Craig Michael Walzer from the US was visiting the Greek island of Santorini in 2002 with his friend Oliver. When they ran out of books to read, they joked that they would open a bookshop in Santorini. In 2004, Walzer and Oliver went back to the island to build the space with more friends; Chris, Walzer's best friend, from the states; Maria from Cyprus; Tim, who Walzer met in Paris; and Will, Tim's cousin. In 2005, Walzer's friend Jeremy Mecer wrote a book about bookstores. The Guardian newspaper then asked Mecer to make a list of his 10 favourite bookshops, in which he listed Atlantis Books as number one. The Guardian published it with the title "Jeremy Mercer's top 10 bookshops", which is how Atlantis Books started to garner international popularity. Walzer told Daily News Egypt that many English speaking tourists from the British Commonwealth countries and North America visit Atlantis Books, along with tourists from France and Italy. Other tourist nationalities come from East Asia – Singapore, China, and Korea – and a good number of Spanish and Portuguese tourists. "We try to have something for everybody. Unfortunately our Arabic section still does not exist, although we do have some Arabic literature translated into English," Walzer said. He said in the past few years especially, tourists from Arab countries, such as Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, have been visiting more, including many female Arab tourists buying books.
