by Lília Old Evergreens poster from 2012. Image taken from our archives. Most of our customers know about our ABC Favorites, books we curate for their content as well as popularity. But why did we decide to have a whole section of Favorites? And how do we curate them? [...]
by Damla & Sophie We celebrated our birthday last month, with special honors to our Hague store on its 50th year. 🎉 Among many fun activities and giveaways on the day, we also created a little pop-up trivia quiz for our customers at the Hague store to test their literary and ABC [...]
by Lynn Growing up in nearly all-white rural Minnesota, I didn’t know about the Holocaust until doing research for a paper on social resistance, age twenty. I could have known – Anne Frank’s diary was widely read by my 13-year old classmates but, being contrarian, I didn’t read it then. I [...]
by Júlia Spring is always a special time for our ABC family. As the days get longer and the world starts to bloom again, we find ourselves in full celebration mode. This season isn’t just about fresh starts—it’s party time for us. In April, we’re celebrating the birthdays of our [...]
by Iris A few years after ABC first opened its doors in Amsterdam in 1972, founders Mitch Crossfield and Sam Boltansky decided to expand operations to The Hague. They got their hands on a cheap place to rent in the city center, and in 1976 the new store opened [...]
by Sophie Recently we featured in a satirical news show as the butt of a joke about how we had space for our new Romantasy section in Amsterdam because we had chucked out all our books on human rights. Funny joke, and thank you for highlighting us and books, Romantasy in particular, [...]
by Iris Sharing food has always been an important part of any Thanksgiving celebration. At ABC, we host a Baked Goods Potluck in all three stores to represent that part of Thanksgiving Day. But starting in 1994 and lasting until well in the 2000s, we used to organize a full-blown dinner! [...]
by Iris Our Leidschendam store in the Westfield Mall of the Netherlands opened its doors in 2021. It was pandemic times, and the many extra rules and regulations didn't make for the smoothest of starts. But four years later we're still here, and it's well past time to bring you along [...]
In Memoriam: Derk Sauer On July 31, 2025, we heard that Derk Sauer, founder of The Moscow Times, died. This brought memories of our participation in the 1997 Moscow Book Fair (read our blog post about it here). We ran a small ad in The Moscow Times announcing that the American [...]
by Sophie ABC’s co-director Martijn was a guest on the Bookshop Podcast! As an international podcast, The Bookshop Podcast has a wider reach than just the Netherlands, so it's a great opportunity for the world to know more about our small enterprise. With the title "Exploring the American Book Center: Martijn Meerts [...]
