Part of the Book Burning Memorial on Bebelplatz Photo: Chan'r

Being a book lover can be a burden when combined with a love for travel - literally! My insatiable lust for those finely bound objects of desire takes up not only precious room in my luggage, as I seem unable to board a plane or train without a half dozen readables tucked into my bags, but also a good portion of my travel budget, since every new destination offers countless opportunities to browse the local bookshops and secondhand shops. Embarassed as I am to admit it, I've now taken to bringing along an empty suitcase when I travel to a new city, in anticipation of all my new prizes.

Even here at home in Berlin I am not safe from this weakness for the written word. The Germans are notoriously literate (remember the Gutenberg Bible?), and in the years since reunification Berlin has once again grown to be a center of European culture and contemporary art. One can't walk fifty meters in any direction without coming across the windows of a bookstore whispering of the fascinating finds which may be waiting inside. As my apartment is relatively small, I try to keep my library pared down to manageable proportions by selling or giving away books once I am finished with them. Still I still accumulate books faster than I can read them and, since I long ago ran out of shelfspace, I am slowly being buried beneath thick volumes of Berlin history, psychoanalytic film theory, and paranoiac-critical surveys of art history.

A bittersweet malady this craving for life between the covers and, since misery loves company, I've compiled a short list of some of Berlin's best book pushers for visiting bibliofiends.