15 Best Cities for Book Lovers, From Paris to Portland

Book towns, iconic libraries, indie shops and real-world fiction settings: these are the best cities for book lovers who travel by story.

If your idea of a souvenir is a dog-eared paperback and not a magnet for your fridge, this list is for you: I’ve rounded up the best cities for book lovers where literature actually lives. Some were home to heavyweight authors whose ghosts still haunt the sidewalks (Dublin, I’m looking at you). Others are obsessed with books in a way that’s almost alarming (hello, Reykjavik). And a few have bookstores so incredible they’ve become tourist attractions in their own right.

These are the best places that avid readers and book lovers can visit when they want to walk into a library, a novel, or both, traveling with a carry-on that is half Tolstoy.

Portland, Oregon

Portland’ reading culture is so strong it’s been ranked one of the most literate cities in the U.S. year after year, and it treats bookstores like institutions.

Start at Powell’s City of Books, which takes up an entire city block and claims to be the world’s largest independent bookstore. You’ll need a map, and you’ll probably still get lost. The rare book room upstairs is worth a detour, and the staff recs don’t feel like marketing because they’re oddly personal.

Outside Powell’s, neighborhood bookshops still thrive. Try Broadway Books for curated new releases or Mother Foucault’s for floor-to-ceiling secondhand classics arranged by mood.

Literary festivals? Portland hosts Wordstock (now part of the Portland Book Festival), which draws major authors every November. If you’re lucky, you might catch a reading at the Literary Arts center, where past speakers include Margaret Atwood and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

For something slower, Rose City Book Pub serves poetry with your pint, and the new Literary Arts café is already where half the city’s unpublished novels are being typed. BOLD Coffee & Books is still small, but the regulars act like it’s sacred.

New York City, New York

New York is one of the best cities for book lovers because literature is baked into the sidewalks. You don’t have to look hard, the brownstones from what’s probably your favorite novel are in front of you constantly.

Start at the New York Public Library Main Branch, where you can actually walk into the Rose Reading Room and sit under the same ceiling as generations of writer and researchers. The library runs free exhibitions that are worth checking out, like the rotating display of rare literary manuscripts.

Then hit The Strand—18 miles of books, yes, but also signed first editions and events that sell out in seconds. Skip the main floor and head upstairs to browse rare finds, or downstairs if you like chaos.

Beyond the obvious, New York is also full of low-key gems: the Grolier Club for rare book exhibitions, Housing Works Bookstore Café where all proceeds fight homelessness. If you’re more into book bars, Bibliothèque in SoHo serves wine between the stacks, and Book Club Bar in the East Village makes cocktails that go down easier than Proust.

• Planning a short trip? You can cram a surprising amount of bookstores (and everything else) into three days in New York—yes, I tested it.

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston’s literary roots actually go deep—like, pre-Transcendentalist deep. This is where Emerson lectured, where Poe was born, and where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women.

Start at the Boston Public Library, one of the most beautiful libraries in the country. The Bates Reading Room has arched ceilings, green glass lamps, and you can sit and read for as long as you want.

You can also visit the Boston Athenæum, a members-only library that now offers public access to parts of its jaw-dropping reading rooms and rotating exhibits. It’s one of the oldest independent libraries in the U.S.

For actual books to buy, stop at the Harvard Book Store in nearby Cambridge (not affiliated with the university, ironically), known for its author readings and legendary used book basement. Then walk across the square to Grolier Poetry Book Shop, America’s oldest all-poetry bookstore.

If you need a break from transcendentalism, Beacon Hill Books & Café serves tea under chandeliers, and Trident is where half the brunch crowd goes to read.

Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City is the only UNESCO City of Literature in the U.S., and it has one major reason: the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. If you’ve read a short story that knocked you sideways, chances are the author went through this program.

Book culture here is foundational. The Prairie Lights Bookstore is a serious institution, with readings almost every week and a dedicated space upstairs called The Writing University Studio that streams author talks live.

You can also explore the Iowa Avenue Literary Walk, a series of bronze panels embedded in the sidewalk honoring famous authors with ties to the state. Think of it as a less-annoying Hollywood Walk of Fame, with better quotes.

During the Iowa City Book Festival, the whole city leans into the vibe, hosting author talks, walking tours, and library events that actually draw a crowd.

Oxford, Mississippi

Oxford earns its place among the best us cities for book lovers because it lives in the shadow of literature, literally. William Faulkner’s house, Rowan Oak, sits tucked in the woods just off campus at Ole Miss, preserved like he might come back and finish his manuscript at any moment. You can walk through his study, see the handwritten outline for A Fable on the wall, and then stroll the same grounds that shaped The Sound and the Fury.

