Sunday, March 01, 2009

Literary Dreamscape

Bookshops are important places for us word merchants. The good bookshop will contain an air of intrigue. It will smell musty, it will lure you into its interior and, with warm armchairs and a glowing fire perhaps, it will embrace you and invite you to discover the thousands of stories hidden there. The good bookshop will enhance the delicious experience of browsing, touching covers, pulling volumes from the shelves and even buying a book.
Diane Dempsey in The Age describes her search for the "dream bookshop" on an overseas trip. her search takes her to the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, London, and The Winding Stair in Dublin (which novelist John Banville apparently apparently uses as his personal post office). But its only in Shakespeare & Company on the Left Bank in Paris that she finds her bookish nirvana :
All the ingredients were there — mystery and chaos, and eccentric and lovely people whose passion has created the most fabulous bookshop in the world.
And if you want more, here's the shop YouTubed! Postscript : Jeanette Winterson revisits Shakespeare & Co. and paints a loving portrait of its owners.

7 comments:

A Bookaholic said...

oh wwowww! thx for posting this sharon! I was there at Shakespeare & Company....the place is definitely a paradise for all bookaholics like us! :D

bibliobibuli said...

i've written about the shop a couple of other times, so you might like to click on the shakespeare & co tag below the post . i mentioned jeremy mercer's books about the shop "books, bedbugs and baguettes" which is a great read.

this is somewhere i really want to visit!

A Bookaholic said...

oh i muz go get a copy then! :) thx again sharon!
-jee wan-

bibliobibuli said...

or can borrow mine if you promise to return ...

A Bookaholic said...

oh thk u in advance sharon! Yes! You have my word! :) I'll meet you at the next reading? :D

Anonymous said...

A glowing fire will roast you in this country lol :) we really ought to start a book exchange, but I get busy :P

A Bookaholic said...

anon, you mean me? or i syok sendiri? haha :P