Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

This is the epitome of a great bookshop; endless piles of stock all around the place, and what seems like every last topic and subject in the world is covered by someone. It’s particularly strong in the non-​fiction and educational areas, and I spent ages perusing what must have been every cookbook and guidebook in the whole world. I love that they have the bargain fiction outside the shop to be rummaged through. It’s generally well organised but at the same time it’s hard to track down exactly what you’re looking for– but you’ll always come upon something even more interesting than you came for!
The staff are all amazing and clearly obsessed with reading and writing books, and you can really sense that love in their service.

C’est le genre de librairie qui ferait tomber dans les pommes Belle, de la Belle et la Bête. Un paradis pour les rats de bibliothèques.
Tu aimes les livres? les vieux bouquins, leur odeur, leur histoire? Tu aimes voir les étagères déborder, les livres qui né tiennent pas dans le rayonnage posés horizontalement sur leurs copains? Bah vas faire un tour chez Charlie Byrne.
Franchement.
Il y a plusieurs salles qu’on découvre les unes après les autres (et quand y en a plus y en a encore), du bois partout, de grandes tables qui ont l’air prêtes à s’effondrer si on ajoute une feuille de papier dessus.
Le pied.
Ils ont plein de livres d’occasion ! (j’aime les livres d’occasion. Tu peux en acheter plus, ahah !) Plusieurs chaises et fauteuils sur lesquels les gens lisent tranquillement (même s’il y en a aussi qui dorment, je veux pas balancer mais quand même).
Bön, si tu veux te débarrasser pour de bon de ta belle-​mère chiante et asthmatique/​allergique à la poussière, c’est l’endroit où l’emmener en balade. Mais on a rien sans rien.
Tiens, il y a même des livres en français, si t’es vraiment en rade !
Et j’ai beaucoup aimé le grand présentoir à l’entrée, avec les conseils du club de lecture du magasin. J’aime bien quand de vrais gens expliquent sur des petits papiers pourquoi ils ont aimé telle ou telle histoire. Donc tu sais que tel bouquin t’est conseillé par Mary, et tel autre par Paul, ça donne un petit côté vraiment humain.
En bref, une librairie magnifique, super bien fournie, qui regorge de livres sur tous les sujets possibles, dans une rue calme de Galway. Un immense coup de cœur ! Du coup, place symbolique pour mon 100e avis.

Charlie Byrne’s is what a proper bookshop should be. The place unfolds room by room with an enormous selection across every genre imaginable, but with particular strength in anything Irish. It even has a sizable selection of books in Gaelic. Incredibly cozy, with incredibly friendly, knowledgeable staff, this is what we all wish our local book shop could be. I found some wonderful treasures of books to give as gifts here. Do not miss this wonderful spot.

A proper bookshop that a reader could while away an entire day in. Well-​organised but not clinical like so many bookshops are these days, I found the sections easy to navigate but lots of surprises to be found in each. The staff really love books and have an eclectic and open-​minded approach to what constitutes a book worth reading. Lots of second-​hand books and plenty of interesting new titles. Love this place. Love love.

Wonderful book shop! Large selection in a big meandering space — much larger than it appears when you first walk in.
Very knowledgeable staff. I asked a question of one employee, who answered it to my satisfaction as she walked me back to the sections I was asking after. Then, she stopped on the way to consult another employee on a ladder, who gave me even more information about my question.
Great prices that vary — multiple copies may have differing prices, so check the tags on the front or back covers.

A Galway institution, just around the corner from tigh Neachtain’s, another great Galway institution!

A hidden treasure trove full of gems to be discovered, Charlie Byrne’s is really as good as it gets. With a varied selection of secondhand and new books at reasonable prices, it’s unmissable if you are a book lover visiting Galway. It is easy to pass away an hour or five in its delightfully arranged interior. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

Charlie Byrne’s bookshop has that delightfully old fashioned feel to it, so that upon entering the store, you believe you have accidentally stepped into the past. My experience of this bookshop spans 15 years, from when i was a child, choosing picture books, to a teenager reading horror, to now as an adult choosing a good read. It is a lucky dip of a bookstore, as you never know exactly what you will leave with. There is no rush at Charlie Byrnes, where time is endless, and people stand literally nose-​in-​book, reading ahead to find out the ending. I remember the older days, when the prices were scrawled in pencil on the inside covers, or in some cases estimated at the counter upon purchase. I love the way the staff have time to comment on your book, and relate the history of the collection, or suggest further reading. I also remember one day when a diligent shop assistant searched for 20 completely different books for me, which was truly no easy feat. I hope this bookshop lasts for many years to come, as apart from Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, I have never found another bookstore to rival it.

Fantastic book shop, I’m always amazed at I what I find in there, new and secondhand.
I can, and have spend hours in there.
There is literally (pardon the pun) everything and anything on any subject you can imagine !!

This bookshop is a little gem with a huge range of books. You could easily pass an hour or two just browsing the shelves looking at the huge selection that Charlie Byrnes has to offer.

For most committed bibliophile, the current trend towards stacking and arranging books like they were any other product is a disturbing one. Books are not apples, or tins of beans, or discount toilet paper; books are living things, full of ideas and concepts, uncontainable and free. In Charlie Byrne’s, they understand what a book is. Books prowl the perimeter of the premises; escaped novels snarling at would-​be intruders. Inside, ambitious books with lofty ideals climb over and on top of each other, limited only by the physical confines of the ceiling. In Chalie Byrne’s, books — not the consumer — are the king. There are no artistic displays by some first-​year marketing student here; it’s a shop as full of all kinds of books — a mix of 50,000 of them, new, remaindered, cookery, music, geography, Irish language and literature, you name it — as it can physically be, with literally floor to ceiling bookshelves. In short, it’s a book shop for people who love books, the kind of people who would think nothing of reading the biography of some unheard-​of second-​rate nineteenth-​century Burmese village bureaucrat if it was a well-​written story. Don’t get me wrong; Charlie Byrne’s stocks all the latest fiction from those hot new Manhattan loft-​dwelling authors that the critics love… but if you’re only looking for what you know or has been recommended to you by the right critics, then you may as well just go to one of the big chains with their book arrangements, who’ll have that loft book right in front of you — if you’re not willing or able to track, hunt and trap your own book, or be unexpectedly stalked and pounced on by a random book yourself, then Charlie Byrne’s is not for you.