Downtown, Square Books anchors the courthouse square and feels like a Southern literary salon that happens to sell books. It’s three stores: the main shop, a children’s book annex, and a lifestyle-and-arts offshoot called Off Square. Expect rare Southern lit and a lineup of author events that would put most to shame.

You can still grab a drink at the City Grocery, the restaurant where local authors like John Grisham and Ace Atkins have spent plenty of hours outlining their next chapters—allegedly.

Paris, France

Paris is still the official European literary pilgrimage. Between the sidewalk poetry and apartment buildings that once hid Simone de Beauvoir or Samuel Beckett, it’s impossible not to feel like you’re stepping into a story that already started.

Start at Shakespeare and Company, the Left Bank bookstore that housed broke writers in exchange for shelving books (they still do). Upstairs you’ll find a piano, a few beds, and sometimes a cat—yes, people still sleep there. It’s touristy, sure, but still deeply alive.

Walk to Les Deux Magots, where Sartre and Hemingway once chain-smoked their way through drafts, or visit the Maison de Balzac, one of the few intact homes of a French literary giant still open to the public.

For a break from 19th-century ghosts, stop by Librairie Galignani, the city’s oldest English-language bookshop, or dig through the stacks at Librairie Delamain, steps from the Comédie-Française.

Want a place to linger? Try La Mouette Rieuse in the Marais—part bookshop, part brunch spot—or head to L’eau et les Rêves, a floating book café moored along Canal Saint-Martin.

And if you time it right, the Festival Quartier du Livre (usually in June) turns the 5th arrondissement into a street party for readers, complete with outdoor readings and literary speed dating.

• If you need a break from paper and ink, I’ve also mapped out 👉 the best museums in Paris—because even book lovers occasionally look up.

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin has a UNESCO City of Literature designation and a full-blown walking trail that starts at Ulysses and ends at a pint. If you’ve ever pretended to read Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, or Wilde (or actually did), this is your spiritual home.

The Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) is a sleek, interactive space in a Georgian townhouse where you can browse original manuscripts, listen to authors read aloud in tiny sound booths, and stare at Joyce’s glasses like they’re relics. From there, walk five minutes to Sweny’s Pharmacy, the shop featured in Ulysses, which now functions as a one-room bookstore with daily readings by enthusiastic volunteers.

When you’re ready to crack that Dublin purchase, Books Upstairs has a restored upstairs café built for marathon reading sessions, and The Winding Stair pairs books with riverside views.

The city has obviously its own Literary Pub Crawl, which is both exactly what it sounds like and somehow educational. Stops often include The Duke, Davy Byrnes, and The Palace Bar—places where Irish writers drank more than they wrote.

If you’d rather walk than drink, the Dublin Literary Walking Tour guides you past Oscar Wilde’s childhood home, Trinity College (home of the Book of Kells), and the James Joyce Centre, where you can finally ask someone to explain Finnegans Wake—or just nod and pretend.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh was named the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, and you’ll see why before your first coffee there cools down. The skyline looks like it was designed by a Gothic novelist, and nearly every cobbled corner has a tie to someone who wrote something worth reading.

Start at the Writers’ Museum, tucked down Lady Stair’s Close, where exhibits celebrate Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, and Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s compact, creaky, and full of ink-stained relics. Then head to The Scottish Poetry Library, one of the few libraries in the world dedicated solely to poetry.

For a modern pilgrimage, fans of Harry Potter still flock to The Elephant House, allegedly where Rowling drafted early chapters. Move on to Armchair Books—a gloriously disorganized secondhand shop that smells exactly like you want a bookshop to smell.

And then there’s The Edinburgh International Book Festival, held every August during the city’s festival season. It’s the largest of its kind in the world, with readings, panels, and pop-up bookshops that temporarily take over Charlotte Square Gardens.

Hay-on-Wye, Wales: The Original Book Town

Hay-on-Wye is barely a village, but for book lovers, it’s a pilgrimage site. With just over 1,500 residents and more than 20 bookshops, it’s credited with launching the international “book town” movement—proving that a rural outpost can become a global magnet for obsessive readers.

It started in the 1960s when Richard Booth—part entrepreneur, part eccentric—declared himself “King of Hay” and opened a used bookshop in an abandoned firehouse. Now the whole town leans into the identity. Shops like Richard Booth’s Bookshop and Addyman Books stock everything from collectible hardbacks to paperbacks stacked like architectural experiments. Even the castle is being renovated into a bookish cultural center.

