Claustrophobic bookstore in Helsinki (photos)

It’s the same in german, fwiw.

Here’s one from my hometown that doesn’t look as messy. But that’s just because of its size. 86sqft dont make that much room for mess…

P.S.: edit: speling

Claustrophobic bookstores are the best bookstores…

Perhaps a subconcious thing from the country it’s in, but when I first saw the picture this instantly reminded me of the description of the store operated by ‘The Finn’ in Gibson’s Neuromancer (with appearances in other Gibson novels

What’s Finnish for “Yomiko’s second home”?

In the Ghent section of Norfolk, VA, I twice visited the ironically named Lighthouse Books, back around 2004–5. Ironic because it was dark and creepy inside, not because of any lack of books. There was room for more books, because there were back rooms that were mostly empty (though one had the guts of a slide projector that was apparently lit by a flame of some sort — maybe a stereopticon). They were creepy too.

Up front were shelves of board and cinderblocks, packed tight and stacked high with books whose backs I couldn’t always make out in the darkness. On my return visit, I brought my own flashlight. As I poked through the not-altogether-interesting (and too pricey, when a price was discernable) books, I heard the guy I took to be the owner telling a friend that the city was on him to put in lights, so he thought maybe he’d put in candles. That’d show 'em. I didn’t laugh.

Perhaps the most interesting thing was the pile of books in the right-hand half of the front of the store. It was about chest-high on me, looked to be about six feet wide, and extended back some unreal number of feet — fifteen or twenty. They weren’t heaped, but piled rectilinearly.

If I’d stayed in the area, I might have gone back to look again, but it wasn’t all that appealing. Bottom line: the books they had just weren’t good enough, especially at the prices asked.

A couple of snaps I took of a similarly crowded bookshop in Insadong, Seoul:

We used to have a place like that - Atlanta Book Exchange. Closed in 2011.

Yomikon toinen koti.

Neuromancer references always welcome.

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