that is very cool

Visions of paradise.

Foyles and Blackwell's of Oxford are familiar territory for me but I'd give my eyeteeth to spend a few happy weeks browsing through the other stores.

The ambiance of a bookstore is incomparable to anything one can get on the web. I had stopped visiting bookstores for online stores, but I've started again.

You might have seen this, but there was a nice roundup of special bookstores in New England in the Sunday Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/travel/explorene/galleries/new_england_independent_bookstores/

I didn't see it, so thanks. It concentrates a little too much on the art/photography/antiquarian side for my taste, but a few of them look like places I'd want to visit, and it was nice to be reminded of Schoenhof's, which I visited only once, decades ago, but have fond memories of.

The British newspaper The Guardian recently published a top 10 of the world's most beautiful bookshops: Top shelves (11 January 2008).
Since one is in the Netherlands and another in Belgium, some newspapers over here picked it up (De Standaard even started a discussion thread on the subject - in Dutch, but as Ilja Trojanow said, you are only truly free if you know multiple languages).
Another nice bookshop in Brussels is Tropismes, which is near Posada, number 7 in The Guardian's list.

Thanks for the post languagehat.

In addition to photos, I have interviews with many of the owners of these bookstores on my site. Please feel free to have a listen:

http://nigelbeale.com/?cat=20

Great! Here's the direct link.