Bookstore Guide: Pequod Books, Berlin

Where? Berlin, Germany

Recommended by Alvaro and Amanda

Amanda said: "Pequod stocks used books in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Norwegian, Romanian and Danish, along with a handful of books in other languages. The bright, orderly shop is small-ish, but a second room will be opened in the coming months, nearly doubling the size of the store. The selection leans strongly toward traditional classics, in part because owner Álvaro Sendra González does not speak all of the languages he offers, but also because, an artist by trade, he is still learning about the book business, and is building his stock up from a solid foundation. González is candid about this learning process and the experimentation involved. He’s been disappointed by sales of Turkish books — Czech books sell better — and says that French books haven’t done as well as he expected, even though his selection is good and it’s clearly an under-served population. González wanted to “do something good for Berlin” by setting up Pequod and, in the spirit of our low-cost city, no book in the shop costs more than €6. Pequod will buy used books."

Named after the ship in Melville's Moby Dick, Pequod books opened in the summer of 2012, after Alvaro, the owner, moved to Berlin a couple of years back and realized that it was almost impossible for him to find books in his native, Spanish language. So he decided to do something perhaps a bit unusual but something every large city should have - an international bookstore. And Pequod Books truly is this because Alvaro has books in 25+ languages and it is still expanding. His English language section consists of some 900 books but you should also check out other sections as well. There is also a German section of the store.