Wednesday, March 19, 2014

I want to live in a bookstore.


I just read an article about Hemingway's Paris that included a section on the famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., where he spent much of his time.
The store was a hot-spot of that writer's group from "The Lost Generation" and many other famed writers made it their home.

http://www.timeout.com/paris/en/things-to-do/hemingways-paris

Now here comes my favorite blogess, Messy Nessy to "one up" Time Out's article with this little fact:  Shakespeare and Co. allow up and coming writers to stay in the store as a sort of youth hostel for artists.
How awesome is this!?!
They only ask that you work a couple hours a day and read a book a day.
I'm going.

Quote from Nessy:
"Just as Sylvia Beach helped a struggling young Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s when she first opened Shakespeare & Co, nearly 100 years later, the bookshop is still extending a helping hand to young writers in Paris by inviting them to stay at the bookshop. The only things they ask in return from the tumbleweeds is that they work in the bookstore 2 hours a day, commit to reading a book a day and write a one page biography."

http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/03/17/13-things-found-internet-today/

http://malborkmalbork.blogspot.fr/2013/01/tumbleweed-hotel-shakespeare-and-company.html
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Time Out says:

The original Shakespeare & Co, run by Sylvia Beach and beloved of Hemingway and his ilk, closed in the 1940s during the occupation of Paris (the site at 12 Rue de l’Odéon bears a plaque). In 1951, wandering spirit George Whitman opened Le Mistral at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, re-naming it in 1964 in homage to Beach’s legacy (he also named his daughter after her). But the back history hardly matters now – George, who passed away in 2011 aged 98, turned the shop into something entirely unique and magical.

A gathering place, source of inspiration and often a bed for beat generation bohemians, writers, travellers and readers for over 60 years, Shakespeare & Company has hosted thousands of ‘tumbleweeds’ – volunteer helpers who sleep in the shop – and featured in numerous films, books and memoirs. The sprawling site includes a large used and antiquarian section, while the main store is a heavenly labyrinth of book-lined passages, alcoves and reading rooms full of secret corners, an unmissable destination for bibliophiles the world over. Sylvia Whitman now runs the store with as much charm as – if less eccentricity than – her father, launching an biennial literary festival and maintaining a strong focus on events and readings.

Address:
37 rue de la Bûcherie
5e, Paris
phone:  01.43.25.40.93
www.shakespeareandcompany.com/
Email: news@shakespeareandcompany.com
Hours:
10am-11pm Mon-Fri; 11am-11pm Sat, Sun

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