about me

Hi! I'm Milena, the person behind Milena's Bookshop. Together with my three cats and husband, I reside in a small, cosy home in The Netherlands. I run the shop from our colourful attic.

The first classic I ever read, I read between cheap pillows and warm blankets nestled in my attic apartment. In my near frozen hands, I held a Dutch translation of Sense and Sensibility. Only a month prior to this, my doctor told me that I was sick and would most likely be bed bound for the next six months. My body fatigued, I wandered through the library I could view from my bedroom window.

I craved books that were slow, where I could find the peace and quiet I could not feel in my own life.

Every week I came back to take another Austen home. I read them all. Years later, I found the online world of Bookstagram and BookTube. Here I found the world beyond Austen. But one thing kept bothering me: where are all the women writers from history? I started a classics book club, met new online friends who also loved classics. Eventually I started making videos as Milena Reads.

Three years later, having read a lot of classics and having made a lot of videos about them, I decided it was time to use that knowledge.

It’s been ten years since I read Sense and Sensibility in bed and, unfortunately, my health hasn’t improved much. The dream of running a physical bookshop feels very far away. Fortunately, thinking within my own means has become a skill of sorts and with that Milena’s Bookshop was born.

‘The cosy online bookshop for classics & more’

The online bookshop where you can find the best classics: with a big focus on women writers and other authors whose voices have not been on the foreground. The bookshop where you don’t only buy books, but can also find recommendations and cheerful videos and live streams. Where your books are shipped with respect for the environment (see FAO) and a big smile from my small online bookstore.