The Bookstore

Books, books everywhere. The quirky look, the smell of old books, the nostalgia, everything. I love this bookshop and everything about it!
It’s a great place to find some old books. To find second hand books. To lose the track of time and get lost. To sit on the floor with a pile of books around you. To explore.
The layout is wonderful! Small and cramped corridors filled with books from the floor to the ceiling. The atmosphere is amazing, so disconnected from the real world. But the prices are the best thing about it! Affordable like nowhere else.
It’s here that I come to satisfy my buying books obsession and it’s here that you should come too! It’s a truly hidden gem in Belfast city centre.

Love this shop so much! I’ve been able to get books here that I can’t get any were else and being a huge Moomin fan I can sometimes on the occasion pick up one or two.
The shop it’self is crammed full of books and the staff is very helpful, and the prices are reasonable.
Finding is is not the easiest nor does the shop stand out but the quickest way is up Garfield street across the road and turn right and it’s just a few doors down.
The best days is to go in during the week.
None of the books are in alphabetical order but are in genre order and shelves are in multiable layers you you do have to look behind books.
Some people are funny about second hand books but if your not and haven’t been you won’t waste your time visiting!

I love buying clothes and make-​up and stuff for the house, and the garden… need I go on? I also have a secret book-​buying habit and, while I love the whole books and coffee experience of the big chains from time to time, I also have a circuit of fab second-​hand book shops that I frequent.
The Bookstore is right up there on my list. The stock is wonderful. I mostly buy cookery and gardening books, and I defy you to take the kids and not leave with a bagful!
Prices are especially cheap, so take a strong bag or two and let rip. Don’t go when you’re in a hurry as the somewhat higgledy piggledy nature of the shop means you have to have a good look incase you miss a great book. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of organisation so all different types of books are mixed up together but that just adds to the charm of the place and the friendly people who work there will do their best t help you find what you’re looking for.

The Bookstore is a great place. It has a very unoriginal name and doesn’t try to impress you with its interior either! It has shelf upon shelf of books, that are in no particular order whatsoever, but this is a good thing. There’s nothing more I enjoy than rummaging around places like this looking for a hidden gem, and seeing as reading is one of my favourite things to do, then this is almost like heaven. The books cost next to nothing, so I usually leave with ⁵⁄₆ random books in the hope that I could just find a surprise! The fact that they cost so little, means I don’t mind if I buy nothing but rubbish. I’ll just come back again.

If you in mind specific books to buy that are relatively old titles you may well find them second hand here. The Bookstore is absolutely crammed with books from end to end and its furthest recesses go back a considerable distance.
Finding what you want might be a problem though the chances are that you will come across something else of interest before you get there.
It’s an old fashioned sort of shop and a bit on the fusty side perhaps. You also need plenty of time on your hands and a calm attitude to get the most out of this place — I suppose that’s why the clientele consisted of mainly retired older men the day I came in here.

This is one of a handful of little kitsch, niche book stores located all over the city which sell all the books you’re unlikely find in the big name stores such as Waterstones or Easons.
It’s a fantastically grubby little joint worth stumbling into some day if you’re passing (although being up on North Street you probably won’t be unintentionally passing it… unless you’re on your way to one of the naughty and much grubbier adult bookstores further up)
I ended up finding a bizarre cookbook from back close to the birth of Christ that included superbly unappealing recipes like vinegared pork chops and a selection of over cooked vegetables. I think it must have been sponsored by the bland council.