Are you traveling this summer? Do you love to visit new-to-you bookstores or old favorites?

“…A bell jingled overhead. The mild, spicy smell of old books hit him, and the smell was somehow like coming home.” ~ Stephen King, The Wastelands.

What is it about one-of-a-kind bookshops?

“I take a breath, indulging in that distinct book smell. There’s only one thing I love more than the smell of fresh-baked bread and that’s the smell of books. ~ Sarah Echavarre Smith, The Boy With the Bookstore.

A store can paint their entry door any shade of color they choose, can stack books, lean them on their sides, sit glass figurines in front of a cover, display books randomly, or to denote a curious whim. A cushioned armchair may be positioned by a sunny paned window, an iron bench with beaded pillows, enough space to plop down on the edge. To the side, a polished round table with a lamp and fringed shade, all where you can survey corners and niches with books.

“I have gone to [this bookshop] for years, always finding the one book I wanted – and then three more I hadn’t known I wanted.” ~ Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

Shelves with beautiful lettering and spines, a telling tale, of someone’s time and love. The entry to a bookstore is as close to the feel of a first winter’s snow that quiets the mind, the wood, and the air. Such a hush, you tingle with discovery.  

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.” ~ George Carlin

Less and less, they exist. How I miss those, the old haunts of quaint freedom.

“Even an ice cream parlor – a definite advantage – does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore. ~Natalie Goldberg

How I miss our trips to search out bookstores, how I miss the ones no longer there.

Our writers group adored exploring and delving into bookshops. Wherever we traveled together or stayed in town. One such trip to the Singing Wind bookshop and its history is written in Chapter One of our book, Telling Tales and Sharing Secrets. We captured much of our joy of writing and inspiration into this book. Like a one-of-a-kind bookstore, so was our writers’ group.