Prompt: Bookish Places I’ve Visited (Share all the cool places you’ve been that are bookish or tied to books! This includes neat libraries, book stores, places featured in books, places inspired by books, author homes/places they’ve stayed, etc. You can also share your bucket list of the bookish places you’d like to visit someday.) (submitted by Susan @Bloggin’ ’bout Books)
I am a librarian who was raised by rabid and voracious readers. Visiting libraries, bookshops, museums, and writers’ houses is an expected activity for any family-related trip. I also lived in Boston for many years, so there is definite bias for the Northeast. Lastly, I’m using the place names as I remember them.
Here are some of my favorite bookish places in no particular order.
Concord, Massachusetts
So many American writers lived in or around Concord in the 1800s, notably the Alcotts, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau. After visiting the historic houses, you can wander through historic cemeteries and visit authors’ gravestones.
Walden Pond, Massachusetts
I loved skinny-dipping in the pond after midnight. The park is cool during the day, too, when you can visit Thoreau’s cabin.
House of Seven Gables Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
Like Concord, there are many bookish places in Salem. The Turner-Ingersoll Mansion inspired the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Avenue Victor Hugo, Boston, Massachusetts
One of my favorite used bookstores in the world was located on Newbury Street. It had floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves filled with books. It was an accessibility nightmare. SFF was on the left wall.
Powell’s Books, Chicago, Illinois
Growing up, we visited Chicago almost every summer. If we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, we had to visit Powell’s. I was jealous of my sisters who each had a Powell’s t-shirt (cartoon of a man at the base of a ladder surrounded by overflowing bookshelves.)
Powell’s Books, Portland, Oregon
Of course, this is the Powell’s Books most people know about. It was always fun to wander around the City of Books and then get a coffee at the Anne Hughes. I also loved the cooking location on Hawthorne Blvd.
Sylvia Beach Hotel, Newport, Oregon
Every room is named and decorated in honor of a different author. In the late 1990s, I stayed in the Willa Cather Room. The Mark Twain room was gaudy and maximalist. It is now the Hotel Sylvia, and the room decor seems much more sedate.
Abbey of St. Gall Library, St. Gallen, Switzerland
This is a very old library; it housed a scriptorium in the mid-8th century. The current building was built in 1767. It is a Baroque masterpiece–gaudy and gold. I saw my first Wunderkammer here. And there is a mummy in the collection!
Shepherd of the Hills Bookshop, near Branson, Missouri
Small store in a white house on a two-lane twisty road. I can’t remember if it was independent or associated with the Shepherd of the Hills Outdoor Drama. It had a mixture of new and used books about the Ozarks, old Life magazines, and postcards. I remember helping to stamp out a fire on its lawn. (I have since learned that most families do not immediately fight grass fires with shoes and blankets and instead wait for fire trucks.) I was very glad that the store (and the books within) were not threatened.
Brand Books, Glendale, California
It was a large new and used books store in downtown Glendale. It had Avenue Victor Hugo vibes with much wider aisles. I always tried to buy a book on every visit. I miss it.
+1 Bucket List
I want to visit bookish places in the UK and Ireland related to Jane Austen, George Eliot, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, William Blake, and Seamus Heaney. (And James Joyce if I’m with my mom.)
