The newest of China’s surreal mirrored bookstores is now open in Chongqing, offering a disorienting, Escher-like experience to all who enter. Designed by X+Living, the Chongqing Zhongshuge Bookstore leads visitors through an unassuming glass facade on the third floor of Zodi Plaza and into a reflective maze full of reading materials waiting to be discovered.

Within the lobby is an arrangement of lampshade-shaped bookshelves that curve around illuminated reading spaces, their mirror images on the ceiling making them look much taller than they really are. “The bookshelves reflect on the ground and form a tunnel of books that beckons visitors to follow it deeper into space and knowledge,” says X+Living.

Further down the hallway, a “ladder hall” offers three levels of bookshelves accessed by branching staircases. The mirrors make it difficult to tell where the real shelves end and the reflections begin, but the space would be marvelous even without them. An adjacent children’s room is brighter in color, but similarly disorienting.

“Up to the 4th floor from the ‘ladder hall”’is a leisure area, where visitors can enjoy the aroma of coffee or a taste of good tea and immerse themselves into a tranquil world of different stories by reading. The ‘lampshade-shaped bookshelves’ around create scattered booths at this area, in which visitors may gather with friends to have fun reading and enjoy their leisure time. Connected to the leisure area is the extensive reading hall, where works of great minds are listed and visitors are able to broaden their eyes and enrich their spiritual world.”

Previously, the same studio designed floor-to-ceiling curved and mirrored bookshelves at the Yangzhou Zhongshuge bookshop, creating the effect of a tunnel of books. Check it out here.

The appearance of the city outside – complete with crosswalks and grids resembling aerial views of urban blocks – acts as a transition space between the entrance of a bookstore and the quiet, private spaces beyond. This space by XL-muse, located on the fourth floor of the Réel Mall in Shanghai, references the orderly aspects of urban aesthetics, carrying them from the sunny, exposed main room into the darkened alleys full of floor-to-ceiling shelves.

Street lights gently illuminate the rows of books in these tranquil hallways, organized like pedestrian promenades complete with central park benches and displays. Mirrors are employed to visually double the height of the shelves, making them feel as if they continue up into the sky and stretch far deeper into the building than they really do. Paths direct you from one ‘house’ of books to the next as you explore the shop.

In these atmospherically-lit areas bursting with dark-stained wood, shoppers feel like they’re navigating the city late at night, when the traffic has died down and the streets are eerily silent. The crosswalks continue into the small cafe, stepping right up onto the ceiling and then back out into the showroom, where white pegs inserted into the concrete walls can be pulled or pushed to create display niches.

Bibliophiles can browse books inside a 19th-century theater filled with frescoes, a converted cathedral, a subterranean space with sci-fi vibes or an incredibly ornate space that helped inspire Hogwarts. From Los Angeles to Beijing, Buenos Aires to Romania, these 13 bookstores are among the world’s most beautiful and unique.

Converted Church: Selexyz Dominicanen, Maastricht, The Netherlands

A dream bookstore in every respect, this location of the Selexyz chain in Maastricht occupies a 13th century Dominican church, inserting modern elements as a building-within-a-building to preserve the historic architecture. A cafe can be found within the area formerly occupied by the choir.

Livraria Lello, Porto, Portugal

Said to be among JK Rowling’s inspirations for Hogwarts, Portugal’s Livraria Lello features an incredible red staircase snaking through four stories of floor-to-ceiling stacked books in dark-stained cases. Ornate painted plaster ceilings, a stained glass skylight and bas-relief sculptures of Portuguese literary figures adorn the inspirational space.

Fang Suo Commune, Chengdu, China

Chinese book retailer Fang Suo Commune opened an incredible underground store in Chengdu with over 320 continuous feet of bookshelves lining the two long sides of the space. Measuring over 40,000 square feet of a subterranean mixed-use complex next to the ancient dace temple, the bookstore features 37 massive columns supporting a concrete canopy.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore, Buenos Aires

What was once the Teatro Gran Splendid, which opened in 1919, is now one of the world’s most stunning bookstores. The El Ateneo in Buenos Aires, Argentina once had a capacity for 1050 audience members, but now houses hundreds of thousands of books. Original details like the crimson stage curtains, ornate carvings and ceiling frescoes remain.

Cook & Book, Brussels

Hungry bookworms in Brussels make their way to the Cook & Book, a combination bookstore and restaurant with a series of themed rooms divided by subject. There’s a modern train making loops around the kids’ area, an Airstream caravan in the travel section and British flags waving around the English Literature room. The cook book department even has your choices laid out on a salad bar, along with a host of edible treats.

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Bibliophiles Dream 13 Of The Worlds Most Beautiful Bookstores

This stunning 15th-century Dominican church is dedicated to much more than just one book – it contains thousands of them, in fact, stacked row upon row in a modern three-story addition. Located in The Netherlands, ‘Waanders In de Broeren‘ opened to the public in July, offering a large selection of tomes as well as an assortment of retail goods.

The new converted church bookstore is highly reminiscent of Selexyz Dominicanen, a similar concept in Maastricht, Holland with a multi-level black volume sitting lightly within the church’s arches and vaulted ceilings. Where that structure was darker and more dramatic, this one is light and bright, complementing the original colors of the church.

The three additional floors  were placed in the side wing of the church, between the original pillars. The central axis was left open so visitors can still appreciate the grand scale of the building, with views of the organ  and a modern stained glass window.

A central staircase routes customers through the merchandise display area a half-level at a time, ending right under the renovated church arches. Inspiration for the furniture was taken from Dom Hans van deer Laan, a Dutch architect who was also a monk. The addition is not secured in any way to the original architecture, so it can be easily removed without damage