After almost four weeks of traveling in Europe, which included visits to Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia, I am still processing the bookish aspect of this once-in-a-lifetime trip to countries I had only read about. I did not deep-dive into every bookstore since there were a lot of them and only a few of them had English titles. Moreover, I had to be aware that everything I bought had to fit into a small suitcase and to be carried up canal bridge steps, onto trains and through airports. But most importantly, any extensive shopping would cut into my quest for perfect pastries, my pasta and sausage binges washed down with red wine, and just walking around and soaking in sites and neighborhoods with my partner and travel planner extraordinaire Denise Casey.
Here are a few experiences worth mentioning:
Another Country Books – Kreuzberg District, Berlin
My older daughter Cynthia who lives in Berlin insisted that I bring a copy of my collection of essays The Book Shopper to Another Country Books, which is primarily an English bookstore that carries used books for sale and lending. Yes, their business model includes books that they loan out like a public library (hence the threatening poster). The owner graciously added the book to his stacks (yellow pointer), but there is evidently a back log in shelving the books.
I purchased a used copy of Joe Queenan’s book My Goodness: A Cynic’s Short-lived Search for Sainthood (2000) where Queenan takes a year a off from skewering celebrities and institutions to try and make himself a better person. I finished the book, but it didn’t make it to Customs because of space issues (left behind).
Shakespeare Books in Prague near The Charles Bridge
This was the best bookstore I visited during the trip since it was mostly English language and it had rooms and rooms full of finely curated fiction, non-fiction, art, politics and history. Since I knew beforehand, I was going to Prague, I pulled out a book by Czech writer Josef Skorvecky (who was forced to emigrate to Canada), which I already had on my shelves. While traveling. I read his short detective novel, The End of Lieutenant Boruvka (1979) which I liked so much, that I picked up a copy of his fourth book in the series, The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka (1991) at Shakespeare Books. The first book was much better than the latter, because the protagonist, the melancholic but savvy Czech detective reflects more on the Czechoslovakia’s struggles under Communism. Even though it has been over 30 years since the Velvet Revolution when the Czech Republic became independent from the Soviets, I still got a sense of that era, and life in this difficult period was further underscored by our local tour guide.
This series of statues (at the right) is known as The Memorial to the Victims of Communism. Located in the Malá Strana district of Prague, it is dedicated not only to those who were jailed or executed but also others whose lives who were ruined by "totalitarian despotism".
Antiquarian Book Stores in Ljubljana, Slovenia
There were many small bookshops located along the Ljubljanica River that flows down center of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. In fear of running out of books to read, I picked up some insurance -- a copy of an Amitav Ghosh novel at an outside of one store. Another shop featured a stackable portable display that they set up outdoors by the river during the good weather. The inside of this same store was well-organized, but there were only a few books written in English. Throughout the week we were there, we learned about the history of Slovenia (formerly part of Yugoslavia), I became intrigued about Josep Broz Tito, the post-World War II Communist leader who stood up to both Hitler and Stalin (but was hardly a choir boy). I asked the book seller to recommend a good biography of Tito but it was available only in Slovene.
Window Displays & More
As the proprietor of Destination Books which had its debut last month at the Decatur Book Festival, I always appreciate unique book displays and here are a few a more that caught my attention. I begin with the stackable portable display in Ljubljana that was mentioned earlier.
One of my favorite writers is the Italian Primo Levi (1919-1987), so I appreciated this homage to him in Treviso, Italy.
This Venetian book store window makes it very clear that cruise ships are unwelcome and they have strong opinions about climate disruption as well.
Denise and I never met a book window we didn't feel worth photographing even if we needed to translate Dante's prose . This appeared on a store window in Padua, Italy. Google translation: "Facts were not to live as brutes, but to follow knowledge."
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