Feed the Hunger for Books
As an American student in Paris, you might be familiar with bookstores like Shakespeare and Co. or The Red Wheelbarrow for your book needs. They're popular and carry a good variety of reading options, but as an English reader it can feel limiting at times. It's impossible for a small store to carry everyone's reading preferences. At times, Amazon feels like the best option by carrying everything for a cheaper price at the click of a button.
They have forced themselves to be the most accessible source of content for a wide market by providing options like paperback, hardback, audiobook and digital forms, which can cut bookstores out of the industry. Amazon also sells their books at a loss, meaning they lose money with every book sold by pricing them below market value. They will continue to do this until Amazon becomes the primary source of book distribution and sales.
It's important that, as consumers, we make efforts to support local businesses against large corporations. Most shops have the ability to order specific books that they might not have currently in store without extra cost. They also have events such as live author events or limited signed books that Amazon could not provide. Distributors have also been pushing for limited edition covers only provided to independent stores to further push people to shop small.
Here is a small list of Paris bookstores that have a good variety besides our famous Shakespeare and Co. and The Red Wheelbarrow that will help fill that hunger for new books while also supporting the industry.
Abbey Bookshop
29 Rue de la Parcheminerie, 75005 Paris
Open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.. The Canadian owned bookshop is hidden in the Latin Quarter not far from the Notre-Dame. The very compressed store offers a wide variety of secondhand books, from new releases to collectable editions, it's hard to leave empty handed. If interested they also promote their monthly book club (March's book has not been decided yet)
San Francisco Book Co.
17 Rue Monsieur le Prince, 75006 Paris
Open Monday-Sunday from 10 a.m.to 8 p.m. San Francisco Book Co. offers walls covered in English second-hand books, located near the Jardin du Luxembourg. They have the ability to order books that are hard to find or out of print, or if you have too many books to begin with they also buy books either with cash or store credit. Lots of interesting hidden gems in the form of paperbacks sit on every surface.
SMITH&SON Paris
248 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Open Monday and Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. An English-owned independent bookshop in front of the Tuileries Garden. They offer perks for returning customers like a loyalty program and hidden behind the medieval-themed kids' section on the second floor sits a small cafe, also themed to whisk you away from the busy Parisian streets.
Librairie Galignani
224 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Open Monday-Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., just down the street from SMITH&SON. Librairie Galignani has a large English section which takes up more than half of the store itself, along with their other focuses which are French literature and fine arts. It is one of the more spacious bookstores that Paris has to offer. This shop sits as one of the oldest English bookstores in the continent, it's impossible not to stop by at least once out of curiosity.
All Images taken by Kateri Gutierrez
