher. There’s the retired English teacher who ran a prison book club. And there’s the man still grappling with his complicated marriage to the woman who died. When their paths cross at a local Portland bookstore, their lives become more entangled than they ever could have imagined.
Bookish People by Susan Coll
This is the book that inspired me to write this post, and I would never have read it had my nine-year-old’s best friend not pulled it out of her grandmother’s Little Free Library and given it to my kiddo. (Em later handed it over to me, saying, “I don’t think this is for kids; the main character’s husband is dead.” LOL.) If it wasn’t for all that, I never would have ended up fully charmed by this story featuring a cast of bookshop staffers who continue to persist despite the constant chaos. Readers go back and forth between the POVs of the bookstore owner—a widowed woman who’s burnt out on books and who dreams of moving into the secret room in a random corner of her shop—and her events coordinator—who has booked an event with an especially controversial author… for personal reasons. As I hurtled toward the end and the ill-fated event, I was desperate to know how it would all turn out.
The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson
Maggie Banks travels to a small town with a bookish history—and a strict literary society—in order to run her best friend’s struggling bookstore. But Maggie doesn’t want to play by the rules, and she eventually starts an underground book club. After all, how can she save the bookstore if she can’t give customers what they actually want? But dodging the literary society isn’t so simple, and when she discovers a town secret, things become complicated.
The Last Bookstore on Earth by Lily Braun-Arnold
The last two books on this list don’t come out until January 2025 (!), but I cannot wait to dive in. In this post-apocalyptic novel (that cover!), Liz sets up camp in the abandoned suburban NJ bookshop in which she used to work, using books as currency to get through the end of the world. When another young woman named Maeve breaks in, Liz reluctantly agrees to let her stay. Together, they prepare for an impending, world-breaking storm, catching feelings for each other even as chaos rages around them.
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill
Finally, in this sci-fi time travel tale (my favorite flavor of sci-fi), a trans man moves back to his small Illinois hometown after losing his job. It wouldn’t normally be his first choice—he’s never quite fit in, and things ended weird with his best friend—but he has no choice. He’s not thrilled to be back home, but when he enters his local bookstore, the only place he ever felt safe, he finds himself hurtled back in time, where he suddenly has the chance to speak to his childhood self. Is it possible for him to change his future?
Fellow bookish people! Do you also love stories set in bookshops? Do you want more than just the nine recs on this list? Jessica has this great list of bookstore romances, and Elisa did up this list of bookstore mysteries.
