Top Ten Best Bookish Memories

Tuesday, February 5, 2013


This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my Top Ten Best Bookish Memories. I love this list! I have so many great memories connecting with books and authors and I had fun just thinking over all of them.

1) Seeing Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey where so many of my favorite authors are buried!

2) Browsing in the infamous City Lights Bookstore and getting a drink at the Vesuvio Bar where Jack Kerouac and the beats used to hang out.

3) Visiting Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris for the first time.

4) Wandering around the streets of Savannah, GA and seeing all the places mentioned in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

5) Waiting in line to get my copy of Harry Potter books 5 and 7 at midnight.

6) Visiting Monroeville, AL, the hometown of Harper Lee and the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. The old courthouse is now an incredible museum devoted to Lee and Truman Capote!

7) Running out of books to read in Budapest, Hungary and finding a little English-language used bookstore and buying a battered copy of A Prayer for Owen Meany.

8) Hearing some of my favorite authors speak and meeting them afterwards to get books sign: Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris, Lois Lowry, John Green, Nicole Krauss and Jhumpa Lahiri.

9) Visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore.

10) Going to The Strand bookstore and seeing the Algonquin round table in New York City.

Photo of Vesuvio mural in San Francisco by moi. 

11 comments:

Kat @ NoPageLeftBehind said...

Wow, you have some great bookish memories! I'm jealous of all of the famous bookstores you've visited!

Care said...

cool. You've got so many items here that many would say is a bucket list!

Sandy Nawrot said...

Yeah you don't forget stuff like this. And OMG! Savannah was never the same for me after I read that book. Talk about a city coming alive in your mind.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Kat - I should have added Portland's Powell's and Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company to the list. Those are both incredible bookstores!

Care - They were definitely bucket list places for me!

Sandy - I know! I read his second book, The City of Falling Angels, on the train to Venice and I swear it made my trip there so much more vivid.

Anonymous said...

Going to the midnight release of HP& is definitely one of my favorite bookish memories. Such a fun night, and a good beginning to the end of the series.

Alex (The Sleepless Reader) said...

So interesting to see how much your list would be similar to mine. A big resounding Yes! to points 1, 4 and 5, especially. In #7 I would just switch to the Trans-Siberian and a tiny paperback-swap shelf in an American restaurant in Ulaanbaatar.

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

quinnsbooknook - Agreed. I wonder if there will ever be another series that has such an avid following that it merits midnight releases. I hope so!

Alex - That is crazy! We're bookish twins. I love the Trans-Siberian story. There's something ridiculously comforting about finding an English-language book in a foreign country.

Suey said...

Wow! Some awesome memories and travel experiences on your list! I may find myself in Paris this summer... I should go to that bookstore then?

Jenners said...

I've so enjoyed reading these memories of everyone.

Amy said...

Oh wow, you have some really awesome memories! I can't believe you've been to all those places! So jealous!

Melissa (Avid Reader) said...

Suey - Oh my gosh yes!!! If you need any Paris tips you should email me. I've been twice and love it. I'm so excited for you!

Jenners - I loved seeing everyone else's too. Bookish memories are the best!

Amy - There are so many great literary places I still want to visit!