Books about libraries, bookstores, and reading

Cozy and mysterious bookstores. Heroes who are passionate about reading. Books that change lives. Z-lib presents a selection of books about bookstores, libraries, and reading.

What You Seek Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama

Sayuri Komati works at the library. She asks everyone a simple question: “Were you looking for something?” In addition to the necessary literature, the mysterious librarian recommends an unexpected book – a children’s book, a gardening guide, an atlas of natural science. For each of the five heroes, this meeting will be a turning point – they will discover something in the book, and then in themselves, that will change their attitude to life. The novel became a bestseller in Japan. This touching story shows how just one book can add meaning and color to life.

The Door-to-Door Bookstore, Carsten Henn

Every day, Carl Kohlhoff, an elderly salesman from a bookstore, delivers books to customers at home. These are special customers for whom Karl selects special books. But one day, he is joined by a wayward little girl who breaks the ritual and bursts into the lives of Karl and his customers. An extraordinary story about friendship and mutual understanding, books, bookwalkers, and the paths that life takes us on.

Bookstore in the Heart of Paris, Lorenza Gentile

Oliva is thirty, she has no stable job and no plans for the future. She lives with her parents, suffers from insomnia, and sometimes feels an insurmountable emptiness. Everything turns upside down when the girl receives a letter from her eccentric Aunt Vivienne, who disappeared sixteen years ago. So she finds herself in one of the oldest bookstores on the left bank of the Seine in the company of local bohemians. But Vivienne does not come to the meeting… A warm and cozy story about finding your way and a secret love for books.

Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop, Alba Donati

Tired of the hustle and bustle of the big city, publisher Alba Donati returns to her native village in Tuscany to make her long-time dream come true – to open a bookshop. It would seem that in a place with a population of only 180 people, such an enterprise is doomed to failure, but the owner of the bookshop “Sopra La Penna” manages to do the impossible.

Lost Bookshop, Evie Woods

This bookshop on a quiet street in Dublin does not seem to exist: for ordinary people, it is only the space between houses 10 and 12. But it is there, like the roots of an old tree, that the lives of three people separated by time intertwine. In 1921, Opaline escapes from her despotic brother and a marriage of convenience to find a job she likes. In the present, Martha gets a job as a servant in the house of an eccentric actress, and Henry tries to unravel the secret of a lost manuscript. The quest for a mysterious book and a vanished bookstore uncovers life-changing secrets for the heroes.