Bookshops and travelling bug

I cannot stop buying books. Every morning, when I step into the study, I feel comforted by the sight of books and the smell of paper. Every unread book is a promising read and I want to gobble them down. I always allow myself the window to leisurely read some pages of a novel every day. Whenever there is an extended weekend due to public holidays, it is absolutely a delight to be able to feast upon books without having to think about work .

In June, I was going on a vacation, I had brought along with me books to read during the journey. After taking into consideration the size and weight of each book that I had in mind, I brought along only two books : A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and Belle Burden‘s memoir. I was halfway through Pachinko by Min Jin Lee ( 531 pages) and decided to leave it behind. You see, I wanted to leave enough luggage space to buy books as bookshops were definitely on the itinerary.On the plane I read Strangers A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden, her narrative personal and her writing prolific. From time to time, I had to take a breather as and when I found myself in tears.

At the end of my two weeks’ vacation, I brought home with me fifteen books, out of which ten are for me. A friend had asked me to get fictions by Annie Ernaux and Marguerite Duras. The titles that she wanted were not available in Shakespeare and Company. I had felt so lucky when I found them in Librairie Comme un roman, Le Marais.

On our first afternoon in Lisbon, we visited Bertrand, located in Chiado District. It is the oldest operating bookstore in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. It was founded by two French brothers in 1732.There I picked up a copy of English translation of The Double by José Saramago (Vintage edition).

On the 2nd day, I visited Livaria Le Devagar at LX Factory after having one of the best chocolate cakes at Landeau. I bought a couple of books from the bookshop: A Brief History of Portugal by Jeremy Black and Walking on the ceiling by Ayşegül Savaş, a Turkish writer living in Paris.

At Livaria Le Devagar, I came across The Typing Lady by Ruth Ozeki and My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein by Deborah Levy. Both Ozeki and Levy are amongst my favourite writers.I added them to my reading list.

After Lisbon, my younger daughter and I spent three nights in Madeira where we took the bus up to Pico do Arieiro to catch the sunset amidst the fog and the crispy cold air. On the 2nd day we hiked Risco Levada, the shorter trail at 25 Fontes and in the evening, we walked down the promenade, ate limpets and Bolo do Caco (round flatbread) at a restaurant overlooking the harbour and catching the sunset.On the last day, we walked around the old town, had light lunch and coffee at a quaint café and then we took walks down the promenade again to head back to the city centre. Funchal is a lovely resort town that has a beautiful coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean. There are many nice cafés where you can sit and chill. We strolled down Rua de Santa Maria (Santa Maria Street) with painted doors. The Art of Open Doors is an art project that was initiated by artist José Maria Montero Zyberchema in collaboration with the local council to revitalize the old town. The street art is primarily centered along Rua de Santa Maria that leads up to the Santa Maria Maior Church. Artists are invited to work on over 200 doors of the buidlings on the cobblestone street. On our last evening, we had early dinner near the apartment that we were renting as we had an early flight to catch the next morning. At the time of booking the apartment, I had not checked that if there was a lift. While the apartment is located in an ideal area where there are cafes and restaurants and close to Avenida do Mar waterfront promenade and the beach, we were in a bit of a fix when we found that we had to carry our suitcases up three flights of stairs and down when we left. My daughter managed most of the lifting and I am glad we got to the airport well in time to catch the flight to Porto.

One of the highlights during our time in Porto was visitng Livaria Lello, the beautiful bookshop known for its Neo-Gothic architecture and red spiral staircase. The Babell Literary Festival was being held, turning Porto’s historic center into a city of books. The festival was organized by Livaria Lello Foundation and the Porto City Council. Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, Julian Barnes, Olga Tokarczuk and László Krasznahorkai were amongst the writers who were present. I was glad to chance upon the festival and caught the vibes around the grounds where conversations were being held and bookstalls were in the vicinity.I wish I had found out about the festival earlier so I could attend a couple of the sessions. On 27 June, Lello also launched the Manifesto Library and it was curated in partnership with singer/ artist Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club. The collection comprises of 100 books that have some point been censored or banned in some countries, or that they address issues of free and unfree speech. Babell Festival is a celebration of literature and art. That evening, renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang was commissioned by The Livraria Lello Foundation to present his sky-art installation One Page combining 600 aerial drones and gunpowder as his medium that evening. We did not catch the show. It was still a memorable experience to be in the city with all the happenings and taking in the vibes around the celebration.

On the last day of stay in Porto, I happened to walk past Bertrand, one of their branches across Portugal and I had to step into the bookshop to look at their array of books. I picked up Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi in its English translation. It always gives me much pleasure to browse around a bookshop to see the books that sit on the shelves in a bookshop. You never know when you might get a surprise find. That is how I came across Jeremy Mercer ‘s memoir ‘ Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs (UK edition) also entitled Time Was Soft There (US edition) when I browsed around Kinokuniya Bookstore in Kuala Lumpur.

Jeremy Mercer‘s memoir is about living in the bookshop, Shakespeare And Company in Paris between late 1999 and mid 2000 amongst the hopeful and aspiring artists, poets and writers . In exchange for bed and board, he had to wake up in the morning to cart out boxes of books for display on the sidewalk and help out at the shop, sorting out books, performing menial tasks such as sweeping, taking care of the cash register.Every resident was also asked to type out a page of autobiography and read a book a day from the library. These were the conditions set by the founder ,George Whitman.  The bookshop was originally named Le Mistral when it was first founded in 1951. Whitman changed its name to Shakespeare and Company, the name of another bookstore that had existed between 1919-1941 and was owned by Sylvia Beach, a gathering place for Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and the writers at the time. Sylvia Beach closed her bookstore during World War II.

The last time when I visited Paris in 2009, I had not managed to check out Shakespeare And Company. The bookshop was definitely on my itinerary in my recent trip. Shakespeare and Company has since become popularised by tourists and we had to get into the queue to enter. We hit the bookshop on the first evening we arrived in Paris.

No photos are allowed in the bookshop. There are reading corners and a reading room in the upper floor where you are welcome to sit and read. As we only arrived slightly more than an hour before closing, there wasn’t sufficient time for us to sit down and read there. After browsing around the shelves, I bought What We Can Know by Ian McEwan, Paris Bookseller by Kerry Maher, a historical fiction about Sylvia Beach and Shakespeare and Company. I also picked up a copy of The Correspondent by Virginia Evans and a copy of La honte by Annie Ernaux.

By the end of the trip, when we checked in our luggages, they were well within the baggage allowance. I cannot wait to devour all the books that I had bought on my trip.