Books by and for independent women

Battle of the Bookshops: The Book Market in Torremolinos

When I was seventeen, I ran off to live in Spain. I had €60 in my pocket, nowhere to live and no job. It wasn’t the cleverest thing I’ve ever done. But, after a couple of days, things came good and I found myself living on a little street in Torremelinos (ignore the theme pubs, and it’s really rather lovely there) and travelling around Andalusia selling paintings.

It was a strange way to spend the summer. I didn’t make much money, and soon finished the rubbish chick-lit books that I’d bought with me. So I asked my housemates if there was anywhere that I could buy cheap English books. And that was how I found myself in The Book Market.

Back then, The Book Market was a rickety ol’ shop, up winding stairs that you were lucky to spot. Like a crooked house you’d imagine reading about in a dusty old book, it was the perfect place for me to sit, pour through novels and basically, hide from my housemates after working and living in a hostel with them for the entire week. Every Saturday I’d look forward to spending a couple of hours in here, wondering what exciting books I’d buy next.

The best thing was that I could trade in my old books (and those chick-lit novels were sold straight away). Not nearly enough book shops do this, but it makes a profit and keeps customers coming back, how can it not be a brilliant idea?

These guys saw me every week for three months. Even when it was sunny and everyone else was on the beach, I’d be cooped up in here nosing through Catch 22.

So what became of the shop? Well after crossing my fingers, and doing a bit of internet digging (not easy when you Google, the ‘really awesome English book shop in Spain’) I’ve found that it still exists! Hurrah!

Well, it did a year ago. Trip Advisor tells me that it moved away from the secret stairs location, which makes me a bit sad, and now you’ll find it on Calle del Cauce, 11. I have no idea where that is, but it’s near the beach according to the map. But it’s a pretty old source, so now I’m hoping that it’s still here. Anyone been to Torremolinos recently?

I know I haven’t been there in years, but this place was a little lifeline on my trip away. Bookshops are something I always miss if I go away for a long time, especially in a country where I don’t speak the language.

And speaking a language is altogether different from reading a translated classic. The Book Market is a brilliant idea to trade in books, try something new and then take it back when you’re done at the end of your holiday.

It’s the only one I’ve found, and I’d love to know if there were more around Europe, just waiting to be found by little travelling bookworms like me.

What do you read while you’re abroad? Where do you buy your books on your holidays?

Guest post by Sian Meades, editor of Domestic Sluttery

Seeing as it’s been eleven years since Sian visited The Book Market, we haven’t got a picture of it, so here’s a picture of an apparently iconic Torremolinos fishing boat instead.