Seven Amsterdam bookshops worth writing home about
The Dutch were early adopters of the printing press and Amsterdam is still a haven of the written word. These bookshops keep the pages turning.
The Dutch were once at the centre of Europe’s publishing world. When the printing press rolled out across Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, the people of The Netherlands were early adopters – helping to create a thriving literary culture driven by commerce. But they didn’t limit themselves to publishing the Bible like other obedient merchants. Thanks to a lack of national censorship, Amsterdam’s printers could satisfy a whole European market with radical texts from the emerging Enlightenment. People such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Thomas Hobbes took advantage of this freedom to print their controversial ideas in the Dutch capital before smuggling them into their native countries.
Today, there is still a thriving market for books of all kinds and all languages in Amsterdam. There are bookshops all around the city, and while prices tend to be higher than elsewhere in Europe, that’s partly due to regulation protecting local authors’ earnings and ensuring a fair market between bookshops.
1.
ABC, Centrum
It was slightly more than a decade ago that Monocle dubbed the American Book Center “the best bookstore in the world”. Plenty of people still agree. Based in the heart of Amsterdam’s shopping district on the Spui, it is a true original with its lurid blue lettering, a tree trunk running through the building and an Instagram-worthy hand-painted window. The shop, which now has sister stores in The Hague and in Leidschendam, boasts one of the Netherlands’ largest collections of English-language titles but there’s also room for games, magazines and knick-knacks.
Its director, Martijn Meerts, says that ABC’s great strength during its 50-year history has been adaptability. “We are a family-owned, indie bookshop and have reinvented ourselves again and again over the years to adapt to the times,” he says. “We read the room.” Until recently, ABC had its own book printer called Betty for use by the self-publishing crowd. The bookshop also runs regular talks and events linking writers with agents and illustrators, and offers both “booklover boxes” (selections of books ideal for friends) and consultancy services about what to buy. “You have a space; we can fill it with books,” says Meerts. The promise that all the staff here are certified book lovers is even printed on its cotton bag.
abc.nl
- The top ten bestsellers at ABC in 2025 included a translated Belgian novel originally published in 1995, I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman, and a Japanese book about colour theory, A Dictionary of Color Combinations by Sanzo Wada.
- ABC started out as the American Discount Book, Magazine, Poster Retail and Distribution Center – “American Discount” for short. It sold excess stock and magazines from the US, and teachers and students still get 10 per cent off.
- If you are open to chance, ABC sells “blind book dates”, a mystery book with a few key words and phrases on its wrapping.
2.
Scheltema, Centrum
Scheltema is Amsterdam’s largest bookshop and is right in the centre, just off Dam Square. It has a historic feel with escalators and a charming staircase leading to floor upon floor of books. If you can’t find something specific, there are helpful staff, and the café on the first floor is an Amsterdam insiders’ haunt for excellent cake (the appeltaart and carrot cake from Patisserie Holtkamp are top sellers but staff also recommend the vegan chocolate torte).
Founded in 1853 by author Jacobus Hendrik Scheltema, the shop now holds more than 125,000 titles, and provides a welcome antidote to the rowdy red-light district, which is a stone’s throw away. “We have something for everyone, from magical children’s books to delicious cookbooks and adult fiction,” says staff member Marlou van Beek. “With five floors full of books, anyone could walk around for hours.”
athenaeumscheltema.nl/scheltema
- The author handprints in the literary “walk of fame” pavement outside, created when Scheltema moved to this location in 2015, include wine reviewer Harold Hamersma’s corkscrew and a paw print in honour of Italian fictional mouse Geronimo Stilton (pictured above).
- Find out more about the city in the Amsterdam section on the fourth floor. There are maps and walking-tour suggestions, while popular titles include the bilingual edition of the photography book, Amsterdam Then & Now by Sharon Hansma, the evergreen Amsterdam by historian Geert Mak and journalist Marcel van Engelen’s Amsterdam (De stad in Dutch).
