This post gives me SUCH joy! (How did we manage to get through a whole podcast ep and get to gnomes but not our respective bookselling jobs? We must rectify this soon.) And totally agree: Coffee, bookshops and cafe/bakeries are the best finds when traveling. 😍
Oh yes, the list. If I could, I'd live in a bookshop (with a bakery and coffee shop inside, by the sea)... We always look out and try to visit second hand bookshop when we travel. They're a special kind of a beast, those second hand bookshops. Some organised, others like caverns seemingly without an exit, where you fear you'll get buried under a book avalanche... There's no better shop than a bookshop and nothing more magical than a book.
Love your list -- I have the same plus - find a library. I particularly like quircky, special libraries. I grew up in a small town with a large old house that was the library (Sumner, WA) and a bookmobile in the summer. I would look also for bookmobiles, if I thought they could be found.
I knew it the minute I saw it. It was such a special place. I just remember thinking how fortunate I was to have come across it.
have to say this article just touches my soul so deeply…I feel like you're such a kindred spirit. I may have gone to the bookstore you in which you worked... I don't know exactly where it was but in some small town in Pennsylvania, it was exactly like you describe- An old house filled with Books mostly used and the owner who seemed to be an older man just sort of pointed you in a direction and there was certainly was no organizational system to it all(except in his mind!)
I too feel such a sense of potential!
It's almost like my heart is just too full for my chest, being surrounded by so much wisdom and collected knowledge and experience… You've really put words to a very spiritual experience Anna as always thank you thank you thank you.❤️👭
Bookstores. Libraries. Ideas. Art. Thank all that is good, and all who devote themselves/yourselves/ourselves to the support and preservation of such wondrous things, that they exist. LONG may it be so.
Like your other readers above, I have a favorite independent bookstore--Vromans in Pasadena, CA. I no longer live close enough to drop in there, but I gladly pay the shipping charge and wait for them order a book for me if it's not in stock. When Covid hit and no one could go shopping, they sent out an email saying they might not survive. Orders came pouring in. I ordered much more than I could read in a reasonable time. They had to hire extra staff to process all the mail orders. The community rallied, and the bookstore survived.
Anna!!!
The photo you show of a bookstore in an alley..
It's the Brattle Bookshop in Boston!!!
I randomly came across it a couple of years ago when we were checking out the city and fell in love with it !!!
THANK YOU!!! I’m so glad someone knew what it was!!
This post gives me SUCH joy! (How did we manage to get through a whole podcast ep and get to gnomes but not our respective bookselling jobs? We must rectify this soon.) And totally agree: Coffee, bookshops and cafe/bakeries are the best finds when traveling. 😍
The gnomes distracted us!!!
Oh yes, the list. If I could, I'd live in a bookshop (with a bakery and coffee shop inside, by the sea)... We always look out and try to visit second hand bookshop when we travel. They're a special kind of a beast, those second hand bookshops. Some organised, others like caverns seemingly without an exit, where you fear you'll get buried under a book avalanche... There's no better shop than a bookshop and nothing more magical than a book.
Love your list -- I have the same plus - find a library. I particularly like quircky, special libraries. I grew up in a small town with a large old house that was the library (Sumner, WA) and a bookmobile in the summer. I would look also for bookmobiles, if I thought they could be found.
Yes, I love libraries too!!
I knew it the minute I saw it. It was such a special place. I just remember thinking how fortunate I was to have come across it.
have to say this article just touches my soul so deeply…I feel like you're such a kindred spirit. I may have gone to the bookstore you in which you worked... I don't know exactly where it was but in some small town in Pennsylvania, it was exactly like you describe- An old house filled with Books mostly used and the owner who seemed to be an older man just sort of pointed you in a direction and there was certainly was no organizational system to it all(except in his mind!)
I too feel such a sense of potential!
It's almost like my heart is just too full for my chest, being surrounded by so much wisdom and collected knowledge and experience… You've really put words to a very spiritual experience Anna as always thank you thank you thank you.❤️👭
Bookstores. Libraries. Ideas. Art. Thank all that is good, and all who devote themselves/yourselves/ourselves to the support and preservation of such wondrous things, that they exist. LONG may it be so.
And thanks for the lovely ferny shoutout💚
Like your other readers above, I have a favorite independent bookstore--Vromans in Pasadena, CA. I no longer live close enough to drop in there, but I gladly pay the shipping charge and wait for them order a book for me if it's not in stock. When Covid hit and no one could go shopping, they sent out an email saying they might not survive. Orders came pouring in. I ordered much more than I could read in a reasonable time. They had to hire extra staff to process all the mail orders. The community rallied, and the bookstore survived.