Learning German is one thing - enjoying the language is something else entirely. Although you may know enough German to survive, hold an enjoyable conversation or even scan a German newspaper, that is still a long way short of reading German for pleasure.

Germany may not be the best country in Europe to find English language books but you will find that many of the major bookshops have a strong English language section that caters to those wishing to learn English and those who already speak English as their native tongue, alike.

However, there are also quite a few smaller bookshops in the major cities that provide a larger range of English language books.

Shirley Wray of Marga Schoeller’s Bücherstube in Berlin explains the origins of that store’s strong English-language section:

"During first half of the century, Marga Schoeller refused to sell Nazi literature," she said. "When the end of the war came, she got the license to start selling English books from the Allies. That is when our tradition of selling English books started."

In the tradition of its founder, the store maintains a "slight ideological edge" in choosing its books. Therefore, among fiction of all types, there is also feminist and anti-racist literature, strong theatre and cinema offerings and a particularly strong collection of humanities and social sciences books.

In Munich, Claus Melchior of Words' worth bookshop reports that the original store was founded in 1985. A second store opened in Munich University's Department of English and American Studies after David Conolly-Smith closed the Anglia English Bookstore, which had been open since 1954. However, the original Words' worth store was closed down because "it was not feasible to keep paying the rent on two stores."

The store holds a wide range of fiction books, though also has a non-fiction that is strongly biased toward the humanities to provide for the university students.

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