- Scheltema is unusually accessible in a city that is known for its steep and wonky staircases: there is a lift to all floors and ramps on the split levels.
3.
Island Boekholt, Jordaan
This friendly neighbourhood bookstore makes you feel connected to the world by stocking a wide range of international papers and magazines; it also has a well-curated children’s section. Originally opened by collector and bookseller Henk van der Does in the charming Tweede Tuindwarsstraat, it now sits on a main shopping street in Jordaan and is part of a group of four stores. The glory years of bookselling might have been 15 years ago but manager Martijn van Bommel says that he has seen many customers return to physical books in recent years. “We do hear people saying, ‘I have played around with the e-reader and it’s sometimes handy on holiday but I just want a real book in my hands,’” he says.
The collection of newspapers and magazines spills out onto the street and the store tries to encourage a sense of casual hospitality. “We try to make everyone feel welcome and not like they have to buy something,” says Van Bommel. “You are free to look around and we have a kind of neighbourhood function – you really get to know people and strike up friendships.”
libris.nl/boekholtboekhandels/island
- The Anne Frank House is just around the corner so this bookshop is the place to buy a copy of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl – the latest version has been updated with passages that her father, Otto, edited out.
- At Island, you might spot some familiar faces as plenty of TV journalists live in Jordaan and are regulars at the shop. The staff are too discreet to name names.
- Island has a particularly good selection of Dutch books in English, such as Harry Mulisch’s The Discovery of Heaven and Willem Frederik Hermans’ classic Beyond Sleep and Belgian writer Lize Spit’s coming-of-age novel, The Melting.
4.
Minerva, Oud-Zuid
This is a bookshop that could be transported to modern-day Amsterdam from Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road. Literature, cookbooks and histories are piled to the ceiling here.
English-language stock might be small but the owners know their stuff and will give you a perfect experience of no-nonsense Dutchness. Tom Dulfer, who runs the business with wife Patricia, says that they are unapologetically analogue. “We don’t try to be a commercial bookstore but we read a lot of books ourselves,” he says. “And we talk about them to our clients. We don’t do anything on the internet or follow people via Facebook – we do everything in the store.”
The bookshop welcomes both locals and visitors, though its stock is mostly Dutch fiction and non-fiction. “We have all the time in the world for people,” says Dulfer. “If they find you’re attentive, you give the right answers and you recommend books honestly, then that shines out in their enthusiasm – and then they tell other people about us. That’s how simple it is, and that’s what we have been doing for 50 years. So far, so good.”
boekhandelminerva.nl
- This is one place in Amsterdam where you can find British newspapers – at least, the Financial Times’ weekly edition.
- Wartime literature is always popular as more stories continue to emerge about the secret history of buildings, resistance fighters and collaborators during the Second World War. Recommended books include Roxane van Iperen’s The High Nest about a house where Jewish people hid from the Nazis under the noses of local collaborators and Miep Gies’s Anne Frank Remembered (The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family).
- Popular factual books include the Atlas of Mokum (Der Atlas van Mokum) by Maarten Hell and Mirjam Knotter, a well-illustrated history of Jewish life in the city. The title is inspired by the Jewish nickname for Amsterdam.
5.
Boekhandel Over het water, Amsterdam-Noord
Instead of heading into the city, take a free ferry north of Central Station to Buiksloterweg, where you’ll find the Eye Filmmuseum, A’dam Lookout and a great little bookshop.
Over het water (which means “over the water” in Dutch) is on the ground floor of a modest brick terrace that features fairy lights and a small but wide-ranging collection with emphasis on minority points of view. “I really focus on quality in each subject and people like that,” says Jildau de Boer, who took over the shop two years ago. “On the internet, you have an endless selection but here it’s a question of choosing things well. I pay a lot of attention to minorities: women, queer authors, climate, animal rights and feminism.”
