When my office moved from the outer edges of the city to the center, all my co-workers were overjoyed: so much easier to get to, tons of lunch places to choose from and endless possibilities to run errands during lunch.
For me, aside from a significantly shorter walk to work (a mere 15 minutes) probably the biggest impact on my life was the fact that Stockholm’s biggest bookstore was now just across the street.
I have a terrible weakness for books. Book lust, isn’t that one of the seven deadly sins?
Having the huge Akademibokhandeln bookstore (Mäster Samuelsgatan 28) so close hasn’t been good for my addiction. They not only stock the latest novels reviewed in the New York Times, they also have a huge English paperback section (a mere four days ago, I was unable to stop myself from buying a hardcover edition of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, which I had read about maybe a week before I bought it.)
Interior of New York Stories
Of course, I am a firm believer in supporting independent booksellers. So Akademibokhandeln isn’t my only supplier. I am also dependent on Hedengrens in Sturegallerian, which has a great collection of books on just about any subject, many in English as well as other, uh, non-Swedish languages. However, my biggest enabler is probably Margaret Patane of New York Stories, a little English bookstore with a big heart and a wonderfully eclectic selection on Odengatan across from Vasaparken, just down the street from my apartment and a couple of doors over from the children’s bookstore Bokspindeln, where I buy picture books that I use to lure my goddaughter into the murky world of book addiction.
The main reading room in Stadsbiblioteket
You might ask why I don’t just borrow books from the library. After all, Stockholm’s main city library – Stadsbiblioteket - is a 30-second walk from the front door of my apartment building. It’s not just any old library, either. It’s a masterpiece of modernism and arguably Stockholm’s greatest building, if you ask an architect. A cylinder on top of a cube, the main reading room with its soaring ceiling and books elegantly circling the walls in colored bands is sublime. Unfortunately, my particular book lust requires that I own the books, so, Stadsbiblioteket is really just something beautiful for me to look at when I need an architecture fix.
But don’t let that stop you from indulging.
Go further: Read Martin's guide to his favourite book stores in Barcelona here.