This charming used and rare book store has one of those carts on wheels parked at the entrance, drawing you in for a delicious browse. I always plan on a minimum of at least two hours, since popping in and out is absolutely impossible. The front door has a cheery little bell that jingles on my arrival.
One step on those creaky hardwood floors, and my heart beats just a tiny bit faster. The air is filled with the enchanting scent of old paper, wood and dust. There is shelf upon shelf of treasures just waiting to be discovered. In fact, this place has so many books, they are overflowing in huge stacks on the floor.
You guessed right. My first stop is in the poetry section. After an hour, or maybe two, I narrowed my stack to just three picks:
Rita Dove's Selected Poems
Seamus Heaney's Selected Poems 1966-1987
Pablo Neruda's The Captain's Verses
You know, I think I could easily spend a day or two in here. I could just sneak in my sleeping bag, and make myself comfy inside this giant mound of books. I'd need a flashlight, too, for reading after the shop closed up for the evening. Do you think anyone would notice?
It looks like you had a great day. I'm right there with you in the book heaven. I worked in the public library when I was in high school and I'd love to go upstairs to the old collections and just take it all in. It sounds like you got some great books. I'm anxious to hear if you had some yummy b-day cake. happy day.
ReplyDeleteThe perfect day! You need to take me to that bookstore!
ReplyDeleteCome out and we'll go! I can never visit there too many times.
ReplyDeleteAh, the perfect birthday. Now I know what I want for my birthday.
ReplyDeleteactually, I really don't think anyone would notice! looks a fabulous place :)
ReplyDeleteoh my! i could spend the day here as well. the mounds of books are calling my name for sure!
ReplyDeleteOoh, I reckon you could find a little niche somewhere behind one of those stacks! Great bookstore!
ReplyDeleteI love Rita Dove's work!
Alaine, I think Rita Dove is brilliant. I love-love-love her style.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday. Health and happiness to you Willow.
ReplyDeleteBest,
David
http://www.globalaroundtown.blogspot.com
An excellent way to spend a birthday! What a wonderful store -- love the old tile floors!
ReplyDeleteGlorious, glorious books. Heaven.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday dear Willow. That is exactly where I would love to spend my BD too. We have a new gently read book store in town. Is poetry the only books you read? I would recommend The Book Thief, for a novel. I don't remember the author I will check it out.
ReplyDeleteQMM
The Book Thief by Markus Zuzah. Also takes place in old book store. Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
ReplyDeleteQMM
I'll take the Pablo Neruda's "The
ReplyDeleteCaptain's Verses"....going by the title only here... would it be a
sea captain by chance?...if so it probably would be a quick read for me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! Glad you visited a favorite place on your special day. You deserve it!
The Bach
Now that's what I call a real birthday treat!
ReplyDeleteOh my, it looks so familiar. Books everywhere. It looks like my office! Book designers too often end up with too many books, but we surely do appreciate every person who buys them. All I can say is support publishing, whether new or used. Just keep supporting books. Imagine in the future going to a store and finding a bunch of empty Kindles with an antiseptic person behind a counter in a smock like a pharmacy ready to fill your Kindle with page turning...ummm...button pushing books.
ReplyDeleteAgain, happy B-day.
Happy Birthday from your sister's friend. You have a remarkable blog and I try not to become overcome with blogenvy as I lurk here following Betsy's prompting at times! I hope you have a very inspirational year.
ReplyDeleteBetsy is braver than my sister. She stopped going to the bookstore with me long ago, because I would never leave.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a great birthday.
Happy Birthday Willow! Looks like a lovely way to spend the day. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI arrive too late for the feast but it looks you had a great day of it.
ReplyDeleteWishing you many happy returns.
That book shop looks great.
Totally with you here, willow. I'm lucky in the two similar bookshops within 15 minutes of where I live.* Ten minutes within the deep heart of such places it's as clear as it needs to be that, whatever further inroads are made by this digital world of which we are such a functional part, books will be with us always.
ReplyDelete*
http://www.erictmoore.co.uk/index.html
http://www.davids-bookshops.co.uk/
Love your photos of the store. Now that is a great book store with piles and old book shelves. . .just the way it should be :)
ReplyDeleteI love the smell as you described it.
Oh, and Happy Birthday! Hope it is all you want it to be.
All the best
I think you could hide away in here through the next ten birthdays and never run out of reading material! Of course, we would REALLY begin to miss you and what would they do at the Manor without you. I guess that means this marvelous bookstore is only for occasional rendezvous and fueling your supply of reading material. It is, indeed, a marvelous place!
