Book stores are a retreat from the digital, fast-paced lives that we live in. When you walk in, you’re immediately surrounded by hundreds of authors’ imaginations and thoughts. No matter how much we move away from reading in bound books full of ink and pages, one thing will always remain – that nothing compares to browsing through a bookshop.
It inspires, it feels like home, and it recanters you somehow as a human being with deep thoughts and a craving to expand your world, by learning from the worlds that others have created in books. We spent some time in a few of Vienna’s brilliant indie book stores, before they opened. We tried to capture the beautiful silence, that was ironically filled with words, in photographs:
Hasbach Antiquariat
Where: Wollzeile 29, 1010
Opening times:
MON-FRI: 10am–6pm
SAT: 10am–5pm
SUN: closed
Website: www.hasbach.com
Recommended if you like: worshipping the written word, finding old and rare books, walking into a book store to see books as far as the eye can see, the smell of old books, the thrill of the second-hand book store hunt, wandering through piles of books
Buchkontor
Where: Kriemhildpl. 1, 1150
Opening times:
MON-WED: 9:30am–6pm
THU: 9:30am–7pm
SAT: 9am–6pm
SUN: closed
Website: www.buchkontor.at
Recommended if you like: a well-stocked book store that has been curated with a awesome collection by avid book readers, talking books with absolute strangers, finding books you typically wouldn’t read, quoting your favourite authors
Good to know… they’ve won best book store in the city a couple of times. Also, the book store used to be a jeweller and you can see the original safe behind the bookshelves from back in the day
Also good to know… they just opened a new cafe, called Franz & Julius around the corner from the book shop
Shakespeare & Company
Where: Sterngasse 2, 1010
Opening times:
MON-SAT: 9am–9pm
SUN: closed
Website: www.shakespeare.co.at
Recommended if you like: reading in English, getting lost in a bookstores shelves, well-curated book stores, people sitting behind the counter that look like they were born to run a book store, talking books, discovering authors you’ve never heard of, having a local book store where they know your name
Good to know… this is an English book store
Hartliebs Bücher
Where: Währinger Str. 122, 1180
Opening times:
MON-SAT: 9am–6pm
SUN: closed
Website: www.hartliebs.at
Recommended if you like: having towering shelves full of books over you, spending most weekends with your nose in a book, book stores with diverse collections, finding the new bestsellers, and the classics in one store
Good to know… the red bookshelves with the owls on them are the oldest thing in the shop!
Wiener Buchboutique
Where: Karolinengasse 34, 1040
Opening times:
MON-FRI: 10am–7pm
SAT: 9am–5pm
SUN: closed
Website: www.wiener-buchboutique.at
Recommended if you like: discovering Viennese authors, local literature, book stores with a niche focus, book stores where you can speak to the owners about books for hours, intimate book stores
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