5 bookstores you should know
The smell of paper, the tickling roughness of a cover under your fingertips, the joy of browsing through the volumes and of leafing through the pages in the shade of a bookcase filled with the greatest masterpieces of International literature.
That’s what we’ll have to give up when we finally decide to switch from papaer books to e-books.
Of course, there will be as many advantages, maybe even more. Luckily, though, there are some places where that day still seems quite long to come.
What we’re talking about are certainly not those huge bookstore chains where books seem to have long lost their main role, but rather the few independent bookstores that are stubbornly managing to survive the advent of e-books in the name of a gloriuos past.
City Lights Books, San Francisco
Owned by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the bookstore where Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac used to meet is still very popular. And what is more important, it keeps making room for young talents.
Shakespeare & Co, Paris
Here’s another former beat meeting point.
Founded by British bibliophyle George Whitman back in 1951, this bookshop in the Quartier Latin has been featured in many a movie and became very popular with tourists. Yet, when it’s not too crowded, you can still leaf through books while sitting on a bed fitted in the bookshelves.
Foyles, London
Although it was probably more charming before the refit, with its old dusty bookshelves and piled up volumes, this West End bookstore is still a great place for book lovers. Check out the top floor for a nice selection of music scores.
Strand, New York City
Greenwich Village’s most beloved bookstore is a bit a flea market where you can find very cheap second-hand books. They claim to have over eighteen miles of books, but that’s hard to prove. Still, their rare book section is huge and interesting.
Gogol & Company
Part independent bookstore (engaged in promoting small publishing houses), part art space and part cafe, Gogol & Company opened only a couple of years ago, but we like the way they managed to animate their spaces without confining the books to a marginal role.
Arts & Culture
-
14.05.2012
50 years of rock
-
10.05.2012
Art, books & design
-
09.05.2012
Web cinema
-
08.05.2012
May’s art agenda
-
04.05.2012
Dying Types
-
26.04.2012
Investigating the future
-
24.04.2012
Minimalist landscapes
-
22.04.2012
Slow Seating
-
18.04.2012
MOST
-
11.04.2012
Apocalyptic scenarios
-
05.04.2012
April’s art events
-
04.04.2012
Dante in a cave
-
03.04.2012
Eight nights at MOMA
-
20.03.2012
Spring Exhibitions
-
15.03.2012
Music, films and technology
-
13.03.2012
The usual suspects
-
07.03.2012
The eyes of the world
-
05.03.2012
Wrecking ball: the Boss is back
-
01.03.2012
Full-length format
-
24.02.2012
Italian Art in London