I’m not a books person; I do like to read but I don’t actually do it as often and sometimes I leave my readings in the middle to be picked up later. Nevertheless, I can’t help talking about this spot.

Livraria do Simão is probably the smallest bookshop in Portugal, surely the tiniest of Lisbon and maybe one of the tightest of the world; believe me, tight is the right word! So tight that it’s impossible for the owner and the client to be inside together! This doesn’t mean the book offer is small; or the choice limited. I was told that Simão, the owner, has about 4,000 books available here and some of them are rarities. And these books are not exclusively in Portuguese; there are a lot of books in a variety of other languages.

I do have to point out that this is a store of used books. Lisbon has several book stores with the same purpose of selling old books; we call these shops “Alfarrabista”. Although there are other zones more populated with this kind of shops, I find this one unique and worth a visit even if you’re not a “reader”.

Easy to reach when entering the arch to “Escadinhas de São Cristóvão” from “Rua da Madalena”, I believe you can now look at it with a different idea. A gathering of some preciosities concentrated in 4m2, with prices starting from a few coins to a pile of bills.