Books are normally something made of paper which is held in your hands and read by your eyes, wandering from top left to bottom right. In this bookshop, however, you will find a wide range of books which are audible. So-called talking books are becoming more and more popular, delighting blind people, drivers, lovers of radio plays and militant tree welfarists. Large print editions are also available for partially sighted people.
The name of this bookshop says it all. Crime stories by Hammett and of course all the other celebrities of this genre from Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Patricia Highsmith to modern representatives of crime thrillers such as Donna Leon or the German bestseller author Ingrid Noll can be found here. Real crime fans hunt for books at HAMMETT Krimibuchhandlung, in the original English and American versions, as well as for inexpensive second-hand books.
This bookshop sells books for people who can't read. Books with pictures of cats and dogs, pigs and cows. Children's books! As well as a wide range of picture books for toddlers, v.kloeden also stocks novels for older children, foreign language books, videos and a huge range of toys.
Some call it kitsch and trash, while for others it's cult. The kids who flock to Roman & Comicladen, a popular comic store in a quiet backstreet in Friedrichshain don't care what you call it. They just want to get their hands on one of the comics, fantasy novels or adventure books which the shop stocks. A speciality of the house is the vast collection of children's books and comics from the East German era, not to forget the astonishing collection of Kinder Egg figures. Besides the weekdays, the shop is also open on the first Saturday of every month from 10a-2p.
Vom Fass is a popular wine shop with franchises all over Germany. It also has several stores in other European countries and even a couple of them in Japan. Their most central shops are located at Ostbahnhof station and near Schloßstraße in Friedenau. All Vom Fass shops have one thing in common- the wine, oil, vinegar and spirits aren't sold in bottles but are filled up straight from the barrel; sherry from the oak barrel, oil from terracotta pots and grappa from huge, round, glass containers. You can either bring your own empty bottle or buy one of the many fine bottles on sale here.
A specialist book store for alternative children's literature, Anagramm stocks books by contemporary authors such as Cornelia Funke, Paul Maar and Marjaleena Lembcke. There are cassettes by contemporary singers like Atze, Robert or Fredrik Vahles in preference to the outdated classics available in most other book shops. A section for grown-ups has a selection of cook books, travel guides and postcards. The shop also stocks a number of English language books.