Berkeley Books

An offshoot of San Francisco Books in the next street over, Berkeley opened in 2006 and as well as the shop runs a well-organised website with an online catalogue and calls to buy, sell and exchange. In store, the range of literature, criticism, history, philosophy, religion, poetry, literary journals (including a shelf devoted to back issues of the Paris Review), cookbooks and children's books is arranged by genre and studded with treasures, though the space lacks some of the haphazard charm of other similar outlets. But the easy-going welcome and palpable love of reading makes this another charming and worthwhile place to visit in the elegant Saint-Germain district, ideal for stopping off at as part of an afternoon’s browsing around streets thick with quaint booksellers.