世界美麗書店 World’s beautiful bookshops

I came across a list called 19 of the most beautiful bookshops around the world today, nearly half of them are in Europe (author is British), 6 are in Americas and 4 are in Asia.  Why the list has 19 and not 20 I don’t know, nor do I know what criteria was used in the selection.  Anyway, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so let’s focus on what’s on the list and not how the list came about.

True enough, most of the bookshops on the list are indeed very beautiful and unique in their own way.  There is a mix of minimalist modern ones, historical grandeur structures as well as ones that blend in with nature and their natural environment.  For book lovers, the collection within the bookshop is just as important if not even more important than the actual bookshop itself otherwise this becomes an architectural list and not a bookshop list.

Perhaps the only way to find out is to stop by the next time we visit these cities.

今天我在網上看到一個世界19間最美麗書店的名單，其中近半數在歐洲（作者是英國人） ， 6間在美洲，4間在亞洲。為什麼名單只有19而不是20 間，我不知道；我也不知道這名單的標準是什麼。總之，情人眼裡出西施，每個人審美眼光不一樣，所以我就仔細看看名單上的書店，而不論名單是怎樣來的。

無可否認，名單上的書店大多確實很漂亮，每一間都有它自己很獨特的美態。有現代簡約，有懷舊歷史，也有宏偉建設，更有些是自然和環境融為一體。對於愛書人來說，書店裡的藏書量，種類及質素是最重要的， 甚至比書店本身更重要，否則這將只是一個美麗建築物名單，而不是美麗書店名單。

也許唯一可找出從真相的辦法就是下一次到訪這些城市時，順帶到名單上的書店朝聖。