Gone are the days of the lively trade in $1 photocopied paperbacks on Phnom Penh riverside. Since Covid-19 cleared the bootleggers off the streets, book sales in the capital have been largely legitimate, if somewhat more expensive. Now the arrival at Aeon Mall of Japanese bookstore Tsutaya has further transformed the capital’s reading experience.

The popular chain boasts over 800 branches across Japan and is currently expanding its successful concept of ‘Lifestyle and Culture’ into other parts of Asia. Its Phnom Penh store is big, bright and welcoming. If you’re a book lover — by which I mean those of us enamored of actual, physical hard and soft cover reading material — you’ll swoon at the row upon row of laden bookshelves on a scale previously unseen in Phnom Penh. Tsutaya claims to stock some 70,000 books in English, Khmer and Japanese, all begging to be browsed. The usual fiction and non-fiction genres are there in abundance, including a wealth of children’s titles, an impressive Manga selection, and shelves of Khmer language novels. All the stock is shrink-wrapped, but I hear that staff will open the packaging on request.

Tsutaya is not just for bookworms though. Its lifestyle shelves boast covetable jewelry, bags, homewares, and novelty knick-knacks from Japan; Cambodian giftware; plus a fine range of Japanese stationery items. Then there’s the rather impressive cafe, with excellent coffee, some luscious-looking cakes, and a lunch menu. It’s a calming space to relax with or without a good book.

Monument Books was Cambodia’s first (from 1993) and for a long time only proper bookshop (if we ignore a small number of now defunct second-hand booksellers). Its travel retail arm has outlets at the airports in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. If it’s books about Cambodia you’re after, head to its Norodom Boulevard store, near the Independence Monument, for the widest and best-organized collection of books about the Kingdom, its history, culture, politics, architecture, and food; and about South East Asia in general. There are non-shrink-wrapped samples so you can leaf freely through many of them. You’ll also find a great selection of international fiction and non-fiction, mostly in English but also some in French, children’s books, cookbooks, and Monument Toys toys on the first floor.

Over in Tuol Tum Poung the family-owned Royal Bookstore is small but well-stocked with a highly-browsable mix of international fiction and non-fiction, including contemporary and classic novels, Manga, fantasy, and young adult reading. If your book isn’t in store the owners are happy to order it. The Bookmark on Street 150 by Mao Tse Tung Boulevard, is another local favorite, with its own discount membership card and regular promotions and offers. A second branch opened at Tuol Kork’s One Park development in 2014. Small specialist bookstores include Maisy Bookshop on Koh Pich for children’s books (plus kids’ furniture and gifts) and Family Bookstore, a Christian bookseller in Toul Kork. Organizations like the Institut Francais and Bophana Audiovisual Center not only have libraries but often some French language and specialist books for sale.

International Book Center (IBC) and Peace Book Centre (PBC), despite their names, are primarily stationery retailers. Don’t expect to find international fiction in either, but IBC in particular is a must for business and study-related books. The large top floor of its new branch on Street 63 is devoted to titles on business, self improvement, language and other course books, and kids books and educational material.

As a price gauge, the average imported paperback novel at Phnom Penh bookstores costs around $15 to $18. Phnom Penh doesn’t have any discount book stores as such (and this piece is not about online bookleg sales) and the small number of second hand book shops — most notably D’s Books, formerly on Street 240 — seem to have quietly disappeared, leaving flea markets and yard sales as pretty much the only option to purchase recycled reads.

Cambodia traditionally lacks a strong reading culture but happily that is changing, thanks to the growing number of bookstores in the capital, the work of organizations such as Sipar and government initiatives like National Reading Day and the Cambodia Book Fair. While the focus of the Book Fair is naturally on Khmer language books, the 300 or so booths at what is becoming a huge annual event carry many international titles too, so it’s a great opportunity for locals and expats alike to browse, buy, and enjoy talks by authors.

Gone are the days of the lively trade in $1 photocopied paperbacks on Phnom Penh riverside. Since Covid-19 cleared the bootleggers off the streets, book sales in the capital have been largely legitimate, if somewhat more expensive. Now the arrival at Aeon Mall of Japanese bookstore Tsutaya has further transformed the capital’s reading experience.

The popular chain boasts over 800 branches across Japan and is currently expanding its successful concept of ‘Lifestyle and Culture’ into other parts of Asia. Its Phnom Penh store is big, bright and welcoming. If you’re a book lover — by which I mean those of us enamored of actual, physical hard and soft cover reading material — you’ll swoon at the row upon row of laden bookshelves on a scale previously unseen in Phnom Penh. Tsutaya claims to stock some 70,000 books in English, Khmer and Japanese, all begging to be browsed. The usual fiction and non-fiction genres are there in abundance, including a wealth of children’s titles, an impressive Manga selection, and shelves of Khmer language novels. All the stock is shrink-wrapped, but I hear that staff will open the packaging on request.

Tsutaya is not just for bookworms though. Its lifestyle shelves boast covetable jewelry, bags, homewares, and novelty knick-knacks from Japan; Cambodian giftware; plus a fine range of Japanese stationery items. Then there’s the rather impressive cafe, with excellent coffee, some luscious-looking cakes, and a lunch menu. It’s a calming space to relax with or without a good book.

Monument Books was Cambodia’s first (from 1993) and for a long time only proper bookshop (if we ignore a small number of now defunct second-hand booksellers). Its travel retail arm has outlets at the airports in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. If it’s books about Cambodia you’re after, head to its Norodom Boulevard store, near the Independence Monument, for the widest and best-organized collection of books about the Kingdom, its history, culture, politics, architecture, and food; and about South East Asia in general. There are non-shrink-wrapped samples so you can leaf freely through many of them. You’ll also find a great selection of international fiction and non-fiction, mostly in English but also some in French, children’s books, cookbooks, and Monument Toys toys on the first floor.

Over in Tuol Tum Poung the family-owned Royal Bookstore is small but well-stocked with a highly-browsable mix of international fiction and non-fiction, including contemporary and classic novels, Manga, fantasy, and young adult reading. If your book isn’t in store the owners are happy to order it. The Bookmark on Street 150 by Mao Tse Tung Boulevard, is another local favorite, with its own discount membership card and regular promotions and offers. A second branch opened at Tuol Kork’s One Park development in 2014. Small specialist bookstores include Maisy Bookshop on Koh Pich for children’s books (plus kids’ furniture and gifts) and Family Bookstore, a Christian bookseller in Toul Kork. Organizations like the Institut Francais and Bophana Audiovisual Center not only have libraries but often some French language and specialist books for sale.

International Book Center (IBC) and Peace Book Centre (PBC), despite their names, are primarily stationery retailers. Don’t expect to find international fiction in either, but IBC in particular is a must for business and study-related books. The large top floor of its new branch on Street 63 is devoted to titles on business, self improvement, language and other course books, and kids books and educational material.

As a price gauge, the average imported paperback novel at Phnom Penh bookstores costs around $15 to $18. Phnom Penh doesn’t have any discount book stores as such (and this piece is not about online bookleg sales) and the small number of second hand book shops — most notably D’s Books, formerly on Street 240 — seem to have quietly disappeared, leaving flea markets and yard sales as pretty much the only option to purchase recycled reads.

Cambodia traditionally lacks a strong reading culture but happily that is changing, thanks to the growing number of bookstores in the capital, the work of organizations such as Sipar and government initiatives like National Reading Day and the Cambodia Book Fair. While the focus of the Book Fair is naturally on Khmer language books, the 300 or so booths at what is becoming a huge annual event carry many international titles too, so it’s a great opportunity for locals and expats alike to browse, buy, and enjoy talks by authors.