Shakespeare and Comapany Bookstore

(The shop during my visit there)

I just wanted to say that yesterday's death of the owner of the Shakespeare and Company bookstore filled me with both sadness and joy. It breaks my heart when anyone who loves books that much passes away, but it's also wonderful to remember that people like him exist in the world. George Whitman created a place where readers and writers could reveal in the joys of the written word.

My visit to the Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore was one of my very favorite parts of my first trip to Paris in 2005. That shop is filled to the brim with treasures and you can't help but feel a thrill when you think of the authors that have wandered through those shelves. Right now I'm actually reading my copy of A Room of One's Own that I bought there. So anyway, thank you Whitman, for creating such an amazing haven for book lovers.

“I wanted a bookstore because the book business is the business of life,” - George Whitman.

p.s. If you want to read more about the shop, I'd recommend a memoir written by Jeremy Mercer, a writer who lived there for awhile. It's called "Time Was Soft There" or "Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs" depending on where you get it.

Photo by moi.