A reader-friendly city, Amsterdam offers plenty of scenic hideaways in which you can forget the time
of day and lose yourself between the covers of a book. Book lovers shelter in the shade of leafy trees, disappear into hidden courtyards and take seats at canal-side cafes - eyes leaving the page just fleetingly to sip at a brew.
For those who reach the end too soon, a phalanx of bookshops is ready to extend one's reading experience; staff are knowledgeable and shelves sag with international bestsellers, second-hand tomes, hardbacks, paperbacks and worthy translations of classics.
With its fetching art-nouveau hallmarks and red-and-white awning, Athenaeum Boekhandel and Nieuwscentrum (Spui 14, tel: 31 020 6242972) is the embodiment of old-school elan. As well as books, it offers a selection of international newspapers (from Euro0.60/$5.50) and magazines from around the world (from Euro1.15 for design, fashion and art titles). An amble away, in a more stately building than you might expect given the company's usual high-street presence, Waterstone's (below; Gasthuis Molensteeg 7, tel: 31 020 4212414) is home to four levels of English-language books (from Euro1.50), magazines (from Euro8), DVDs (from Euro40) and audio books (from Euro30). Sample before you buy in a comfortable armchair, which are available on all floors.
With its scruffy wooden floors, handcrafted signs and hip music, there is a decidedly grass-roots feeling to the American Book Centre (above; Kalverstraat 185, tel: 31 020 6255537). Despite its size (four tiers on the city's busiest shopping street) and lift, most visitors head for the basement for the travel guides (from Euro8), fiction, gay and lesbian publications and children's books. The ground floor is the place for books on music (from Euro10), fashion (from Euro20) and photography (from Euro25).
Second-hand volumes of Dutch, French, English and German literature (from Euro3) and art and archaeology books (from Euro6) are the specialities at Antiquariat Kok (Oude Hoogstraat 14, tel: 31 020 6231191). This family business, founded in 1946, is located on the busiest bicycle path in the Netherlands in a former Hema supermarket, which dates from 1928. The literati is as much charmed by the organised chaos of the crammed-to-the-rafters interior as by the scent of the time-worn, second-hand books. The shop's ground and first floors are open to the public, but its second and third floors, where rare editions are kept, are accessible by appointment only. Antiquariat Kok also sells a wide assortment of antiquarian prints, which range from a modest Euro30 to stratospheric five-figure sums. Shipment can be arranged to almost anywhere in the world.