De Boer tries to provide more diversity in children’s books too, as well as giving space to smaller publishers. And the feel of the book matters, she says, as well as “its smell, the layout and typography, the material used”. Most books are in Dutch but De Boer does have a tight English selection and a friendly feeling between visitors. “People often meet each other unexpectedly here, which is funny… it feels like a community has grown up around the bookshop.”
boekhandeloverhetwater.nl
- There’s a well-stocked children’s section, including a little desk and toys. The shop regularly hosts authors, including Dutch children’s writer Joke van Leeuwen, a recent guest whose fans packed out the small venue.
- Although high-rise buildings are going up across Amsterdam-Noord to meet housing demand, this shop is in the 1920s “garden village” (tuindorp) of Van der Pekbuurt, one of the first social-housing projects in the area.
- De Boer says that one of the shop’s most interesting current publications is artist Nynke Deinema’s 48-page De Schaduw van de Witte Kebaya (The Shadow of the White Kebaya). The limited-edition book is based on Deinema’s artistic project exploring colonial relations in the Dutch East Indies through the white blouses worn by Indo-European women.
6.
De Boekhandel van Pampus, Amsterdam Oost
When the founder of this much-loved local spot in Amsterdam East, Carel van Pampus, passed away last December, a crowdfunding campaign turned the page for two new owners: former joint managers Mieke van Dooren and Marianne Drissen (pictured below).
According to Drissen, they can sum up their whole ethos in just three words: uitnodigen tot oponthoud (inviting you to linger). The shop is part of a harbourside area called the Oostelijk Havengebied and the water feels close: many books are displayed on wooden crates and Van Pampus’s collection of ships is mounted on the wall. There is a small, mixed line-up of books: plenty of literature about birds, a section on politics and current affairs, a bit of beach reading and some English titles. “The shop breathes homeliness and you can also stop by for a cup of tea or coffee and a chat,” says Drissen. “The personal side is very important.”
boekhandelvanpampus.nl
- There is a casual book club every six weeks. You don’t have to sign up, just come along.
- This area is a great place to admire Dutch architecture and engineering: on the other side of the water are the four manmade islands of IJburg, created to relieve some of the housing pressure in one of Europe’s most densely populated cities.
- A curious touch: the shop’s artistic handy person has made a sketch of Dalí on the wall and a Leonardo-esque Vitruvian Man on the ceiling.
7.
Java Bookshop, Amsterdam Oost
Behind a modest shop window is a space as warm as the cup of hot coffee that’s pictured in the logo of this bookshop in eastern Amsterdam.
The shop was opened in 2010 by friends Sanne Fase and Sharon Perlee, who met playing football, and has grown from three bookshelves to a packed store, with Sanne’s sister Lisa Fase joining the team to focus on children’s literature. Opening out onto the busy shopping street of Javastraat, it feels clean and inviting.
There’s a broad range of literature, including a large English-language section and recommended titles, plus comfortable chairs to sit and browse. Staff will giftwrap your book in elegant paper and there’s a good selection of children’s books and cards. “We often think of Java Bookshop as a kind of living room, and it certainly feels like a second home to me,” says Lisa Fase.
javabookshop.nl
- The Java team recommend Yael van der Wouden, whose first novel The Safekeep – about the enduring impact of the Holocaust – was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Other recommendations include novelist Jente Posthuma’s What I’d Rather Not Think About, shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and poet and writer Nadia de Vries.
- Discover some Dutch children’s books: Lampje by Annet Schaap is ever popular, translated as Lampie and the Children of the Sea. Everyone loves Max Velthuijs’s Kikker books about the adventurous Frog and his friends. Yorick Goldewijk’s Movies Showing Nowhere for readers from “nine to adults” is another tip.
- While you’re on the Javastraat, head out for a wander: there are breezy café terraces on the street and some of the best baklava and savoury börek in Amsterdam, made at Turkish bakery Divan Pastanesi.
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