Here's the Bookshop next to other modular buildings

On its own, I thought it looked quite a bit smaller than the others, so I was surprised by the price and piece count. Seeing it alongside them, it's actually surprisingly big.

I would like to see the townhouse on the right of Parisian Restaurant, to see how it looks next to the lower part.

As much as I love the autumn Birch tree I can't help but feel like it looks really out of place

Honestly, the autumn birch tree is my favourite part of the set. Such a gorgeous little feature.

That looks fantastic! So happy with this set, a welcome return to form for the Modular line I think. I feel like opinion was divided on the last few (I personally haven't really vibed with one for years), whereas most people seem to really love this one. I'm really glad to see the older style back, it has such a charm to it.

This set looks awful, especially when compared to (most of) the other modulars: the construction is too plain and simple, the colors are terrible (the flesh colored walls of the bookstore and the azure windows of the house are the worst offenders), and the autumn tree is totally out of place.
This will need some touches before it goes on my shelf with the others. Or, since I'm running out of shelf space, it may not take a place at all.
The Diner is a lot better in my opinion. I know it's a bit polarizing, but you can't deny it's an interesting build and it's nicely detailed.

Looks good.

But Huw, is it really better than Parisien Restaurant? Wow

This set is lacking substance compared to previous modular buildings. Perhaps another 500 pieces (and an extra floor on the house) would have elevated this set for me? I think this is a lost opportunity; just think of what Lego could have released if they went with a large bookstore with secondary businesses or apartments. For one of the most anticipated sets of the year, I think Lego didn't deliver to their full potential.

Though the box pictures suggest that the set takes place during fall birch trees can still be orange and yellow during the summer.

Obviously if that's still a problem I doubt it would be too hard to swap out those pieces for green ones.

Can't wait to get my hands on this one. Last year's Corner Garage was indeed a big bummer, but they totally git it right with the Book Shop. There's only problem; where should I put them all???

LEGO modular buildings are more colorful than they were 10 years ago.

I recieved a copy of this set as well, and I’m not sure I would go as far to say it’s better than the Parisian Restaurant, I don’t believe such a masterpiece can be beaten easily at all. I will admit, I like the bookstore a lot more than I thought I would, the facade and the tree are just gorgeous, but even though the height of it matches other modulars, I was disappointed by the depth of the buildings, as both significantly decrease after the first floor. For having 2504 pieces I would’ve thought the buildings would’ve been a bit bigger particularly when comparing this to the pet shop. I’m also one of the few people who care about detailed interiors and what occupies the space behind the buildings, both of which could’ve been improved. I’d say it’s better than the last two we’ve gotten, so I’d probably compare it to Detective’s Office.

The townhouse section looks completely out of place to me, it suffers badly having only two floors. The ground floor towers over all the adjacent ground floors which I understand is because of the steps but then it just turns into a roof. Even the designer in his video suggests buying multiple sets to build it up.
The autumn leaves look out of place also, what with all other plants in this set and others are green and in flower plus birds don't nest in autumn. The colours do look nice but after the Ideas Treehouse set, it would have been nice to offer a choice of green or yellow leaves.

I'm feeling quite a let-down with this so far ...

okay, it's beautiful, the exterior is great, be it a bit on the "sweet" side (noticed the marketing images with a female AFOL playing with this? so far we always had beardy mid-thirty men).

But i'm imagining what could have been ... an almost single-purposed building like the brickbank, hosting a more extensive old public library, maybe with two-story bookshelfs and ladders, maybe a beautiful ceiling ornament? With no ceiling between first and second floor, the parts not spent there could be invested in decoration / shelves.

Instead we got a book store that is so down to the minimum that if anything more left away from it (a book shelf, the street sign, ...) it would be hard to recognise it as book store anymore.
As a compensation we get two half-baked appartments, which are no great innovation and executed better before in other buildings. The blue house obviously is missing a story ... not because i want more bricks or think it lacks height from the outside, but because the appartment inside is not complete to live in.

Wish they had stayed with the corner garage price tag, and added more detail to it to compensate for the overpricing of the last building instead (though i don't think it was really that overpriced).

Guess i'll get used to it, but it will ultimately not be found in my top or bottom 3 of the modulars ...

@Jman007 said:
"...so I’d probably compare it to Detective’s Office."

I thought the Detective’s Office had much much fun stuff going on on the inside than this seems to have.

@Henry_D said:
"A little more pieces that Parisian restaurant , got far less otside design than it , almost empty inside , 2 of the same bedroom in different bilding. Well this is honestly pretty lazy job by lego. Since everyone loves these anyway , lego can just do less quality."

But the Bookshop set is 2 separate buildings so pieces had to into adding the additional walls!!! This is why you can't compare piece count and size to other Modulars!

I'm surprised to see so many negative comments about the interiors being samey, boring, or uninteresting — I honestly think the design of the beds, armchair, china cabinet, dresser, spiral staircase, reading nook, chaise, and bookcases are really impressive and make great use of parts and techniques we haven't seen with previous modular buildings.

As far as the exterior goes, I don't think putting it next to Parisian Restaurant in the pics above is very flattering, since the roof and molding colors of the townhouse and restaurant match, while the siding colors convey vastly different vibes (one cheery and bright, one subdued and rustic).

On a more practical note, the chimney right up against the taller attic of the Parisian Restaurant seems like it would be something of a fire hazard, something my dad sometimes had to remind me to avoid when setting our modulars up together for display.

Regardless, this photo does do a great job illustrating that the standard of detail for this series is as high as ever, and also that the set is larger than some people realize!

@dartht said:
"Disappointed!!! Waited an entire year for the new modular only to get this? The Bookshop is my least favourite of all modulars from this decade. Weird colours. Nothing special. Very similar to the Pet Shop, only worse! Some imagination please TLG..."

Ironic that you describe this as lacking imagination when you dismiss the use of an uncommon color as "weird". Do you want something original, or something we've gotten before?