Learn Hardcore Russian: Я часто хожу в этот книжный после работы и покупаю там романы. - I often go to this bookshop after work and buy novels there.

Я часто хожу в этот книжный… means I often go (regularly) to this bookshop.
Because it’s about a repeated, habitual action, Russian uses ходить.

If you said:

Я иду в этот книжный. – I’m going to this bookshop (right now, this trip).

So хожу = “(I) go there regularly”, which matches часто (often).

Why is it в этот книжный, not something like к этому книжному or в этом книжном?

Several things are happening here:

Preposition + case
- в
  - Accusative = motion into somewhere
- в
  - Prepositional = location in somewhere
We have motion (go to), so в этот книжный uses Accusative:
- этот → accusative: этот (masc. inanimate: same as nominative)
- книжный (магазин) → accusative: книжный (masc. inanimate: same as nominative)
If it were location (in this bookshop), you’d say:
- Я в этом книжном (магазине). – I’m in this bookshop.
Why not к этому книжному?
- к means “toward, to (a person/place)”, but with shops and buildings for a normal “go to the shop”, в is more natural: идти/ходить в магазин, в школу, в офис, etc.
- к магазину sounds more like “towards the shop / up to the shop (not necessarily going inside).”

So в этот книжный is the standard way to say to this bookshop when you mean going inside.

What does книжный mean here? Where is the word for “shop” or “store”?

Literally, книжный is an adjective: book, book‑related (from книга, book).

In everyday Russian, книжный is a common shorthand for книжный магазин (book shop / bookstore). The noun магазин is simply omitted because it’s obvious from context.

So:

книжный магазин → full phrase
книжный → natural shortened form, but still means bookstore in this context.

You’ll see the same pattern with other stores:

продуктовый (магазин) – grocery store → продуктовый
спортивный (магазин) – sports shop → спортивный

In your sentence, в этот книжный = to this bookshop.

Why is it после работы? What case is работы, and why?

После (after) always requires the Genitive case.

работа (work) – nominative
работы – genitive singular

So после работы literally = after (of) work.

This is a fixed pattern:

после урока – after the lesson
после встречи – after the meeting
после обеда – after lunch

You don’t say после работа; you must use genitive: после работы.

Why is часто placed after я: Я часто хожу, not Часто я хожу?

Both orders are possible, but they have slightly different feels:

Я часто хожу в этот книжный… – neutral, most common order.
Focus is on I as the subject who often does this.
Часто я хожу в этот книжный… – still correct, but sounds more stylistic/emphatic, like: It’s often that I go to this bookshop… / Often, I go to this bookshop…

In standard conversational Russian, adverbs of frequency (часто, иногда, редко) most commonly come after the subject pronoun:

Я часто читаю. – I often read.
Он редко смотрит телевизор. – He rarely watches TV.

Why is it покупаю, not куплю? Both mean “buy”, right?

Yes, but they are different aspects:

покупать – imperfective (process, repeated action, general/habit)
купить – perfective (single completed action, result)

In the present tense:

я покупаю – I buy / I am buying (habitual or now)
я куплю – I will buy (there is no present form for perfective; it’s future).

The sentence describes a regular habit (often, after work), so Russian uses the imperfective:

…и покупаю там романы. – and (I) buy novels there (as a habit / regularly).

If you said:

…и куплю там роман. – and I’ll buy a novel there (this time, in the future).

So покупаю matches часто (often) and the habitual meaning.

Why is there no second я before покупаю? Shouldn’t it be …и я покупаю там романы?

You can say …и я покупаю там романы, but Russian usually omits the repeated subject if it’s clear that it’s the same one for both verbs.

Here, я clearly refers to both actions:

Я часто хожу … и (я) покупаю там романы.

So the more natural, less repetitive version omits the second я. This is very common:

Я читаю книгу и делаю заметки. – I read a book and take notes.
Мы пошли в парк и поиграли в футбол. – We went to the park and played football.

Adding я before покупаю is grammatically correct, but sounds more heavy or emphatic.

What is the function of там here, and where can it go in the sentence?

там means there (in that place).

In this sentence:

…и покупаю там романы. – and (I) buy novels there (in that bookshop).

Word order in Russian is flexible. You could say:

…и там покупаю романы. – and (I) buy novels there (slight emphasis on there).
…и романы там покупаю. – more focus on novels and there, sounds a bit more expressive.

The neutral, most common option is exactly what you have:

покупаю там романы – verb → place adverb → object.

там refers back to этот книжный, showing that the buying happens in that same place you go to.

Why is романы in that form? Is it plural? Which case is it?

Yes, романы is plural.

Base word: роман – novel (masculine noun)

Forms:

Nominative plural: романы – novels
Accusative plural (inanimate nouns): same as nominative → романы

In the sentence покупаю романы, романы is the direct object (what you buy), so it’s in the Accusative. For inanimate masculine nouns in the plural, nominative and accusative look the same:

Я люблю романы. – I love novels.
Он читает журналы. – He reads magazines.
Мы покупаем билеты. – We buy tickets.

So романы = accusative plural, even though it looks like nominative plural.

Russian has no articles. How do we know if романы means “the novels” or “some novels”?

Russian doesn’t have words like a/an or the. The context decides whether романы is understood as:

novels in general (a type of book), or
some novels, or
the novels (we know which ones).

Here, покупаю там романы most naturally means:

I (tend to) buy novels there / I buy (some) novels there.

If you wanted to emphasize “these particular novels”, you’d normally add something else, e.g.:

покупаю там эти романы – I buy these novels there.
покупаю там те романы, которые ты посоветовал – I buy the novels you recommended there.

Without extra words, English speakers usually translate such plural objects as novels or some novels, depending on context. Here: I often go to that bookshop after work and buy novels there.

Could I say Я часто езжу в этот книжный instead of Я часто хожу…? What’s the difference?

Yes, but it changes the nuance.

ходить – go on foot, or in a more abstract sense “to attend/go somewhere regularly”
ездить – go by vehicle (car, bus, metro, etc.), repeatedly / habitually

So:

Я часто хожу в этот книжный. – I often go (on foot / as a regular visit) to this bookshop.
Я часто езжу в этот книжный. – I often go to this bookshop by transport.

If in real life you take the bus or drive there, езжу may actually describe your physical movement more accurately. But хожу is also fine and very common if you’re just focusing on the idea of “I regularly go (there)” rather than the mode of transport.

Why is there no comma before и покупаю? In English we often write “I … and I …”.

In Russian, a comma is not used between two verbs with the same subject when they are simply joined by и (and) in one clause.

Here:

Я часто хожу в этот книжный после работы и покупаю там романы.

Subject: Я
Predicates: хожу and покупаю

This is a standard pattern: no comma between the two verbs.

More examples:

Я слушаю музыку и читаю. – I listen to music and read.
Она готовит ужин и смотрит телевизор. – She cooks dinner and watches TV.

A comma would appear if you had more complex clauses, like:

Я часто хожу в этот книжный после работы, и там покупаю романы, которые ты мне советуешь.

But in your simple sentence, no comma is correct.