The real highlight is the annual Hay Festival, a literary gathering that’s been described as “Woodstock for the mind.” Bill Clinton said that, and no one has topped it since. The town swells with writers, thinkers, and visitors who treat author Q&As like headliner sets.

There’s not much else to do here, but that’s kind of the point.

Reykjavík, Iceland

Reykjavík is one of the best cities for book lovers not just because it reads a lot—but because it writes. Iceland publishes more books per capita than any country in the world, and Reykjavík, its capital, feels like a literary ecosystem disguised as a city.

The reading culture peaks in December with Jólabókaflóðið, the “Christmas Book Flood,” when Icelanders gift books on the 24th and spend the night reading. You’ll see evidence of it all year: bookstores are packed, and reading in public is so normal you might feel underdressed without a paperback.

For browsing, start at Mál og Menning, Reykjavík’s largest independent bookshop, which includes an upstairs café and regular author events. For English-language titles and excellent Icelandic lit in translation, check out Eymundsson, which has several branches around town.

To dig deeper, visit the National and University Library of Iceland, which houses rare manuscripts and exhibits tied to the island’s legendary sagas.

• Reykjavík is in our Iceland 1-week itinerary too—though that version involves fewer books and more waterfalls.

Tokyo, Japan

In Tokyo is all about book neighborhoods. Nowhere is that clearer than in Jimbocho, Tokyo’s legendary book district, where over 150 shops line the streets like literary street food. Most are secondhand or antiquarian, some specialize in art books or Meiji-era political pamphlets, and a few are so niche they only stock foreign titles in French or German.

If you’re hunting for something in English, head to Kitazawa Bookstore (founded in 1902), or browse the shelves at Village Vanguard for a more chaotic, zine-and-manga-infused experience. The Tokyo International Book Fair (usually held in the fall) brings publishers from all over Asia and beyond.

Book lovers with a soft spot for fiction can make a quiet pilgrimage to the Natsume Sōseki Memorial Museum, dedicated to Japan’s most revered novelist, or stop by the Haruki Murakami Library at Waseda University. Designed by architect Kengo Kuma, the space is sleek, immersive, and full of rare materials, including Murakami’s original vinyl collection.

Tokyo is also full of literary cafés and bars. Bunbougu Café in Omotesando lets you write your own stories at stocked desks, while Tsutaya Books Daikanyama blends curated book displays with actual style.

• For the full mix of temples, neon, and late-night book hunts 👉 this Tokyo guide covers everything that didn’t fit between the shelves.  

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Aires has long been celebrated for its bookstore density—at one point topping global rankings.

The must-see is El Ateneo Grand Splendid, the former theater turned bookstore, often named one of the most beautiful in the world. It lives up to the hype. The red velvet stage is now a café, the balconies are filled with books, and everything glows like it’s about to cue a string quartet.

But locals will tell you to go beyond that. Try Eterna Cadencia, a publisher-bookshop hybrid with a leafy courtyard, or the ultra-independent Librería Norte, where writers and editors come to argue about novels over espresso.

For Borges fans, there are layers. You can visit the Borges Cultural Center, find his old neighborhood in Palermo, or stand in the National Library where he once served as director. It’s concrete, brutalist, and oddly perfect—especially knowing he was already blind when he took the job.

When you want to drink in your haul, Eterna Cadencia pairs chandeliers with coffee in a courtyard, and Libros del Pasaje tucks a record-player café into its back stacks—two of BA’s most atmospherically bookish stops.

St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg is haunted by literature. This is the city of Dostoevsky, Gogol, Pushkin, and Nabokov, and you don’t need a tour guide to feel it. The boulevards, canals, and apartment blocks still echo their stories.

Start with the Dostoevsky Museum, set inside the author’s actual apartment, where he lived and died and wrote The Brothers Karamazov. It’s one of the few literary house museums that doesn’t feel frozen in time—it feels anxious, like one of his characters might walk back in. Nearby, you can retrace Raskolnikov’s steps from Crime and Punishment—yes, there’s a mapped route.

The Pushkin Apartment Museum is another must: this is where he spent his final days after a fatal duel, and the rooms are restored with eerie precision. For a heavier academic hit, head to the Russian National Library, the country’s oldest, with one of the most valuable manuscript collections in the world.

When the existential gloom kicks in, Literaturnoye Kafe on Nevsky lets you order tea where Pushkin once sulked, and Podpisnyye Izdaniya upstairs serves coffee, pastries, and a decent excuse to stay all afternoon. The House of Books, located in the historic Singer Building, is a also must-visit attraction for book lovers.

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