Wow, I have been walking by this new construction for the past few months and finally after a few weeks of rain, I was able to walk home form the coffee meeting today and what did i find?

A new English language book store and cafe has opened up. Garden Books and Cafe on Changle Lu opened 2 weeks ago and while it is a small book store, it has a really nice feeling to it. So far the inventory seems to be primarily books on Shanghai, China and travel; Fiction off the NY Times Best seller's list; Chinese Culture including cooing, papercutting, holidays; reference books; and a small variety of others. The opportunity to get the overall feeling of walking thru a few isles of books where everything is in English though...priceless in my mind.

Anyhow, go check it out if you are looking for a nice place for a cup of coffee surrounded by English language books. They also sell the Herald Tribune, SCMP, and Asia Wall Street Journal along with a small selection of magazines.

Cheers!

Garden Books
325 Chang Le Road
between ShanXi Road and Dong Ping Road
5404-8729

Thanks Yu888, I am going to visit this place after finishing window shopping on Huaihai lu, haha!

I would like to find a quiet cafe to do some reading, sometimes Starbucks is too noisy!!!

Ooohhh!!! Can't wait to go and check it out! Thanks!!!

That's Great informtaion. Thanks!!

Magnolia I like your signature.

And they also have home made ice cream. But I have not try it yet !!

Thank you so much, Yu!!! May I buy you a cup of coffee?

I've tried the gelato. It's not bad. I think the bookstore has potential, but they really need to stock up on their book selection. The shelves feel rather empty and it is a wee bit depressing for a bookstore. I want to be engulfed by books!

Hmm. Thought I'd replied to this thread ages ago!

Garden Books has potential. The gelato is decent, and you can't complain much if you've found a gelato place in Shanghai anyway! The range of books they carry is rather eclectic, though I can't decide whether that's due to their ordering practice, the diligent work of the Chinese censors, or the fact that they've just recently opened. Hopefully, they'll improve the selection!

However, the place does nevertheless have a rather relaxing atmosphere, and seems conducive to sitting with a book and reading in peace (one of my favourite things).

Go, enjoy!

Do they have all the black sheeps?
Do they have Wilde? Orwell? Huxley? Joyce? Or is it the usual bullfeces of the foreign bookstore fuzhou lu?

I mean, it's a good idea to have a new bookstore and all that BUT if they didnt address the main problem (lack of real good titles) it will not be a bookstore, just a place to read and have gelato.

The difference between Garden and the "Foreign bookstore" is that i t FEELS more like a quaint bookstore. The selection is still a bit lacking, but it has more than it did when i first posted in March. ADN the fact that more people are in the store nowadays does help its cause. "Good" titles is very subjective. I don't feel that a good bookstore needs to necessarily have the "black sheeps" BUT they do need a wide range of titles and better selection. Lets just hope that they will increase their offereings in the next few months as everything else they have set up seems to be going in the right direction.

I've been to this bookstore, and my initial reaction was very good...I loved the place, and was determined to trek back there at some point.

I did go back, with my mother, who was visiting at the time, in tag. We sat down at the ONLY sofa available...horrible orange plastiky looking thing (they must change the decor in the cafe area). Then we ordered a coffee and a 'homemade' gelato icecream while we each read half of the SCMP we had just borrowed from the store...yes, the people at the counter, hesitatingly agreed to let us read the paper for free! (Understandable since we just spent about 30RMB on icecream and the same again on a coffee...and later went on to purchase over 100rmb of books). Now, the coffee was BAD. It was a small cup and it was not hot enough. The icecream scoops were so miniscule, that I almost cried and the flavour was nothing to brag about. It seemed like the place was generally already on the run-down...the fridge was dirty, for instance.

I did enjoy looking through the book section though, at least because I hadn't seen as many English books as this for a long time.

As a rating of bookstores I have been to anywhere, I would give the place a 1/5

As a rating of bookstores I have been to in China, I would give it a 5/5...it is the best place in Shanghai at the moment.

Have a look at this... http://www.abebooks.com/