If you’re a bit of a bookworm, the chances are that you’ll be looking for places to buy English or other foreign (i.e. not Chinese) literature in Shanghai. Well, you’re in luck. As well as a slew of high street bookshops, our city has a treasure trove of markets and swap-fests where you can sate your literary appetite.

The first stop on your book search should be Fuzhou Lu. Historically one of Shanghai’s cultural streets, Fuzhou Lu has been home to bookshops and stationery stores since the 1940s. At number 36 Shanxi Nan Lu, close to the junction with Fuzhou, is the very unassuming Shanghai Book Traders Used Books Bookstore. It’s easy to miss but once you get there, you’ll find a great selection of non-Chinese titles, as well as foreign magazines. More famous and flashy is the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore (390 Fuzhou Lu, near Fujian Lu) – nine floors of shiny new tomes. Head straight to the top floor where you’ll find cheap classics as well as modern stuff. Other branches of the SFLB can be found at 505 Nanjing East Rd, 201 Renmin Da Dao, 50 Hongqiao Lu, 65 Yan’an Xi Lu, 1 Century Avenue, and 6 Zunyi Bei Lu. The other big daddy of books on Fuzhou Lu is the Shanghai Book City at number 465.

A place that not everyone would think about when shopping for books is the Foreign Language Press on Dalian Lu beside the university in Hongkou. While their bookshop stocks mainly study aids for Chinese students learning English, they also have a great section of English language books for cheap prices.

The Confucius Temple in Huangpu (215 Wenmiao Lu) is famous among Shanghai book lovers for its busy Sunday second-hand market. Each Sunday at 7:30am, around 200 stalls are set up in the temple grounds. The market starts to get busy after 10am, and closes at 3pm. It has one of the most interesting selections of second hand books to be found in Shanghai, plus the buzz of bargaining and digging out a hidden treasure.

A good book and a cup of coffee is one of life’s great pleasures, which makes Garden Books (325 Changle Lu, near Shanxi Lu) a veritable paradise for discerning literati. The ground floor has an ice-cream parlor/café where you can sit and browse one of the many English titles. Garden boasts the widest range of English language books in Shanghai, including fiction, non-fiction, and travel guides. And, even better, if there’s a book you want which they don’t have in stock, they’ll order it for you.

The Bell Café (No. 11, Lane 248 Taikang Lu, near Sinan Lu) has come up with a nifty idea – any book from their selection can be bought for ¥20. If you bring a book back in good condition within three months, they’ll buy it back for ¥10. You can also exchange two of your books for one of theirs, as long as yours is in good shape.

If you want to pick up a good read without paying more than the cost of a latte, try Boonna Café (1690 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Wanping Lu) which has a well-stocked shelf of used books near the back. And if it’s magazines you’re looking for, but don’t want to shell out import prices, spend an afternoon in Bovo Mondo (427 Dagu Lu, near Chengdu Bei Lu) which has a huge selection of Western mags for customers to read with their coffee and cake.

One of the best and cheapest ways of acquiring new books is to swap with friends. Don’t have any literary buddies? Try the Shanghai Book Club. They meet every second Sunday of the month at the Figaro Café in Xintiandi (G/F 160 Xingye Lu) to talk about a specific book. It’s a great way to chat about literature and meet like-minded people. Email info@figarocoffee.com for details of the next meeting.

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