Craft guide
ORBISBOOKSELLERS & STATIONERS IN HANOI6 stores · curated ORBIS register
Hanoi
Gác Xép Bookstore sells secondhand and imported English-language fiction from its Hanoi shop. The store also buys used books and ships nationwide with free delivery over 500,000 VND.
Best for Hanoi bookshop specializing in secondhand and imported English-language fiction
Tay Ho, Hanoi
A two-storey concept store at No.47, Alley 52 To Ngoc Van Street in Hanoi's Tay Ho area, selling fashion, beauty and home goods including ceramics, candles and lacquerware. It also stocks kids' items, stationery and gifts, and offers free nationwide delivery over 1,000,000 VND.
Best for Fashion beauty and home goods
Hanoi
Librairie Française de Hanoi stocks over 16,800 French-language books and Clairefontaine stationery from its shop on Ngo Nui Truc in Ba Dinh district. It also carries Larousse and Le Robert dictionaries.
Best for French-language books and Clairefontaine stationery, with 16,847 titles in stock
Hoàn Kiếm
The Bookshelf Hanoi sells English-language books from a French-era house at 8 Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa in Hoàn Kiếm. Founder Hana opened it in January 2018 as a single wooden shelf inside a decor shop on Đặng Văn Ngữ. The shop moved twice before settling on this street in 2021. Shelves run from fiction and poetry to science and cooking, with a pre-loved section for secondhand copies.
Best for English-language books with a pre-loved shelf and children's titles
The Bookshelf Hanoi began in January 2018 as one wooden shelf at 157 Đặng Văn Ngữ. The shelf stood in a corner of Riri Home, a decor shop of twenty square metres. Founder Hana had studied finance. As a student she bought foreign-language books from a shop near Hoàn Kiếm lake whose owner often discounted them for her. She began selling books to pay for more of her own reading. In autumn 2019 the shop moved to 12 ngõ Trần Xuân Soạn. In 2021 it settled at 8 Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa, a street laid out in 1928 near the centre of the city. The same year two sister shops opened as The Mag Shelf and The Goods Shelf. In December 2022 a further room opened at HipHub Cafe near the cathedral. Staff call the shop Seo, a Vietnamese rendering of Shelf. The stock is English-language and covers fiction, memoir, philosophy, science, business, art. A children's shelf and a pre-loved section for secondhand copies sit alongside. Each order goes out with a bookmark and a thank-you card that changes with the season. A 2026 profile in Báo Quốc tế describes the shop as a meeting point where Vietnamese readers and foreign visitors talk across the shelves. Roughly three in ten customers arrive from abroad. The registered company behind the shop is Kệ Sách Thế Giới, owned by Quách Mỹ Hoa, and its filing gives the same address on Nguyễn Chế Nghĩa.
Ba Đình
Hanoi's first English-language bookshop, opened in 2001 by Australian author Pam Scott as an expat book exchange; Vietnamese owner Hoang Van Truong took over in 2006.
Best for English-language books at this Hanoi shop since 2001
The Bookworm opened in Hanoi in August 2001, founded by Australian author Pam Scott as the city's first and only English-language bookshop, built initially as a book exchange for the expatriate community. In 2006, the store passed to Hoang Van Truong, a Vietnamese reader whose Australian foster parents had run it, and who took over full-time. The shop holds roughly 15,000 titles, about 40 percent of them new stock imported from the United States and United Kingdom, with the rest secondhand copies bought or exchanged with customers. Its customer base splits roughly three ways: about 40 percent foreign residents, 30 percent Vietnamese readers, and 30 percent travelers passing through. The store operates a buyback program for used English-language books and offers same-day delivery within Hanoi. Located in the Ba Đình district, it remains one of the few dedicated English-language bookshops in Vietnam, serving both the long-term expat community and visitors looking for reading material during their stay.
Old Quarter, Hanoi
A locally owned bookshop in the heart of Hanoi's Old Quarter selling new, used and remaindered books, including Vietnamese authors translated into English and French. Its inventory also covers travel, philosophy, cookbooks and children's literature.
Best for New and used books in old quarter
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗
Visit official site ↗