Historic bookshops

Av. Corrientes 1436 · Balvanera

More than seventy years on the theatre stretch of Corrientes, with new and discounted titles stacked floor to ceiling. It is the classic stop for anyone walking the avenue late. Busy, dense, unmistakably porteño.

Adolfo Alsina 500 · Monserrat

The oldest bookshop in the city, on a corner that has been selling books since 1785, when a pharmacy called La Botica started stocking them. Today it deals in antique and secondhand books, old maps and prints, in a 1926 building a block from the Casco Histórico. Creaky floors, low light, closer to a living museum than a shop.

Thames 1762 · Palermo

A bookshop and café where people stay for coffee and cake between the shelves. Fiction, art and children's books, plus author talks and small shows. Warm and unhurried, more living room than store.

Honduras 5582 · Palermo

Open since 2008 in an old Palermo house that holds a bookshop, a publishing house and a bar in the back garden. Tens of thousands of titles, with readings and literary nights in the patio. Relaxed, slightly overgrown, a house taken over by books.

Av. Santa Fe 1860 · Recoleta

A 1919 theatre turned bookshop, and one of the most photographed in the world. You browse under the original stage curtain and painted ceiling, with the old boxes turned into reading nooks and a café on the stage itself. Go early if you want it quiet.

Av. Callao 892 · Recoleta

Bookshop, café and small stage since 1938, and one of the few places that is both a Bar Notable and a working bookstore. Literature and art shelves wrap around the tables, and there is live music and talks most nights. Bohemian and worn in the good way.

Av. Las Heras 2225 · Recoleta

Opened in 1961 by the poet Héctor Yánover and at this address since 1967, a favourite of poets, critics and teachers. Deep in literature, philosophy and imported editions, chosen by booksellers who actually read them. Intimate and literary, a neighbourhood institution.

Av. Callao 1012 · Recoleta

Open since 2002, with a carefully picked stock of Argentine publishers next to editions imported straight from Spain. Readers come for literature, philosophy and criticism that is hard to find elsewhere. Quiet and studious.

Av. Santa Fe 1670, Galería Bond Street · Recoleta

Inside the countercultural Galería Bond Street, three decades of illustration, comics, pulp, film memorabilia and printed matter that fits no category. Stocked by personal obsession rather than catalogue. Eclectic and a bit underground, like the gallery around it.

Suipacha 521 · Retiro

Founded in 1975 and one of the most respected antiquarian shops in the country: rare first editions, manuscripts, maps and engravings from Argentina and Spanish America. Borges is said to have spent his last Buenos Aires afternoon here in 1985. Formal and hushed, aimed at collectors.

Esmeralda 869 · San Nicolás

An antiquarian shop with more than twenty years behind it, packed floor to ceiling with old and rare volumes on every subject. Narrow aisles, towers of books, more archive than shop. Worth it if you like digging.

Estados Unidos 617 · San Telmo

A small secondhand shop of English language books, the go to for travellers and newcomers swapping novels. Named after the creature in Through the Looking Glass, cramped and a little whimsical, very San Telmo. Classics mixed with paperbacks left behind by whoever passed through.