The joy of entering an independent bookstore, with the vanilla scent of aging pages, cozy nooks, and like-minded folks browsing tomes is second to none. It has increasingly become rarer and rarer to find bookstores dotting the streets as they used to, but thankfully cinema, television, and books still abound with quaint bookstores that fans would love to be real.
Be it magical stores with books floating from shelf to shelf, comic book stores owned by supernatural beings, or picturesque but ordinary little shops, fictional bookstores like these make fans and viewers wish that they were real.
Flourish & Blotts (Harry Potter)
Perhaps the most common fictional book shop that fans love, Harry Potter‘s Flourish & Blotts was the wizarding book store in Diagon Alley, and the one-stop shop for all Hogwarts students to get their volumes full of charms, spells, potions recipes, and even curses.
The store, as foreshadowed by its name, truly flourished in the world of witches and wizards, with famous authors like Gilderoy Lockhart coming in for book signings and having queues extend beyond the premises of the storefront. Harry Potter had many dangerous locations, but this was one of comfort.
Cerberus Books (The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina)
The strange happenings in Greendale in The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina seemed to exist in a vacuum with no clear concept of time, and Cerberus Books owned by Dr. Cerberus seemed like a popular hangout spot for the teens, especially with its adjoining café which offered milkshakes and coffees alike.
Owned by an incubus, barista-d by a witch, and full of Archie comics, who wouldn’t want this supernaturally fun book store to be real? Everything about it was perfect.
The Shop Around The Corner (You’ve Got Mail)
You’ve Got Mail has several aspects that have aged well, and the fight to keep The Shop Around The Corner alive against larger chain stores is one of them. The children’s book shop owned by Kathleen was not only adorable, but a ray of hope for generations ahead.
Nora Ephron’s imagination cooked up a charming boutique bookstore for kids, replete with pink striped curtains, toys, and a homey environment for the young ones, and everybody would love this to be their literal shop around the corner.
Monsieur Labisse’s Bookshop (Hugo)
The dream destination of every bibliophile, Monsieur Labisse’s Bookshop was tranquil with an old-world charm to it. Piled up to the towering ceilings with tome upon tome containing stories of faraway lands, it had an energy that was chaotic but beautiful.
This store made characters feel small in the presence of the thousands of volumes, filled with sagacious words and pictures, and any book lover could spend a lifetime discovering all that Monsieur Labisse’s has to offer.
The Library (Gunpowder Milkshake)
Granted, the lethal Library in the neon-drenched Gunpowder Milkshake was not a store, but the sheer size and uniqueness of the space warrants a mention.
The Sisterhood wasn’t just a cadre of dangerous characters, but also librarians who maintained the gothic-looking library by themselves, full of unending rows of books on shelf after shelf. The library was full of real volumes of stories and wisdom, and also books that were filled with cash, weapons, and other useful items that someone might need in a crisis. A nifty little go-to to borrow books from.
The Village Bookstore (Beauty And The Beast)
It was no secret that Belle loved to read, which made her strange in her little French town in an era where women weren’t supposed to be such voracious bookworms.
Her village bookshop, and most importantly the sweet bookkeeper himself, were a blessing in her small hometown, and fans would love to visit the place where Belle got the opportunity to become well-read and culturally aware. The shop was not spectacularly large or visually appealing, but a homey, welcoming place of comfort.
The Travel Book Company (Notting Hill)
One of the best meet-cutes in rom-com history happened in The Travel Book Company, where Will Thacker’s life changed after he met superstar Anna Scott while she browsed for books on Turkey.
The store itself is such a niche one, selling books only about travel, but also somehow surviving and thriving despite its limitations. A shop like this one could only endure before the advent of the internet, but that doesn’t stop bibliophiles from dreaming about the existence of the pseudo travel agency book shop.
The Library (Doctor Who)
Yet again, this one is not technically a book store, but a library that is the size of a planet in Doctor Who. That’s right, the whole planet was a library, built by Felman Lux for his book-loving daughter Charlotte.
The Library was controlled by alien forces and this was the place where the Doctor met his wife, River Song, for the very first time as the Tenth Doctor. Nobody in their right minds would say no to a literal world of books and other mysteries.
