Give books as Christmas presents

The Christmas festivities are a great opportunity to give books as gifts and visit your neighbourhood bookshops.  Here is a list of our recommendations for books about Barcelona. Hot-off-the-press and popular titles so that you can enjoy reading about Barcelona this Christmas. You can also visit our new bookshop in El Born. Museu d’Història de Barcelona.

  • Boock: La Seat: Motor de llibertat

    La Seat: Motor de llibertat

    Jordi de Miguel (script), Cristina Bueno (illustration)

    This graphic novel looks at the history of Seat and the workers’ struggles that put the factory at the forefront of the fight for democracy.

  • Boock: Testimonis de tot el món sobre Barcelona

    Testimonis de tot el món sobre Barcelona

    Lluís Permanyer

    Permanyer offers a personal and unusual vision of Barcelona through more than 1,200 oral and written quotes by people who have spent time in the city over the course of 20 centuries.

  • Boock: Seguir contándolo

    Seguir contándolo

    Majo Siscar and Sandra Vicente

    Thirty threatened Mexican journalists have received the support of the programme “Barcelona protects Mexican journalists” to continue the struggle for human rights through words.

  • Boock: Homenaje a Barcelona

    Homenaje a Barcelona

    Colm Tóibín

    The love letter to Barcelona and Catalan culture written by Colm Tóibín in 1990 continues to be a unique literary testimony to our history, culture and customs.

  • Boock: Antifèmina (second edition)

    Antifèmina

    Colita (photography), Maria Aurèlia Capmany (text), Mary Nash (prologue)

    In 1977, Colita and Capmany faced up to the post-Franco era with a bold move for feminism through this book republished and out of print in 2021, and which we now make available to everybody again.

  • Boock: La ciutat incandescent. Barcelona viscuda i escrita en francès

    La ciutat incandescent Barcelona viscuda i escrita en francès

    Ricard Ripoll

    The creations of Francophone writers have left an important imprint on Barcelona since the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century.

  • Boock: Solare, notturna e sonora. Literatura i cultura italiana a Barcelona

    Solare, notturna e sonora. Literatura i cultura italiana a Barcelona

    Amaranta Sbardella (text), Xavier Valls Guinovart (translation)

    This is the first time a book offers a detailed investigation of the links between Barcelona and Italian poetry, prose, publishing, film and theatre during the last two centuries.

  • Boock: El rebombori del pa. Barcelona 1789

    El Rebombori del Pa. Barcelona 1789

    Isabel Segura Soriano

    Women unleashed one of the least known revolts in the history of Barcelona, which started with a hike in the price of bread and ended up with a brutal repression.

  • Boock: Barcelona. Retrat d'una ciutat

    Barcelona. Retrat d'una ciutat

    Various authors (photography), Ricardo Feriche (editor), Isabel Coixet (prologue)

    A journey through more than a century of Barcelona history with 150 images by renowned international and Barcelona photographers.

  • Barcelona esgrafiada (second edition)

    Lluís Duran

    This book invites us to take a walk and discover ‘the skin of architecture’ and nearly 150 sgraffito designs decorating the city’s façades.

  • Boock: Gegants i gegantes de Barcelona. 52 retallables  (2nd edition)

    Gegants i gegantes de Barcelona. 52 retallables (second edition)

    Nico Alonso (text), Laia Berloso (illustration) and La Japonesa (design)

    Learn all about gegants, or festive giant figures, while playing with these 52 paper cut-outs.

  • Boock: Bestiari de Barcelona. 32 bèsties (2nd edition)

    Bestiari de Barcelona. 32 bèsties

    Laia Berloso (illustration), Nico Alonso (text)

    A total of 32 city beasts, so you can spend an enjoyable time colouring them in. And the 8 beasts from the city’s popular entourage are in cardboard, so you can assemble them in 3D and play with them.