A friend sent me to Ivallan’s Books, Berlin @ivallansbooks.bsky.social “Second-hand and exceptional books”. Beautiful place to spend some time. Spotted a @tolkajournal.bsky.social issue #2 high on a shelf.

Robert Macfarlane journeys from Ecuador to Quebec via India in pursuit of an answer to the question: is a river alive? A timely, nay urgent! inquiry.

Tonight from 19.30: Don’t miss our very special guest who is visiting us all the way from upstate New York. VIOLET SNOW will report some unknown details from the history of European and American feminism. We’ll have snacks and drinks too!

Tonight from 19.30 Propeller Publishers and The GAF proudly present: HEY-HO! HERE ARE SPARROW and VIOLET SNOW Two absolutely amazing personalities from the core of New York underground are visiting Berlin with a stop at ivallan’s.

One day when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this by Omar El Akkad

Pet owners! Please share any funny or strange pet stories you know that I can tell my daughter at bedtime. She LOVES cats, but anything will do. (I have run out of stories and veered into making them up, but I don't always have the brain for it.) THANK YOU!

När natten kommer står jag på trappan och lyssnar, stjärnorna svärma i trädgården och jag står i mörkret. Hör, en stjärna föll med en klang! Gå icke ut i gräset med bara fötter; min trädgård är full av skärvor. Edith Södergran #dagensdikt #lyrikfredag

Don’t forget to get your Rory Midhani Easter magnets well ahead of Easter.

made it to Kreuzberg ❤️

Local author and friend of Ivallan’s Jane Flett has recommended a host of excellent books to celebrate the publication day of FREAKSLAW in the US 🎡 Pick up your copy of her own book, a tale of a travelling funfair peopled with misfits and deviant queers

One day someone came into ivallan’s and asked “is this the trans bookshop?”. Sadly it is not. We also sell books by cis writers. While we look forward to a future where we can fill a whole shop with thousands of books by trans authors we recommend these gems:

It's also the day for my favorite meme! If this aging Klingon warrior can get it right, so can anyone.

SPRING SALE ALERT 🌷🌼🌱Ivallan’s has a 25% off sale on second hand cookbooks and gardening books. Come and visit us Mon - Sat from 12–20h 🌷🌼🌱

My niece (14) texted me late last night saying she's writing a paper on police brutality and asked if I've written anything on the subject that she could cite. Finally, my time to shine.

Through no fault of our own we seem to have grown a Witch section.

This month we have a real treat for you! Writer Margarita Meklina (winner of a ruble, an apple and a bottle of vodka) and composer and pianist Maja Elliott will be performing together at Ivallan’s! March 31st at 19.30. Our space is small so arrive on time to get a spot.

Poems and stories written by kids living in Gaza. Now available at ivallan’s. All profits (including ours) go to organisations supporting children and their families in Gaza. www.amillionkites.com Collected and translated by @leilaboukarim.bsky.social

Great piece by JB on the "furious nostalgia" that links the attack on 'gender ideology' to the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. "Who is this ‘migrant’, so dangerous they must be deported... this notion of ‘gender’ that is so threatening to self, family and society?" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

You have two weeks left to nominate books for the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! Nominations close March 31st. Which books will join those shortlisted the last three years? (Yes, we fit them all in this picture.) www.ursulakleguin.com/prize-nomina...

Big ticket control with 20+ cops at Hermannplatz.

SPONGE ZINE #1 from Plural Studio (2025), a zine about digital security for activists, is now available at Ivallan’s second-hand and exceptional books.

Do not advocate Spotify, they are a terrible company that platformed Rogan, screw artists, and are fucking over their own staff. Boycott Spotify too.

I don’t buy books on Amazon. Leftover from my previous life as an indie bookseller. If you are freshly anti-Bezos, some of my favorite options: 📕 Buy Locally! Hopefully you still have a local bookshop. 📕 Bookshop.org 📕 Audio: Libby, Hoopla, Chirp, Spotify.

Books about Sailors and Pirates (also mostly Gay). Science- and Non-fiction Books. A book of Poetry, one about a Band, one by a Swedish Dance Collective, Maggie Nelson and a book about Hell thrown in for good measure. Thanks for the fun donation 💖

Books about Magic, books about Art and the Environment. Books about French Salon culture, books about the Gays.

