bookstore

Bookstores—places of knowledge, refuge, and tranquility. A hideout where you can wander aimlessly down aisles packed with the words of the greats. A sanctuary where you can learn about everything from the Civil War to astrophysics to the deepest human emotions. Within the walls of each bookstore is a unique world waiting for you to come and explore. Whether you’re looking for a hushed haven or a place to embark on your next great literary adventure, you’re sure to find it in one of the following US bookstores.

Just across the street from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, sits the iconic English-language bookstore Shakespeare and Company. George Whitman founded the current Shakespeare and Company in 1951 after being inspired by Sylvia Beach’s original bookstore and library of the same name. Beach’s bookstore became a gathering place for expatriate writers like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Joyce, and Eliot, to name a few. Following suit, Whitman’s Shakespeare and Company has served as a gathering place for authors such as Allen Ginsburg, William Burroughs, Henry Miller, and countless others. At Shakespeare and Company you’ll find a broad range of antiquarian, used, and new books, as well as a café, a piano room, and several typewriters that patrons are invited to use to leave letters in the store for other visitors. You may even run into the cat who lives in the store. This bookstore is a must-see for any book lover who visits to be Paris.