Top 10 Most Impressive Bookstores In the World (3 of 6)

Libreria Acqua Alta, Venice, Italy

If (or rather “when”) Venice floods, this place is ready. Libreria Acqua Alta stores books in gondolas, bathtubs, and other containers to keep them safe from flooding. The tall bookstacks everywhere, a gondola overflowing with paperbacks, and a back door that opens straight onto a canal—it feels less like a bookshop and more like a water wizard’s lair.

Barter Books, Alnwick, United Kingdom

This cozy book paradise used to be a train station, if you can believe it. Barter Books kept the charm and multiplied it by adding fireplaces and fancy armchairs. And that’s not even all! As the name suggests, you can actually barter books here, which in this day and age is as rare as the bookstores themselves. It’s the kind of place where you easily lose track of time simply looking around, and before you know it, it’s closing time.