Dua Lipa Actually Opened a Library: 100 Banned Books Collected in Portugal’s Most Beautiful Bookstore
Inside a breathtakingly beautiful bookstore in Portugal!
Key takeaways
- Dua Lipa’s long-running online reading club, Service95 Book Club, has gone offline for the first time. On June 27, 2026, she officially opened its first physical library, Manifesto Library, at Livraria Lello, a historic landmark in Porto, Portugal.
- As a permanent part of the international book festival BABELL, the library is housed inside the bookstore. Its mission is to pay tribute to works that challenge restrictions on free speech and censorship. It features a selection of nearly 100 contemporary literary titles centered on four themes – power, control, voice, and memory – that have been banned, censored, or sparked controversy.
- Livraria Lello, where the library is located, is known as “the most beautiful bookstore in the world.” To welcome Manifesto Library, the bookstore created a new cultural hall for exhibitions and events, and invited Portuguese Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza to design the space.
- The collection includes classic and contemporary banned books such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Felon. Dua Lipa hopes to turn online community exchanges into a space for in-person connection, reminding people that reading is not just a private hobby but also a way to maintain independent thinking.
Beyond her influence in music and fashion, Dua Lipa has also shown her commitment to reading, literature, and cultural issues through her Service95 platform and book club. Now, that love of books has moved from online into a physical space: inside Porto’s renowned Livraria Lello, she has created her first physical library, Manifesto Library, housing nearly 100 books that have been banned, censored, or sparked controversy.
Putting banned stories back on the shelves
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Manifesto Library opened on June 27, 2026, and is permanently housed at Livraria Lello as part of the international book festival BABELL – City of Books. Centered on themes of power, control, voice, and memory, it includes Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Reginald Dwayne Betts’s Felon, and works by Salman Rushdie, Olga Tokarczuk, and others, bringing writing that has been suppressed, censored, or challenged dominant narratives back before readers.
From Service95 to a physical space for reading
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Through the Service95 Book Club, Dua Lipa has long recommended works by writers from around the world and held in-depth conversations with many creators. Manifesto Library is like a physical extension of her reading project, inviting readers into the space to browse texts about freedom, identity, memory, and censorship for themselves. She describes the library as a sanctuary for “disappearing books” and courageous authors, reminding people that reading is not just a private interest but can also be a way to keep thinking and resist forgetting.
The location has a story of its own
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Livraria Lello, home to Manifesto Library, is one of Porto’s most iconic historic bookstores. The library is housed in the bookstore’s new cultural hall, designed by Portuguese Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza. The meeting of a beautiful bookstore, architectural design, and a collection of banned books makes this library more than a place to read; it also feels like a destination for those interested in freedom of thought and cultural memory.
For those who love Dua Lipa, bookstore travel, or literature, Manifesto Library may become a cultural landmark worth seeking out on their next trip to Portugal. It reminds us that truly captivating bookshelves display more than beautiful covers – they also allow stories once silenced to be seen again.
Join Popbee Circle and subscribe to the Popbee newsletter to get the latest updates and be among the first to learn about exclusive perks and discounts. Beyond this article, here are a few recent stories worth checking out:
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