Librera El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, one of Lonely Planet's favorite bookstores in the world

According to this post on the Lonely Planet website,”Bookshops are a traveller’s best friend: they provide convenient shelter and diversion in bad weather, they’re a reliable source of maps, notebooks, and travel guides, they often host readings and other cultural events, and if you raced through your lone paperback on the first leg of your trip, the bookshop is the place to go for literary replenishment.”

So, the popular travel guide company offers its Top Ten Best World’s Greatest Bookshops. And number one is perhaps the most famous American bookstore of them all, not to mention maybe our most famous indie publisher — City Lights, in San Francisco. According to Lonely Planet,

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Books is still one of the world’s coolest bookshops, almost 60 years after it opened for bohemian business. Having been a meeting point for American literary icons, from beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg onwards, it’s still central to the city’s vibrant cultural scene. As well as three floors of tomes, including those published by City Lights, the shop offers weekly readings and events. More than the nearby Beat Museum, this is the place to feel the boho buzz that once inspired Kerouac et al to drive across America to the Bay Area.

Another favorite of ours is also included — Shakespeare and Company in Paris. Says the LP,

Where did the American beat poets go to share cigarettes and profundities when they were in Europe? Shakespeare & Company of course located in Paris’ Latin Quarter, a tome’s throw from Notre Dame Cathedral. George Whitman, the eccentric American bibliophile who opened the cosy store in 1951, has handed the reins to his daughter as he approaches 100. Nonetheless, much of Shakespeare & Co’s creative, chaotic spirit remains. It’s still a prime spot to fill your rucksack with paperbacks, hang with the Left Bank literati, and admire the packed shelves, wooden beams and poetic posters.

The article also includes a great series of photos of some of the stores — although should we be worried that in a caption to one of those photos the famed guide book company mistakenly places Shakespeare and Company on the wrong side of the river?