Stokes Books

I love a good used book shop, but I hadn’t realized Stokes was so very topic specific. Mostly about Ireland, some history and philosophy.

I know Stokes specialises in used books (and those shelves outside certainly aren’t first run) but my brain has a hard time thinking of this as a used book store. See, it has to do with the stock inside.
Behind the window and packing every dustless shelf, Stokes stocks an amazing range of Irish vintage publications. From Dublin City Council meeting minutes (vols 1850 — 1932) to Victorian picture books and souvenir albums of Edwardian countryside, its here.
So refined is the selection (and so pricey, that picture book is € 100) that it’s incredible to re-​discover every time I visitl! Must be down to that gruff bibliophile owner who’s clearly got the idea on scene setting… I can’t see this place as a used book shop, but I can’t think of it being anywhere else.

I’m mad about second hand bookshops and although it doesn’t cater to me specifically, it’s still a pretty good bookshop.
It has loads of old Irish books, as well as fiction and the like. Everything here seems leatherbound and academic, with the odd music or cookbook thrown in for good measure.
Definitely the right place to go for Irish history/​fiction books.

From the outside it looks like the personification of a student at the end of rag week. Don’t let the mess of books put your off though. As cliched as it sounds, don’t judge a book by it’s cover.
Inside once your start scouring through the titles you will be pleasantly surprised at the rich variety. The books are well cared for and I have easily lost an hour just exploring titles. In one way it feels like a treasure hunt.
So the moral of the story is don’t define a student at the tail end of rag week, because if you meet him for a quiet pint you will be surprised at his knowledge.

If there’s one kind of shop sure to entice me, a proper bookstore is it. I’m a nerd at heart (I try to hide it, but apparently not very well) and second hand book shops are my vice. Well, that and jewellery. But that’s neither here nor there.
Anyway, Stokes is right up my alley, and would make any avid reader, or just Sunday stroller stop a minute. From old copies of Chaucer to modern cookery books, this place has it all. You can spend hours browsing the shelves here, never quite knowing what you’ll get next. I once got my friend, who was studying early modern Florentine history at the time (God knows why), a 1950s book on Florentine social life of precisely the period she was looking at. For € 5. Perfect Christmas present? Sorted. (Nevermind that I forgot to mention the paltry price and allowed her to continue in the delusion that I had in fact spent months tracking it down from an obscure specialist store in London, and had to haggle with them to for ages to afford it.) That’s the kind of randomness I’m talking about when it comes to this place. Hours of procrastination just waiting to be tapped into…

Full marks to Stokes Books for looking just like a private personal library.
Inside the store is a higgledy piggledy of grand wooden bookcases lined up alongside each other, resulting in a wall of books dominating the room that forms Stokes Books in the Georges Arcade.
Stokes has a large range of literature for the avid reader, with a particularly decent collection of Irish and Irish history books. I was particularly impressed with the book detailing good farm and produce producers in Cork. Very useful.
You can pick up a decent book here from around a fiver, and this is a great place to while away an afternoon ‘just browsing’. The book collection continues outside the store along the arcade. A nice change from the dress store overload of Georges Arcade.