I recognized this European-like place immediately as soon as I entered “Moscow” bookstore (only in Europe have I ever gotten a similar “warm” impression). It is very cozy and at the same time spacious, very homely but simultaneously with glut of original stuff. I adore looking for MY things here – never mind if it is a tiny pin or a book with an ingenious cover.
It doesn’t look like any other Russian bookstore. No trashy pop-stuff here. A luminous huge clean hall bookstore with book stacks and low tables, book shelves along which I like to cruise and a cafe inside with a range of Dostoevsky-view windows along one of the walls. It is a perfect place to have a rest with a book in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
Besides books and the café there are piles of unique stationery and bijous which I like to examine very much. For example “The Little Prince” bijou collection or the Russian poets notebooks line.
I haven’t attended any meetings with writers though they are organized here. But I drank hot tasty cappuccino sitting at a small wooden table (snacks are overpriced here) and was completely happy.