Gabriel García Márquez - BOTD 💙📚 #LiteratureSky

Finally arrived! Newly published paperback editions of @marthawells.com (still thankfully fairly fictional) Murderbot Diaries!

'Saqi Books is also launching #BooksellingIsNotACrime Day on Saturday, with booksellers invited to put on events, donate a percentage of their profits to the fundraiser or create displays of Palestinian literature.' www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...

As part of #BooksellingIsNotACrime campaign at Lighthouse on Sat 22nd Feb: - Take & share a picture with our poster - Half of profits from book sales in person & online will go into the EB solidarity fund - All moneys from our @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social & @libro.fm pages also go to fund

“I’ll tell you what freedom is to me. No fear.” —Nina Simone was born February 21, 1933

#BookSellingIsNotACrime Jerusalem’s Educational Bookshop was raided by police. Mahmoud & Ahmad were arrested, and hundreds of books confiscated. This Saturday, bookshops worldwide stand in solidarity. Support the emergency appeal www.gofundme.com/f/jerusalems...

My cartoon for today’s @guardian books.

letting Ursula le guin know the divine right of kings is back and teaming up with capitalism and she's like well fuck good luck w that

Btw, you can get the book without supporting vast corporations slowly being over run by sketchy dropshipping via the wonderful bookshop.org: bookshop.org/p/books/a-ci...

From recent donations: queer novels, art books, classics, books about depression and much more. Thank you!

When reading sci-fi and fantasy, try not to get too religiously or anti-religiously indoctrinated. 😉 The “His Dark Materials” series part 1,2 and 3 by @philippullmanofficial and part 1 (or part 2 depending on your point of view) of the Narnia Chronicles by #cslewis #independentbookstoreberlin

Before penis shaped rockets, the go-to splurge for billionaires was buying islands. But in his Menippean satirical novel "Settlers Landing," writer Travis Jeppesen has these billionaire boys clubbers building their own nation state. For more, check out this Q&A. paulsemel.com/exclusive-in... 📖💰🏝️

She was an industrialist, a lesbian, a landlord, a traveler, a businesswoman, a womanizer, a butch, a snob, the original Tory girlboss, a century English diarist who coined such terms as "grubbling," for mutual masturbation. It's Anne Lister. badgayspod.com/episode-arch...

First they came for the immigrants, and I spoke out, because I’ve read the damn poem before and I know how it ends.

@badgayspod.bsky.social Might you know anything about this book? Just found it on a shelf here, looks suspicious. Thought if anyone would know it’s y’all.

Tiny kids books from the north (Canada and Sweden). Thumb for scale. #robertmunsch #elsabeskow #berlinbookstore #independentbookshop

We know the U8 has basically stopped running for the next couple of months but we’re hoping some of you will take the opportunity for a sunny walk past ivallan’s books. We’re at Schönleinstr. 32 📚

In our zine section you can find two books by bubamarre 🐞, a Kosovar-Albanian storyteller and performer based in Berlin, whose work touches on love, belonging, and the ever-evolving self.

There are many kinds of good books. Some become favourites that we read over and over again during our lifetimes. Some might be taken down periodically to look up a fact, lend to a friend before being placed back on their shelves.

Meet Astaroth the cat-syph, protector of the Bruscha-Jeki Archives & BFF to the talking books known as living narrators. He’s my favorite character to write about/undoubtedly the sneakiest. Also, the telescope is modeled after the one my father taught me with. 🔭🤍 #booksky #writingcommunity

Horrified by news of our friend & fellow bookseller Mahmoud being arrested by Israeli forces alongside his nephew. A tireless campaigner for the power of literature, Mahmoud was in Edinburgh with us just months ago - please join call for their release! #Booksky www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

We are alarmed at the arrest of our friend and bookselling colleague Mahmoud Muna in East Jerusalem. We join our colleagues in the book trade in calling for the immediate release of Mahmoud and his nephew Ahmad and for the charges against them to be dropped.

School curriculum. youtube.com/shorts/clXSg...

New to ivallan’s! Books by @nnedi.bsky.social Nikki Giovanni, Junot Diaz, George Orwell, Susan Sontag, @stephenking.bsky.social, Samuel R. Delany, Astrid Lindgren, Caleb Femi, Emmet Grogan, Steven Sharpin and Simon Shaffer. 🎉