A bookstall is a small, often open-front place that sells books and magazines — the kind you still see in a railway station, a market, or on a pavement. Stall means a stand or a very small shop, not a place where an animal waits, and not an engine that has stopped. It is especially British. Americans more often say newsstand when the stall is mostly papers and magazines. Though actually, a bookstall may sell far more magazines and papers than thick books, so the name is a little wider than it looks. Everyday, slightly old-fashioned city English; you meet it in station scenes and older writing.