Bookshops

I love to spend time in a bookshop. I love to walk up and down the aisles, looking high and low on the shelves for a hidden gem or something that catches my eye. Generally, I am not looking for a best seller, rather my eyes search for some obscure subject or some specific topic that I have a new found interest in. If I am out of town, I look for something of local interest.

It is interesting to people watch in a bookshop. Generally, the customers are not smiling. Its not that they are unhappy, its just that they are serious as they look for a specific title or just browse to see what's there, old or new. I like the shops where there are soft chairs to sit and spend a few minutes glancing through an interesting book.

I read a lot of information on the internet but what pleasure there is in holding a book in your hand, making notes in the margins for items of importance that you know you will never get back to, or just putting in your bookmark when its time to stop reading.

I have been to London five or six times and everytime I have ventured into Hatchards Bookshop on Piccadilly. This wonderful shop was established in 1797 and has four or five levels seemingly containing everything. I always seem to find a couple of English history books that I probably could not find in the US. I once bought a book at Hatchards about walking through the Yorkshire Dales.

Here are a few other book shops that I particularly like:
Denver: The Tattered Cover.
San Francisco: City Lights, Adobe Books, and Borders on Powell Street
Rome: Anglo American Bookstore (near Spanish Steps)

As a native of Salt Lake City I would be remiss if I did not mention The King's English Bookshop. This small, independent bookshop is a wonderful place to spend an hour or two.

Also in Salt Lake is Ken Sanders Rare Books with its extensive collection about the West.

Treat yourself, turn off the TV and find a bookshop to wander through. Buy your spouse something you want to read. Buy your mom a book. Heck, buy yourself a book. I know you will feel good when you walk out of the shop with a book or two in your shopping bag.

If you have a favorite bookshop, leave a comment and I will check out your favorite shop if I am nearby.