As a booklover/bookworm/booknerd, what is my favourite place in the whole world? A bookstore! So today, I want to talk about bookstores around the world.
My favourite bookstore ever is The Strand in New York. In the middle of Greenwich Village, it’s 18 miles of books and my idea of what heaven looks like. I went there when I visited New York ten years ago and I spent hours wandering around piles and piles of books.
My second favourite bookstore is in London. I am talking about the Waterstones store in Piccadilly. Five floors of books. I lived in London for five years and I spent so much time in there. I used to go whenever I could (at some point, I knew exactly where everything was) and a few metres from Waterstones there is another bookstore that it’s an absolute must to visit. It’s Harchards, a beautiful and atmospheric place right in the heart of London.
In Paris there is Shakespeare & Company on the Left Banks. It’s called after the original Shakespeare & Company that opened in Paris in 1919, famous for being a gathering place for Ernest Hemingway, F. S. Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound. I never visited but I heard so much about it and it will be my first stop next time I will visit Paris.
If I ever stop by Portland, in Oregon, I will spend a day in Powell’s Books, “the largest independent bookstore in the world”, while if I ever visit Porto, Portugal, I will go to Livraria Lello, the bookstore that reportedly inspired J.K. Rowling in creating Hogwarts.
In Italy, the bookstore to visit is in Venice. It’s Libreria Acqua, the floating bookstore, another must for all booklovers.
