Picture a Favorite Place

One of the coolest places I've ever visited is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris, France. I visited this quaint bookstore last summer, when I was studying abroad with Honors at Oxford.

 

So many books!

 This place has so much history! Many now-iconic authors frequented Shakespeare and Company before they were famous. Writers like Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and James Joyce often visited this bookstore.

While I was there, I let myself believe that maybe, possibly, someday I could be a (far less renown) author who also visited Shakespeare and Company. I bought one incredibly overpriced book there just so I could get the cool, official Shakespeare and Company stamp inside the front cover. Don't tell anyone I still haven't read it.

The sheer amount of knowledge and experiences amasses inside this tiny, cramped, labyrinthine bookshop overwhelmed me with awe. It's a place I intend to visit again. Someday, maybe I'll cross the Atlantic and walk along the Seine, approaching a rebuilt Notre-Dame Cathedral, and I'll step across the street and into Shakespeare and Company to buy a copy of a specially-stamped book that I wrote. Hey, dreams are dreams for a reason.

Bonus: a picture I definitely wasn't supposed to take inside the shop.


Pretty good advice from Raymond Chandler, author of The Big Sleep and a pioneer of the detective genre. Seems like he knew what he was talking about.




The images of the outside of the shop, the George Whitman sign, and the Raymond Chandler list were taken by me!

Comments

  1. Laura GibbsAugust 21, 2019 at 3:14 PM

    Ohhhh, Alex, that sure brings back memories: there was a Shakespeare and Co. on Telegraph in Berkeley back in the day... now I have to Google and see if it is still there! (Google pause) ... alas, it closed in 2015, after opening in 1964... I sure bought a lot of books in there back in the 1980s. And you know I am going to snag that writing advice from Raymond Chandler for the class announcements. Fabulous: THANK YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 25, 2019 at 6:44 PM

    Alex the picture is amazing reading your blog makes me feel like I should read some more. People find beauty in places, flowers etc you find pleasure in books and that is amazing I believe that books can be someones best friend they never take anything only give- knowledge. I am excited to one day stumble upon a book in a famous bookstore that is written by you and feel proud that I once was your classmate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JessSeptember 30, 2019 at 4:24 PM

    Hey Alex! What a super cool favorite place. I had never heard of the bookshop before but think it's so cool that so many famous author's have been there. It's crazy to think how there was so many years between us and Shakespeare, yet a bookstore he went to still exists. The bookshop itself looks really cool, even without the history too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DaveOctober 24, 2019 at 6:36 PM

    Hi Alex! Studying with Honors at Oxford? Wow. That is super impressive! I love your picture of the outside of Shakespeare and Company. That place looks incredible! If I ever get to visit France (which is a gigantic if) I will definitely have to make a trip to Shakespeare and Company. And seriously, Oxford?!?

    ReplyDelete

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