ReplyDeleteYes, I think they would notice, but they wouldn't mind at all :-). Good to read that you had a lovely birthday. And those images! Fantastic bookshop. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Willow,
ReplyDeleteCan you think of anything better than a bookstore?
Me neither!
rel
Sounds like just about a perfect birthday day out to me. There isn't by any chance a half-decent pub next door is there? Now that would be perfect.
ReplyDeletewillow you share the experience of an old bookstore so beautifully i know those feelings, those smells, that wondering - coud i stay for a few days and really see everything in here and leave knowing that i've picked out the best of the best for me to read in my favourite chair!!! have a lovely day at the manor. steven
ReplyDeleteThat bookstore looks like my house Willow. I am so pleased you had a lovely Birthday with books! xx
ReplyDeleteThe small City of Guelph, where my youngest daughter lives, has the best bookstores in our area. They are one of the reasons I love to go to visit her.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the bookstores aren't the only reason, you understand.
Nothing like visiting a fav book store on ones b-day. This one looks fabulous. I too went to a bookstore for my b-day treat however it was not a fun looking as this one. Nice selection of poets.
ReplyDeleteWONDERFUL DAY! I too love a used book store...I think that this one is well within reach of a commute for me! Maybe I will do it one day...ALL BY MYSELF!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday sweet Willow!
My kind of shop......
ReplyDeleteOh I think sneeking in is a great idea!Vanished among the written word! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the floors of the store - wow! And great selections, too. I read Seamus Heaney a lot these days.
ReplyDeleteThe store itself would intimidate me, though. All those stacks of books. Actually quite scary. To me.
I'm a wimp, but you, Willow? You are mighty!!
Sounds like you had a marvelous birthday. Happy belated!
ReplyDeleteHi! Willow,
ReplyDeleteHappy "Belated" Birthday!
Wow,...that bookstore is a bibliophile
"dream" come true!
From your photographs that looks like a very nice bookstore to spend time reading,(skimming the pages) searching and exploring.
By the way, nice header and avatar too!
Thanks, for sharing!
DeeDee ;-D
Rita Dove? I think Dave King recommended her, didn't he?
ReplyDeleteSounds like the ideal day for you, Willow. Glad to hear you spent it to perfection.
I don't think anyone would notice if you scrunch up in your sleeping bag (flashlight under the flap, a la campouts).
Kat, I don't know about Dave King recommending Rita Dove, but I featured her last April as one of my poet posts for National Poetry Month. She's one of my faves.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great birthday! Great books and you got to walk on that beautiful octagonal tile floor!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to spend your birthday. And what a fabulous looking shop.
ReplyDeleteI can get lost for hours in book shops - I love them. When I lived in London I used to go Covent Garden where there was a wonderful one. I would settle the children in their part where there were bean bags for them to sit and browse the books they liked and head off to my part. Many a happy hour spent there.
My other 'downfall' is a music store.
Mountains of books! Hope you had a wonderful birthday! I love peaking into your world.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to spend a special afternoon. I love those kinds of bookstores, but just to browse around in, I am sworn off actually buying anymore books! (At least until we find a place for all the books we have in boxes.)
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! I love a good bookstore too.
ReplyDeletethat would be the perfect day..i love book stores! i could have stayed there all day! sounds like you had a great birthday!
ReplyDeleteGlad to read what an enjoyable day you had celebrating; waffles and books! I hope the evening proved to be every bit as enjoyable too!
ReplyDeleteThat's the first place I would go too and probably the last...can't get enough poetry...AND the smell of old books. Just bought 9 of them at the Salvation Army...I'm a sucker for old gold covers too, they just suck me right in!
ReplyDeleteAnd a happy birthday for ya too...what kinda cake...?
That looks my kind of shop - I can smell the smell you describe as I write. How I wish I lived near enough to pop in.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed your birthday, Willow. A birthday should be spent doing the things you most enjoy. When I am in America, I love to go to Borders Bookstore on a Saturday afternoon. I like to see all the new books, which have just come out and have a cup of hazlenut latte in the coffee area. Best of all I like to take my time and enjoy the ambience. I can think of a few places here in England you would enjoy too.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Star
Happy Belated Birthday dear willow!
ReplyDeleteThis bookstore looks like a small piece of heaven on earth...the photographs alone are divine...and the words rushed me right there...
...may you have a year full of wonders!
xoxo
As with all the above, heaven!
ReplyDeleteAs with all the above, heaven!
