“Reading between the Lines”
Independent bookstores are more than just places to buy books – they’re treasure-houses for ideas and the imagination, places of refuge and solace in a byte-size world of fake news, and community hubs for curious minds. Each one is an idiosyncratic reflection of their owner’s obsessions and enthusiasms; some are legends in their own right. Documentary and portrait photographer Horst A Friedrichs captured almost 50 stores, in Europe and America.The idea is to celebrate these stores and the passion of their proprietors, and the fact that they continue to thrive, along with physical books themselves, in the face of stiff competition from the internet and device-based distractions.Carl Sagan said that “a book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.” From a floating bookstore on a barge to an emporium housed in a converted church, these are the places where the magic happens.
Hurlingham Books - London
City Lights Bookstore - San Francisco
Boekhandel Dominicanen - Maastrich
John Sandoe Books- London
Livraria Lello - Porto
Livraria Académica - Porto
Phil Buchhandlung - Vienna
Shakespeare & Co - Paris
Word On The Water - London
