Some of the Finest Bookstores in the World
A column from Guardian left me dreaming. What if I were to visit all these cities and stroll through all these bookstores? Walking without haste in the old church in Maastricht, today a cathedral of books; or browsing the books in El Ateneo, the old theater in Buenos Aires; or taking the stairs in Livraria Lello, to see what's up there, Paradise maybe?
Or looking at the comic books in the Secret Headquarters in L.A., or spending time in la Cafebreria El Péndulo in Mexico City, enjoying the glorious vegetation in symbiosis with the bookshelves... Or in Brussels, at Posada... a friend of mine is there, a fascinating story... Hatchards in Picaddilly calls in mind a bookstore that's close to Harvard Square in Cambridge...
I would then go to the old Kyoto, to pay a visit to my friend Yoko, and invite her to go together to the Keibunsya; she would take a book there by chance and translate for me just a few lines...
And in the end I would remain in that small village in Derbyshire, spending evenings at the Scarthin's.
(A Life in Books)
Or looking at the comic books in the Secret Headquarters in L.A., or spending time in la Cafebreria El Péndulo in Mexico City, enjoying the glorious vegetation in symbiosis with the bookshelves... Or in Brussels, at Posada... a friend of mine is there, a fascinating story... Hatchards in Picaddilly calls in mind a bookstore that's close to Harvard Square in Cambridge...
I would then go to the old Kyoto, to pay a visit to my friend Yoko, and invite her to go together to the Keibunsya; she would take a book there by chance and translate for me just a few lines...
And in the end I would remain in that small village in Derbyshire, spending evenings at the Scarthin's.
(A Life in Books)
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
10:03 AM
4 Comments:
Thanks, Pierre. Visiting bookshops is one of the finest experience a books-loving individual can have. If plans stay as they are I will be in Maastricht during the last week of July, and I will certainly pay a visit to Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen.
By
Dan Romascanu, at 5:03 AM
This would be a fascinating experience. So far, the two of us have one bookstore we have been both: the COOPS in Harvard Square.
By
Pierre Radulescu, at 5:59 AM
I am pretty sure there is more than one, Pierre. You must have visited Carturesti, and I have also wandered through a few nice bookshops in DC, although I cannot remember names. I remember having found Bruno Schulz's 'Streets and Crocodiles' some place around the Dupont Circle 15 years ago or such.
By
Dan Romascanu, at 2:45 AM
You are more than right. The Kramer Books near Dupont Circle is famous, and so is Politics & Prose on Connecticut Avenue. To say nothing about the Bridge Books, a small shop in Georgetown with evenings of poetry and the like.
There is also a small bookstore in Baltimore, on Charles Street, full of the spirit of Poe.
Coming to Bucharest, it used to be in downtown an antiquarian (close to Scala Cinema) which is no more.
By
Pierre Radulescu, at 8:48 AM
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