The bookstores of Utrecht

I studied at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in the city of, well, Utrecht.

I’m a literature student, meaning that I’m a reader who’s in the process of making it my profession. Results may vary. But as both of these things … I need books. Books I can read. As a reader living in a non-English speaking country, you have to find somewhere that can get you what you’re looking for.

Thankfully the big cities in the Netherlands all have bookstores with selections of books in English that any bibliophile can appreciate. Shout out to stores like the American Book Center in Amsterdam and The Hague. Waterstones was renovated over the pandemic as well, adding to the list of great bookstores in Amsterdam. But of course, I’ll always have a fondness for the bookstores of Utrecht. By the Neude bus stop, there’s Broese Books, which used to be further into the city center but relocated to a bigger store. I guess they’re the big “commercial” bookstore, but their selection is excellent.

I remember always going into the fantasy section and wondering whether I should get the complete Earthsea compendium. Now it wasn’t that expensive, but I always deemed it as such.

Mind you, I would spend the same amount for two or three books while this set had five books; you could say my purchasing habits are ruled by logical fallacies. Another memory I have is buying a collection of David Foster Wallace’s short stories. The cashier asked me if I had seen the biopic with Jason Segel (I hadn’t). Of course, he said this in Dutch so not understanding at all I just went: Aha ha ha ha.

An awkward laugh.

Anyway, I eventually had to relent and felt embarrassed about the whole thing.

Of course, there’s my favorite bookstore at Janskerkhof, Boekhandel Bijleveld. It’s right across the university campus and is one of the oldest bookstores in Utrecht. I don’t have much to say for this one, only that I loved it and it loved me back. I remember hearing about books online and becoming interested, only to find them right there in the store. Picked up some Denis Johnson and Donald Barthelme’s “Sixty Stories” that way.

And I would browse for hours enjoying being surrounded by books.

Of course, you have to have secondhand bookstores. Every reader knows the value of secondhand books. I know some people who almost exclusively read secondhand books. It’s a valid approach certainly. Anyway, the most well-known one is Aleph Books. Although to be honest, I never quite liked Aleph’s selection. Maybe I’m just a philistine but I never felt like they had books I’d want to read. Still, I bought my beloved copy of T.H. White’s “The Once and Future King” there, and I’ll always remember it for that. Could never remember that street Aleph was on (Google Maps says it’s Vismarkt) but it’s hard to miss. There’s a big overhang that says Aleph Books. It’s the first store over the bridge next to the canal. Can’t miss it.

Now, of course, we come to my second favorite bookstore in Utrecht, with a name I never could pronounce: Hindericx and Windericx. I don’t know if those are names or some kind of cipher, but I never bothered figuring that out. Like Aleph, I never quite figured out what street it was on, (it’s deep in the city center, next to a canal) but I always knew my way there. And if I didn’t, then Google Maps was my go-to solution.

A distinct memory I have is taking a friend of mine to check it out. She didn’t know about the store so I was acting like I knew a secret she didn’t and was about to reveal it to her. Why?

Maybe I’m just immature. Who can say?

Anyway, I think I bought a book or two. If I remember it was The Beckett Trilogy and a collection of M.R. James stories. However, she somehow made out with seven books! Or at least I think it was seven, it may have been a bit less. Whatever the case, she got a discount for buying in bulk, which I thought only bookstores and libraries got. I was impressed.

Despite it being my second favorite bookstore, however, I never actually bought much here. Just came in to window shop. The reason is that in my younger years, I was insistent that there were books I needed new editions of and books I wanted secondhand, and I could never decide which was which. Just overthinking it, I guess. I remember on my last day in Utrecht, seeing a few Jonathan Lethems, an author I was getting into at the time and is now one of my favorites, and not getting them due to my strange restrictions. C’est la vie.

Those are the bookstores in Utrecht. There are more, but these are the ones I feel a connection to.

You never appreciate having all the options until suddenly you don’t have them anymore. Still, those days of just aimlessly browsing will always live on, in my collection and my memories.

Justin Wenger, 25, is a writer who dreams of his writing being “effortlessly cool.” Jury’s still out.