View a Google Maps list of some of the best bookstores in London.

Daunt Books

You won’t feel daunted at Daunt. Are you going on a trip and want to read a novel or nonfiction book set in the place you’re headed? This Marylebone High Street bookshop arranges books by country, so it’s easy to find anything by place. The space itself is worth a visit: high ceilings and tall windows add to the intellectual ambiance.

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83 Marylebone High St.

Foyles Books

Dig, if you will, the picture: four miles of shelves holding up to 200,000 books. Let’s hope you have some time to browse when popping into Foyles. This legendary bookshop is impossible to leave empty-handed. It was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest bookshop on the planet.

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107 Charing Cross Rd.

Hatchards

In the year 1797, Thomas Paine published Agrarian Justice and Hannah Webster Foster published The Coquette. It’s also the year this London bookshop—the oldest in the city today—first flicked on its lights. It stocks an excellent selection of fiction, nonfiction, history and other genres.

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187 Piccadilly St.

Libreria

This Spitalfields bookshop is one of the most aesthetically pleasing of its kind in London. The yellow bookshelves add a touch of color and whimsy and, well, you kind of just want to grab a book and a seat and stay awhile. Mobile phone usage is strongly discouraged here.

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65 Hansbury St.

London Review Bookshop

From the smart people of the London Review of Books comes this wonderful bookshop that opened in 2003. As you’d expect, there’s an excellent selection of history, philosophy, politics, new fiction and many other genres here. Plus, there’s a nice café in which you can crack open that tome for the first time and start reading.

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14 Bury Pl.

The Notting Hill Bookshop

Does the façade of this bookshop look at all familiar? Does it make you think of sputtering and stuttering actor Hugh Grant? It should. It was the travel bookshop featured in the film Notting Hill. These days the bookstore sells more than just travel books, veering into fiction, mystery and other genres.

Stanfords

Since 1853 this Covent Garden bookshop has been trafficking in maps and books dedicated to the art of travel and travel writing. Need a guidebook or a travel memoir about a place you’re headed? Or even just some inspiration to figure out where to go on your next holiday? This is the place. They also sell globes and cool globe lamps.

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7 Mercer Walk