If Lost Start Here is a guide for the anxious, curious, lonely and lost. Featuring everyday places and at-home prompts designed to help you live a life that feels good.
Together Finding Our Way
Awe & Wonder
INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES
For us, bookstores are not just places to buy books, but containers of awe. There are wonders to be had as we step across their thresholds.
Yes, there are ways to buy books online that feel more convenient, that are cheaper, and that you can access from home. But all that comes at a cost: the algorithm takes over some of your curiosity and agency, those reduced prices don’t compensate for the joy of being in an independent bookstore and the healthy neighborhoods they create, and not leaving our houses removes the benefits that we now know comes from being around others, whether that’s fellow customers, expert booksellers or the authors themselves.
We’ve curated some of our favorite independent bookstores. If you’re local, make one of these your friend - often they offer more than books, with talks, author signings, book spas, curated booklists, and reading subscriptions on offer. If you’re a little further away, you choose to buy from them (most offer shipping) instead of the mega competitors or attend one of their online programs.
We believe that independent bookstores truly make all our lives better. Which ones might you discover today?
UK
Adventure into Books, Blairgowrie, Scotland | The All Good Bookshop, Wood Green, London | Artwords, London | Belgravia Books, London | Bookbag, Exeter | BookBar, Stoke Newington, London | The Book House, Thame, Oxfordshire | Book-ish, Powys, Wales | The Book Hive, Norwich| The Bookish Type, Leeds | The Book Shop, Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire | Broadhursts, Southport| Burley Fisher Books, Haggerston, London | Broadway Bookstore, London | Catergory is Books, Glasgow | Chapter One Bookstore, Manchester | Clevedon Community Bookstore, Bristol | Cogito, Hexham | Daunt Books, London | Dulwich Books, London | The Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh, Scotland | Five Leaves Books, Nottingham| Forum Books, Northumberland | Gays the Word, Soho, London | Housmans, Kings Cross, London | Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh, Scotland |Hungerford Bookstore, Hungerfords | Jaffee & Neale Bookstore and Cafe, Stow on the Wold | Ledbury Books and Maps, Ledbury, Herefordshire | Libreria, London | Lighthouse, Edinburgh, Scotland | Linghams Bookstore, Wirral | The Little Bookstore, Maidenhead, Berkshire | London Review of Books, London | Lutyens & Rubenstein, London | Newham Bookshop, London | Max Minerva’s, Bristol | Much Ado Books, Alfriston, East Sussex | Murder & Mayhem, Hay on Wye, Wales | New Bookshop, Cockermouth, Cumbria | News from Nowhere, Liverpool | Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town, London | Pages, Hackney, London | Persephone Books, Bath | Petersfield Bookshop, Petersfield | The Portobello Bookshop, Edinburgh, Scotland | Queen’s Park Books, Maida Vale, London | Rare Birds Bookshop, Edinburgh, Scotland | Red Lion Books, Colchester | Rippon Bookstore, Yorkshire | Round Table Books, London | Simply Books, Bramhall, Cheshire | Stoke Newington Bookshop, London | South Kensington Books, London | Tenderbooks, Covent Garden, London | Topping and Company, Bath | Trueman Books, Farsley, Yorkshire | Village Bookstore, Leeds | Westbourne Bookshop, Bournemouth | Word on the Water, London | Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Stroud, Gloucestershire
US
Antigone Books, Tucson, Arizona |Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, Minnesota | Blackbird Bookshop, San Francisco | Blue Bicyle Book, Charleston, West Virgina | Blue Stocking, New York | Book Hampton, New York | Books and Books, Miami, Florida | Books Are Magic, Brooklyn, New York | Brain Lair, South Bend, Indiana | Cafe Con Libros Books, Brooklyn, New York | Community Bookstore, Park Slope, New York | Country Bookshelf, Bozeman, Montana | Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, Washington | Frugal Bookstore, Boston, Massachusetts | Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, New York| Harriet’s, Philadelphia | The Last Bookstore, Los Angeles | Left Bank Books, St Louis, Missouri | Lido Village Bookstore, Newport Beach | Libreria Laberinto Viejo, San Juan, Puerto Rico | The Lit Bar, The Bronx, New York | Little City Books, Hoboken, New Jersey | McNally Jackson, New York | Montague Book Mill, Montague, Massachsetts | Mrs. Dalloways Literary and Garden Arts Bookstore, Berkeley, California | Old Firehouse Books, Colorado | Mahogony Books, Washington | Monograph Bookwerks, Portland | Nowhere Bookstore, San Antonio | Powells Books, Portland | Powerhouse Arena, Brooklyn, New York | Rabelais, Bideford, Maine | Recycled Books, Denton, Texas | Rossiters, Ross, Virginia | Second Story Books, Washington D.C. | Sisters Uptown Bookstore, New York | Tattered Covered Bookstore, Denver | Taylor Books, Charleston, West Virginia | Third Place Books, Washington | The Strand, New York | Unabridged Bookstore, Chicago, Illinois | Uncle Bobbie’s, Philadelphia | Women and Children First, Chicago, Illinois | Word, Brooklyn, New York
Worldwide
Cook and Book, Belgium | Eye See Me Bookstore, Amsterdam, The Netherlands| De Nieuew Boekhandel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands |Althenaem Bookstore, Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Books at One, Co Galway, Ireland | Gutter Bookshop, Dublin, Ireland | Type Books, Toronto, Canada | Philips Bookshop, Mallow, Ireland | Woodbine Books, Ireland
We often find our way around the UK and California by finding local bookstores - they offer mini-pilgrimages of awe.
Let us know which independent bookstores you love so we can add them to this list. Which are your favorites?