This writer and bibliophile is thrilled by the offer: writers in Paris can sleep at this historic bookshop for only one small cost--they must read a book a day.
During the 1920s, the famous patroness Sylvia Beach supported many aspiring writers in Paris by setting up cots between the shelves of her bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, and offering these penniless poets a place to sleep. Many great names frequented this shop, including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce (Beach helped publish Ulysses, widely regarded as one of the greatest works in the world, when no one else would).
The current Shakespeare & Company (since 1962) continues Beach's tradition. Food and a bed are offered to writers, and their only rule or cost is that they must read one book every day. The Guardian recently visited the shop and wrote a great article about the unique bookstore. Down and Out in Paris: Revisiting Shakespeare and Company
Sounds like my kind of place. Definitely worth a visit when I finally make it to Paris.
Check out the full list of some of the Most Interesting Bookstores of the World.
1 comment:
To read a book a day seems such a waste to me - I want good books to last a few days at least. ;-)
I love the Shakespeare & Co bookstore here in Vienna, but I doubt they could find any space for a bed in their store!
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