ReplyDeleteA birthday wish come true...time to be with what you love! I would so love to find the art section and get lost for a couple of hours! Good choice! Fun bringing home your treasures.
ReplyDeleteThat place looks like HEAVEN! :) The perfect place to go for birthday revelry.
ReplyDeleteOH MY GOD i can smell the books!
ReplyDeleteThis is my kind of heaven, too. Everywhere you look... -Jayne
ReplyDeleteThe absolutely perfect way for you of all people to spend your special day!
ReplyDeleteThis place looks fantastic...There's a section of an antique store nearby very much like this...I need to get over that way, soon...
Spending your birthday in a shop overflowing with old books sounds so perfect. The scent of the old papers and books, the discoveries of treasures, the connections to other books of the past...... how wonderful! Sounds as if your day was a perfect birthday treat. =D
ReplyDeleteThanks for sending the photos and delightful description of the bookstore. I so wish I could have spent the afternoon with you to celebrate your special day!
ReplyDeleteOh my, what a wonderful place. I could also spend hours somewhere like that.
ReplyDeleteI've often thought that I'd make a wonderful prisoner - all that time, so many books!
I could not have imagined a more perfect birthday treat ! The bookstore reminds me of "Second Story Books" in Bethesda, Maryland - the pictures could have been taken there.
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful store...all it needs is a few cats...one of my favorite bookstores in Seattle has cats...
ReplyDeletemuch love
Breathtaking Willow, a perfect way to celebrate your birthday.
ReplyDeleteI love bookstores like that--sadly, they're becoming more rare. Sounds like a marvelous birthday!
ReplyDeleteMy kind of place! Sadly, nothing like that here...glad you had such an enjoyable experience. A real treat!
ReplyDeleteLove the tile floor too as well as of course the description of creaky floors and that wonderfully intoxicating aroma of old books. How lovely it would be to snuzzle down in sleeping bag with torch in hard to read late into the night, surrounded by so much muse.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a wonderful time. now, did you have any cake?
No, Mr. Mmm, no cake. The waffles kinda took it's place.
ReplyDeleteI went to the new Cowboy Stadium on my birthday (Oct. 19th) and then out for chocolate martinis with friends.
ReplyDeleteThen I tried hard not to throw up because of the chocolate brownie combined with the chocolate martinis. (Success. Barely.)
Um, your birthday was much better.
Lovely post!
Happy belated birthday.
Love the floor there, too! A burst of nostalgia... My grandmother lived in an old apartment building once, after she sold her house, and the apartment was beautiful--I still, to this day, wish I could live in a building like it, but the hallway floor was just like that in the entryway. Brought back a flood of memories. I'm not really fond of that look, but the thoughts of grandma that come back are marvelous!
ReplyDeleteooo ... I'm drooling. My Dad is famous for completely losing track of time when in used book stores, though now, like you, he has expanded his searches for that rare gem to the Internet.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely way to spend your special day! I could easily get lost among the stacks.
ReplyDeleteWillow I can relate to that, I ordered a book on amazon that was listed in very good condition, when I received it -- oh my it reeked of cigarette smoke, you could not even touch it without your fingers smelling badly. Amazon asks for comments and or feed back on these used books and I mentioned what happen. And to my amazement - the seller of the book wrote me back and was very angry at me for complaining. Although I must confess I have taken chances since then and have been spared.
ReplyDeleteJoanny
The fastest way to spend a glorious day Willow!
ReplyDeleteMillie ^_^
P.S. Life must get very interesting in that wonderful store at stocktake time!
My goodness I love the look of that bookstore! It reminds me of my favourite record store. I wish there were more bookstores like this one!
ReplyDeleteI adore bookstores, and this one looks amazing. So many books, so little time.
ReplyDeleteI am right there with you on this one. I adore book stores, especially second hand book stores. New books on the shelf says to me: "don't touch me, you'll spoil me, I am expensive", second hand ones says: "come on in, read me, use me, enjoy me, you can afford me".
ReplyDeleteA Human, I wholeheartedly agree! There are times when I buy new, but as far as browsability goes, it's the secondhand bookshops, hands down!
ReplyDeletefabulous place.. love bookshops of all descriptions. Reminds me of The Dawn Treader bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan, visited all the time when living there. Now back home in England. Cant get enough of books....
ReplyDeleteAhhh what a delicious place. The last old book store i visited was in maine. i wish i could fly out there right this minute.
ReplyDeleteAnd you poetry selections...mmm...some of my favorites :)