The Librairie des Puf first opened in 1921, and for decades was an iconic symbol of Parisian intellectual culture. But – like many Parisian bookshops – it was eventually defeated by the combination of sky-rocketing city centre rents and falling profits, as more and more people bought their books online. In the decade leading up to 2014, some 28 per cent of Paris’s bookstores, including the Librairie des Puf, closed for good.

But thanks to an inspiring anti-gentrification programme introduced in 2008, which rents retail spaces to cultural enterprises at affordable rates, the Librairie was able to reopen in March 2016. The concept has proved so popular that Les Puf are now considering opening self-printing bookshops in other cities around France.

There's no word yet on when British book-lovers will be able to try out the Espresso Book Machine, but readers in the UK are slowly beginning to rediscover the joys of bookshops. In London’s Spitalfields, the bookshop Libreria helps modern shoppers struggling with digital information overload by organising books according to unexpected and thought-provoking categories: “the sea and the sky”, or “enchantment for the disenchanted”, for example. Waterstone’s announced a return to profitability last year, while the app NearSt allows London shoppers to easily locate their nearest bookstore and check if their desired title is in stock.

And, in February 2016, Amazon opened its first physical store in Seattle – perhaps the biggest sign of all that we’re turning back to bookshops.

Images: iStock

This bookshop will print your novel in the time it takes to drink a coffee