The Barefoot Bookshop started in 1990 on a shelf and had two books for sale: Nihal Fernando’s Handbook for the Ceylon Traveler (the coolest travel book around) and Dominic Sansoni and Richard Simon’s coffee table book: ‘Sri Lanka the Resplendent Isle’ published by Times Editions out of Singapore. These two books proved very popular – traveler’s and shoppers desired these sorts of books – in this way the bookshop came to be – from a shelf to a fine space in the centre of Barefoot — stocking interesting and evocative books – so interesting, that many authors favored the shop.

It has grown since then – carrying books by a variety of known and unknown publishers so the selection was eclectic, on point and varied enough to attract all types of clientele — It is also the official bookseller at the Galle Literary Festival—and plays host to many successful book launches. The bookshop has evolved into specializing in Sri Lankan authors, books on Sri Lanka and Coffee Table books focusing on Art, Architecture, Design and Photography. In addition to the books, we sell posters depicting funky colloquial scenes of Sri Lanka designed by Phil and Meg of “Stick No Bills”, colorful Barefoot cloth covered notebooks perfect for journaling, painting or pasting or a variety of post cards/cards to be used to write home to. It’s a real booklovers bookshop!