CNN's World's Coolest Bookstores

Shelf Awareness

In addition to spotlighting familiar names such as Powell's City of Books, Foyles, Shakespeare & Company and the Strand, CNN's list of "the world's coolest bookstores" includes Books for Cooks in Melbourne, Australia.

CNN wrote: "Housed in a 150-year-old former sly grog shop (speakeasy) on one of Melbourne's most interesting streets, this small bookstore is the only retail shop in Australia specializing in cookbooks. Every type of cuisine and culinary category imaginable can be found on its floor-to-ceiling shelves. Treasures include several beautiful 18th-century culinary books.

" 'Our customers are chefs, foodies and armchair gourmets,' co-owner Tim White tells CNN. 'We catalog more than 40,000 cookbooks and on any given day have at least 30,000 in stock.'

"The store ships around the world, at cost."