One of the non-fiction gifts from my mum. It’s an essay or a collection of essays, depends how you want to look at it, about bookshops. Carrión travels a lot and during his travels bookshops always take a special place, his memories of some of the bookshops form a starting point of this book. Carrión looks at booshops from many perspectives, he considers their function during his travels, but also in the wider political context, as they often become safe-heavens of free thinking. He also writes about the role bookshops used to play as hubs of cultural life, they were the centre where intellectuals met.

It is difficult for me to review this book, because I made the mistake I often make with essays – I tried to read it in one go. I am not good at polyreading, I definitely tend to stick to one bobok at a time and in case of essays like this it’s sometimes exhausting. They need more time to digest and some breaks. So I have to admit at times I was a bit bored of this book, but probably more due to exhausted brain than the book being boring. Carrión takes his time considering and describing things, but he does it in a beautiful and engaging language. It was definitely food for thought and I’ll come back to this book as soon as I manage to change my reading habits a bit and learn to read two books at a time.

It is a lovely read for anyone who loves books and bookshops. It alo inspired me to do some bookshops tourism in London during the course of this year, you can read more about it here.

Do you have a favorite bookshop? Why is it this one and not any other?

P.S. I know the photo is not of a bookshop, but in a bookshop I feel like a child in front of such stall.

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska