It's not exactly new for LEGO to build a fictional place you can disappear into. But its newest set appeals to a very specific crowd: Those of us who go looking for that feeling in bookstores. The new LEGO Icons Bookstore: Book Nook is a 1,690-piece miniature bookshop designed to slide into a bookshelf, creating a narrow little window into the shop between your novels. But pull it off the shelf and open it up (like a book), and it becomes more than 15 inches wide, revealing a full, two-story bookshop inside.
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The bookstore interior is packed with elegant balconies, a spiral staircase, quiet reading areas and a cozy workspace for the shop’s author and reader minifigures. It also contains subtle references to famous works of literature — see if you can spot them all. You can display it as a book nook on a shelf, or on a desk, table or mantel to keep the interior on display.
LEGO Icons Bookstore: Book Nook
In this article: LEGO Harry Potter Book Nook: Dumbledore’s Office, LEGO Harry Potter Book Nook: Hogwarts Express Building Set and LEGO Icons Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook
The bookstore set is the latest spin on an idea LEGO has been having quite a bit of fun with: book nooks that turn ordinary gaps on bookshelves into miniature scenes from some of our favorite novels. The new Bookstore is especially charming because of how meta it is, but LEGO's existing book nooks, which you can explore on the list below, may also inspire you to clear a little more shelf space.
LEGO Harry Potter Book Nook: Dumbledore’s Office
Open this 1,182-piece set and Dumbledore’s office expands from a 5-inch-wide shelf insert to a 17.5-inch-wide display. It includes Harry and Dumbledore minifigures, plus Easter eggs like Fawkes, a Phoenix Patronus, the Pensieve, Dumbledore's Memory Cabinet, the Sorting Hat and a hidden Sword of Gryffindor beneath Dumbledore’s removable desk.
LEGO Harry Potter Book Nook: Hogwarts Express Building Set
The original LEGO Harry Potter Book Nook recreates Platform 9 3/4 with an 832-piece Hogwarts Express. It also comes with minifigures of Harry, Ron, Hedwig and Scabbers. Built-in mirrors make the carriage appear longer, and the finished build can sit closed between books, open for imaginative play or separate as a pair of bookends.
LEGO Icons Sherlock Holmes: Book Nook
Victorian Baker Street squeezes between your books in this 1,359-piece set, then opens to reveal a bookstore, Moriarty’s hideout and Sherlock Holmes’ apartment at 221B. A spinning dial raises the hideout door to reveal more Easter eggs for fans. The set comes with five minifigures: Holmes, Dr. Watson, Irene Adler, Professor Moriarty and Paige.
LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: Balrog Book Nook
This 1,201-piece Book Nook turns a shelf gap into the Bridge of Khazad-dum, complete with a “You Shall Not Pass” plaque. Gandalf carries his staff and sword, ready to defend the Fellowship, while the detachable Balrog has a fiery whip, plus posable limbs and wings to make the display a dramatic face-off from the epic tale.
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