Archives for “bookstore” tag

St George is a small English bookstore in Wörtherstrasse. The place is packed with new and second hand books in English.

I stopped there some time ago and got Bukowski’s “What matters most is how well you walk through the fire”. I opened the book by chance and got to stare at two white pages. And remembered I wanted to write about the place.

However, such a location has an ability of weaving its own story. And on top of everything, the team behind the books is very friendly. Every now and then, they also organize evenings meant to bring people together, to read each other or to each other.

Once you are in Buchkantine, a café just a street away from the river, you will wonder: how come not all cafes have books, or how come not all bookstores serve coffee? The books are new, and in case something is missing, one can order new titles from one day to the next. The bulk is in German but there are also a few English titles.

There is Wireless Internet available for free, on request, and the music covers jazz and relaxed tones. They also show detective films every Sunday between 20:00 and 22:00. The people from Buchkantine are friendly and have a great sense of humor too. Some of their passwords for the Wireless used to be: I want to stay alone with my sandwich or the horse doesn’t eat cucumbers. They switched to a voucher policy in the meanwhile.

The mixture of books, music and drinks is a good choice for a relaxed afternoon or simply for a search for new books or new inspiration. While writing this text, I’m sitting at one of their tables and I observe with curiosity my neighbour – a middle aged man, alone with his laptop, longer hair, looking at the people sitting around as if they would suddenly become characters in his novel. One thing is for sure, now he certainly has become a character in my article.