Notes from Beautiful Bookstores

Shakespeare & Company - Paris

This bookstore is located in 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, Paris, France. Opened in 1951 by George Whitman. It was originally named "Le Mistral" but renamed to "Shakespeare and Company" in April 1964 in tribute to Sylvia Beach, who founded the original bookstore in 1919. That bookstore was closed in 1940. The bookstore is probably the most photographed bookstore in the world. Simply the centrum of all book lovers. The place Henry Miller calls A Wonderland of Books.  

One afternoon, when I visited the bookstore, it was busy with the book lovers that came from all around the world. People did not come here just to buy books, they exchanged their admiration for books and asked the shopkeepers about the writers that frequented the store. Just by entering the doors, you can undoubtedly see that this is more than just your normal bookstore. The spirit of literature lives here. On the first floor, there is a piano room, where someone was playing while others were sitting around and reading. It was truly magnificent sight. Spiritual. 

The room with Notre Dame view

In the other room on the first floor, there is a table with typing machine on it. The window in front of the table is open with a view of Notre Dame. Here the visitors can sit down and read antiquarian books of English literature.

This bookstore also have lots of philosophy to it. The most notable is written on the first floor wall at the entrance to the Sylvia Beach Memorial Library: "Be not inhospitable to strangers less they be angels in disguise", as well as on the floor at the entrance: "Live for Humanity".

The writing on the windows shutters outside the store called "Paris Wall Newspaper": Some people call me the Don Quixote of the Latin Quarter because my head is so far up in the clouds that I can imagine all of us are angels in paradise, and instead of being a bonafide bookseller I am more like a frustrated novelist. This store has rooms like chapters in a novel and the fact is Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are more real to me than my next door neighbours and even stranger to me is the fact that even before I was born Dostoyevsky wrote the story of my life in a book called 'The Idiot' and ever since reading it I have been searching for the Heroine, a girl called Natasia Filipovna. One hundred years ago, my bookstore was a wine shop hidden from the Seine by an annex of the Hotel Dieu Hospital which has since been demolished and replaced by a garden. Further back in the year 1600, our whole building was a monastery called 'La Maison du Mustier'. In medieval times each monastery had a frere lampier whose duty was to light the lamps at nightfall. I have been doing this for fifty years, now it is my daughter turn."

The original store, which doubled as a library, publisher and boarding house for aspiring writers, was featured in Ernest Hemingway's memoir - A Moveable Feast. The store was also featured in the Richard Linklater film Before Sunset, in the Nora Ephron film Julie & Julia and in the Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris. The notable writers that passed through the doors, included the writers of the Beat Generation, such as Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Ray Bradbury, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lawrence Durell, Tead Jones and James Baldwin. During the original shop times, writers from Lost Generation, such as Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The new generation of writers that participated in literary festivals or readings  hosted by the bookstore included: Paul Auster, Marjane Satrapi, Jung Chang, Martin Amis, Hanif Kureishi, Siri Hustvedt, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer.

Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen - Maastricht 

Entrance

This bookstore is located in Dominicanerkerkstraat 1, Maastricht, Netherlands. Often times quoted as the most beautiful bookstore in the world. The bookstore is built in a 700 year old former Dominican church. The original church was built in 1294. The church was closed in 1794 by Napoleon Bonaparte's army and spent some of the next two centuries abandoned and neglected. 

 The building has seen various uses since it was closed, from warehouse and archive to bicycle shed. The 13th century church was transformed into bookstore by Amsterdam architects Merkx+Girod, who chose modern black steel shelving and fashionable furniture, including a cross-shaped reading table to compliment the church's renovated vaulted ceilings, ornate arches and decorative frescoes.

These days, Boekhandel Selexyz Dominicanen, houses a three storey bookshelf complete with staircases, elevators and walkways. 

The reading table and cafe

When I visited this bookstore, it was full of people from around the world, not just there to buy books, but to enjoy the beauty of the store. Truly one of a kind. While most of the books are in Dutch, there is decent English collections as well as children books, and nice cafe. 

I took some time to marvel around and search trough its shelves. Found few good books and bought it together with few bookmarks. It's a great place to be if you are a book lover. 

Inside the bookstore