Berlin

Give your attention another job.

PLACES TO WANDER · CITY 17

Three independent bookshops worth finding in person. If you're looking for the best independent bookshops in Berlin, Places to Wander's edited guide includes Dussmann English Bookshop in Friedrichstraße, Curious Fox in Kreuzberg and do you read me?! in Mitte. Explore the selected shops below, with neighborhood context, drawings and links to each shop's own website. The guide is edited, not numerically ranked.

Berlin · The bookshop mapChoose a number

Map: Esri, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA, USGS, © OpenStreetMap contributors and GIS User Community. Selected streets and water; numbered points use the existing address matches. Use directions for your visit.

The illustrated issue

Browse the drawings. Open a shop for visiting details.

01 · Friedrichstraße

Dussmann English Bookshop

English-language books · Literature · Ideas

Five floors and around a hundred thousand books, open since 1997 on Friedrichstraße, with an English bookshop inside and staff the store calls Kultivist:innen.

Inside the much larger KulturKaufhaus, the English Bookshop gives you a place to begin. Follow a subject through its shelves, then try an adjacent one. Sometimes a useful new thought starts with a very small change of direction.

Follow a subject through its shelves, then take one step sideways.

Friedrichstraße 90, 10117 Berlin, Germany

02 · Kreuzberg

Curious Fox

English-language books · New and used · Poetry

Opened in 2013 by two Irish founders, moved to Kreuzberg in 2022, and keeps Bloomsday every June.

New books and books with a previous reader share the invitation at Curious Fox. Its Kreuzberg shop brings English-language reading to Lausitzer Platz. There is no need to make every choice productive. A good novel is reason enough.

Buy the novel. Don't write down why.

Lausitzer Platz 17, 10997 Berlin, Germany

03 · Mitte · THE DETOUR

do you read me?!

Magazines · Art · Design · Contemporary culture

Magazines from everywhere, with a Japanese section, in Mitte.

The question above the door is a fair one. do you read me?! gathers magazines and books that make you pay attention to publishing itself. Our detour is for the working eye: see what a small magazine can do with an idea, a sequence and a few well-chosen pages.

Auguststraße 28, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Questions about Berlin’s bookshops

What are some of the best independent bookshops in Berlin?

Places to Wander's edited selection includes Dussmann English Bookshop, Curious Fox and do you read me?!. The guide is not numerically ranked. Each entry explains why the shop is included and links to the shop's own website.

What is The Detour in the Berlin issue?

do you read me?! in Mitte. Magazines from everywhere, with a Japanese section, in Mitte. The Detour is an editorial designation, not a ranking.

Are there specialist bookshops in Berlin?

The guide includes Curious Fox, which focuses on english-language books, new and used, poetry and do you read me?!, which focuses on magazines, art, design, contemporary culture. These are selections from the issue, not a complete directory of every specialist shop in the city.

Does the guide include used or rare bookshops?

Yes. Curious Fox (new and used). Used, antiquarian and rare books are not interchangeable labels; this guide uses each description only where the shop's entry supports it.

Is there a map of the featured bookshops?

Yes. The Berlin issue includes a map and shop index. Select a shop to open its entry, then use the shop's official link for visiting details. The illustrated map is an orientation aid, not a turn-by-turn route.

The Corporate Artist: The Art of Working Beautifully by Morgan Sage Norman

Bring your creative self
back to work.

The Corporate Artist: The Art of Working Beautifully is Morgan Sage Norman’s book about bringing your creative self to everyday work. It explores how the roles we play, the conversations we have and the decisions we make can become creative practice.

Find your copy ↗

The book on Bookshop.org ↗

Have the book with you?

Try Every Role Has a Medium (Your Craft) for a different way to look at what you do.

Or turn to Nothing Is Wasted and Rightsizing Importance. Begin with the title that catches you.

Looking for books about creativity at work? Visit the Reading Room.