13 Brilliant Books About Bookstores

I’ve rounded up books about book lovers, books set in libraries, even books about book clubs – but with Love Your Bookshop Day coming up, it’s high time I rounded up brilliant books about bookstores.

Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

A 24-hour bookstore sounds like every booklover’s dream – who wouldn’t want a place to go when you get the itch for a book haul at 3AM? But there’s more to Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore than meets the eye, as Clay Jannon is about to find out. The shop has barely any customers and they never seem to actually buy the books on the shelves; they simply ‘check out’ weird titles from little-used corners. Clay turns to some of his analytical friends to try and figure out what’s really going on here, but it turns out the bookstore’s secrets – and those of its enigmatic owner – extend far beyond its walls.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

Paris is for lovers… book lovers, that is. With Shakespeare & Co, literary salons, and a rich history as a haven for prolific bohemian authors, it’s the setting for many brilliant books about bookstores . The Little Paris Bookshop is one such book, the story of the city’s (sadly, fictional) ‘literary apothecary’. Monsieur Perdu can prescribe a book to heal any pain or problem… except his own. For years, he’s been dispensing paperback cures from his floating book shop on the Seine, but he might finally be ready to pursue a cure for his own broken heart.

The Diary Of A Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Shaun Bythell has been running a Wigtown bookshop for twenty years now, and The Diary A Bookseller is the first installment of his memoir series about day-to-day life as a bookseller. Go with him on buying trips to deceased estates, chuckle along at the eccentricities of the Bookshop’s regular customers, and immerse yourself in the comings and goings of a small town seen through a bookstore’s windows. Read my full review of The Diary Of A Bookseller here.

Bonus: read my full review of the third of Bythell’s books, Remainders Of The Day, here.

How To Find Love In A Bookshop by Veronica Henry

How To Find Love In A Bookshop follows Emilia Nightingale’s fight to keep her late father’s bookstore out of the hand of developers, while her village customers look for love and the life they want to live. It’s a delightful story with the coziest possible vibes, a David and Goliath battle against gentrification and corporate greed, sharp and sweet dialogue, and heart-warming love connections. You’ll find yourself browsing for love as well as books next time you’re at your local independent bookstore.

You by Caroline Kepnes

When Guinevere Beck stumbles into a quiet East Village bookstore, it could’ve been the perfect meet-cute. Joe, the bookseller behind the desk, is instantly enamoured with her, and they have some good banter as he puts her purchase through. He takes note of her name from her credit card, and immediately Googles her after she leaves. That’s where You takes off – and it’s undoubtedly one of the creepiest books about bookstores on this list. Unfortunately, it kind of suggests that not all booksellers are saints, despite all our experience that proves the contrary. Read my full review of You here.

Once Upon A Tome by Oliver Darkshire

If you’re familiar with Oliver Darkshire, it’s probably because you’ve come across his Tweets about working in Sotherans, one of the worlds oldest bookstores. His 240-character anecdotes about the peculiarities and absurdities of his workplace were so popular, he penned a memoir about it: Once Upon A Tome. Subtitled “the misadventures of a rare bookseller” and described as “by turns unhinged and earnest”, Darkshire details the best and the worst of his normal job in his unusual workplace, from the weird clientele to the bizarre books to the resident ghost on site.

Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

The premise of Days At The Morisaki Bookshop sounds like every wistful booklover’s dream: living in a spare room on the second floor of a bookstore, where you also work and get to read whatever takes your fancy. I mean… that’s the dream, right? This short novel (clocking in at 150 pages) was translated into English in 2023 by Eric Ozawa, and it quickly soared to the top of the best-seller lists. This quiet book is a surprisingly realistic portrayal of working in a secondhand bookstore, in my experience (though the customers in Jimbocho seem a lot more stable and well-adjusted than the ones you might encounter elsewhere). Read my full review of Days At The Morisaki Bookshop here.

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

If you’ve never worked in a bookstore, you might not know this, but every store has at least one That Customer (and the goal of every patron should be to avoid becoming That Customer). In The Sentence, the worst happens: a Minneapolis bookstore’s That Customer, Flora, dies on All Souls’ Day, and returns to haunt the shelves. The bookstore’s new employee, Tookie, is fresh out of prison and finds herself charged with solving the mystery of Flora’s haunting – while reckoning with her own grief, astonishment, and isolation.

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

Haven’t we all dreamed, at one time or another, of running away from it all with our one true love to open a quiet bookstore with cozy armchairs and hot tea? Rebecca Thorne shows prodigious skill in tapping into our idle daydreams in Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, her “cozy fantasy steeped in love”. It’s a lovely book to read, an escapist Sapphic fantasy with occasional moments of mortal peril. It’s the first book in the Tomes & Tea series, too, so if you love it, there’s a lot more of this fantasy world to enjoy. Read my full review of Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea here.

Well Met by Jen DeLuca

The big draw of Well Met is the setting of a small-town Renaissance Faire – a kooky spot for an enemies-to-lovers romance to unfold – but don’t overlook the secondary setting of the Willow Creek book store. When she’s not volunteering at the Faire, or falling in love with the dastardly “pirate” Simon, the main character Emily is working at the local bookstore and bonding with the owner, Chris (who plays the Queen at the Faire, too). It’s the perfect accompaniment to a delightful small-town romance story, and a bit of respite from all the “ye”s and “thou”s of the Faire for readers who aren’t into that. Read my full review of Well Met here.

The Book Ninja by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

In The Book Ninja, a book seller – inspired by the novels she surrounds herself with every day – undertakes a crazy scheme to call to her the love she so desperately desires. She starts planting her favourite books on trains, with her name and contact details inscribed in the covers, in the hopes that a sophisticated well-read man with impeccable taste in books will find it and contact her, a manufactured meet cute that any book lover would envy. Unsurprisingly, the plan goes completely awry, when the man who finds her enjoys literature of a very different sort.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

There’s nothing more charming than a bookstore cat – and the cat in Sōsuke Natsukawa’s 2023 novel (translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai) isn’t just delightfully cute, it’s also on a mission. Oh, and it can talk. The Cat Who Saved Books sees this chatty feline team up with the teenage owner of a failing secondhand bookstore (inherited from his grandfather) to rescue all the books being abused and neglected by their owners. No novel will remain unread or unloved with this unlikely duo on the case.

Death Of A Bookseller by Alice Slater

The main character in Death Of A Bookseller, Roach, has been obsessed with true crime for a long, long time – longer than any of the pumpkin-spice-latte-sipping customers in the Spines bookstore where she works. Despite her grouchiness, she finds a kindred spirit in Laura, the bright and cheerful children’s bookseller – or, at least, she thinks she does. Laura seems resistant to Roach’s overtures of friendship, but Roach is determined; she has learned that Laura is herself the center of a true crime story, and Roach wants to hear all about it. Read my full review of Death Of A Bookseller here.