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Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday


Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week's theme:  Bookstores & Libraries I've Always Wanted to Visit.

How could I resist a theme like that?


At the top of my list is Powells Books in Portland, Oregon, a place I've long wanted to visit:


Next on my list is Hay-on-Wye ... a town in Wales chock full of bookshops:


But after that, the bookstores and libraries I most want to visit are all fictional.
Like Flourish and Blotts from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone:



"a shop ... where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all."


Then there's the library in Robin McKinley's Beauty:


"This single room of the library was as large as our whole house in the city had been, and I could see more book-filled rooms through open doors in all directions, including a balcony overhead, all built from floor to high ceiling with bookshelves. ... The rows of books tugged unrepentantly at the edges of my sight. I walked like one bewitched. 'I didn't know there were so many books in the world,' I said, and the Beast's answer was heard only in my ear and did not register in my brain: 'Well, in fact, there aren't.'"


And who wouldn't want to visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books from Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind:

       "A labyrinth of passageways and crammed bookshelves rose from base to pinnacle like a beehive woven with tunnels, steps, platforms, and bridges that presaged an immense library of seemingly impossible geometry. I looked at my father, stunned. He smiled and winked at me.
      "'This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. ... When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader's hands.'"

(The Aedificium)


Last on my list is the Aedificium, that labyrinth of a library from Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose:

"Our library is not like others ... The library was laid out on a plan which has remained obscure to all over the centuries, and which none of the monks is called upon to know. Only the librarian has received the secret, from the librarian who preceded him ... Only the librarian has the right to move through the labyrinth of the books .... No one, except for two people, enters the top floor of the Aedificium. No one should. No one can. The library defends itself .... a spiritual labyrinth, it is also a terrestrial labyrinth. You might enter and you might not emerge."


Who wouldn't want to visit all of these fabulous places 
and check out the amazing books that reside inside?

Happy Reading!

28 comments:

  1. Oh I like this take on this topic! There are some gorgeous stores in literature!

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    1. There are, and reading about them always makes me wish they were real! :)

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  2. :) Oh, I'd fogotten about the library in Name of the Rose! Great quote to accompany the pic!

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    1. Thanks. That library is one of my favorites in fiction.

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  3. What a great topic and list. I need to pay more attention to the libraries I read about in novels. I would love to see that town in Wales. And shopping in the Harry Potter world would amazing.

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    1. Wouldn't you love to go shopping in Diagon Alley? I know I would! :D

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  4. OK, may I just say that one of the highlights of our 3 years living in Portland was Powell's. I might have thought about moving into that store. Well, there are several of them in the area. The downtown location at that time covered an entire city block. I was amazed. If you ever get a chance...

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    1. I so want to go there someday. It's at the top of my bookish bucket list. :)

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  5. Yes to all of these bookstores! I want to visit them all as well.

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  6. I so want to visit that town in Wales! It sounds like such an awesome place!

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    1. Doesn't it? I could spent a week in a place like that just browsing the bookshops. :)

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  7. I always drool over library pics on Pinterest and mark them for visitation. Yes, some of the fictional libraries sound wonderful too! Great post, Lark! :)

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  8. What a perfect list! I've been to Powells (once) and Hay-on-Wye is on my list. The other libraries I can visit as often as I like, hee hee. :D

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  9. I don't really pay attention to bookstores I know I'll never get to visit so I had to change the topic this week!

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    1. I liked your choice of bookish carnivals and theme parks!

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  10. I love the looks of Hay-on-Wye - it would be so cool to get lost there.

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  11. Great post - I want to visit all of these bookstores and libraries!

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  12. What a fun topic! I'm sorry I was out of the country and missed it. I grew up near Portland, so I've been to Powell's. I dream of Hay-on-Wye, too! And the fictional ones sound amazing, too :)

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  13. I think yours is the only one I saw that had the Aedificum- which I don't know much about, not having read the book, but I did see the movie and the labyrinthine library seemed amazing! Love that quote too. And that Welsh town- yes please!

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  14. Libraries are a must-visit for us booklovers no matter the place, isn't it? :) I also love looking at their layouts.

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