38 thoughts on “Keep Calm and Carry On

  1. Nice article and nice video, Caroline. Hope you have fun at the first bookshop during your Venice trip. It looks like a place where one can spend all day. It also has a book loving cat 🙂 I would love to visit it sometime. I liked the sign at Bart’s bookshop (the second one) which said that it was open from 9:30 to sunset 🙂 It was interesting to see ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ in the Santorini bookshop in the section ‘a book to read over and over again’. I have read about London’s ‘Word on Water’ before. It looks like a great bookshop. I loved this line about the Abbey bookstore in Paris – “you can easily spend an afternoon cozying up with an old treasure you found that tumbled from a shelf” 🙂 My favourites from the list are Libreria Alta Acqua (Venice) (my room looks halfway like that :)), The Abbey Bookstore (Paris) and Les Bouquinistes (Paris) (love browsing and buying books at streetside and riverside bookshops). ‘Word on Water’ will probably come a close second.

    Thanks for sharing this article, Caroline. It made my day.

    • I’m very glad you liked it . 🙂 I loved this article and the video, I had to share it. I hope I will find the book shop in Venice. I liked the Bart book shop because it’s outdoor but I love the ones in Paris and London too.
      Imagine having a book shop boat. I always buy something from the Bouquinistes in Paris.

  2. What a lovely shop. I’d never heard of the poster before and was thinking it might make a nice addition to the office here. Then I went online. Good grief – what an internet meme it’s become!

      • I went ahead and ordered one anyway. The Wikipedia article on that poster notes many companies capitalizing on it and one in particular that has actually tried to trademark the phrase – ugh. But you can get the poster from Barter Books itself, with a stamp along the bottom edge noting that it’s a facsimile of the original in Barter Books.

        • I have no problem that the bookshop makes some money with it but all those freeloaders . . .
          I didn’t go as far as you with my investigation but with their note, I’d like that too.

  3. I just had a look at the other nine shops and am pleased to see that there’s a shop across the bay in Oakland that I didn’t know. Bart’s Books in Ojai is a great institution, though the selection is usually picked fairly clean.

      • It rains in Ojai too in the winter, and I’ve been in Bart’s when it’s raining. The books are fairly well-protected; one walks around with an umbrella. The best thing about the place – not mentioned in the article – is that there are books on one of the outside walls of the shop too. If you see something there you like, you pay what you want for it by tossing the money through the fence.

  4. Those looks great! You’ll have to take photos if you go the one in Venice and please share your experiences! (I often live vicariously through my friends!:) ). I wonder if I could try and get to the one in Oakland when I go to San Francisco…. It’s been ages since I went to a bricks and mortar bookstore–I miss them. Love the list!

    • It’s alovely list. I was so pleased when I saw the one in Venice. It looks as if the books were a bit damp, so not a lot of buying for me.
      I hope I’ll find it. If it’s qite central it shouldn’t be a problem.
      I’ll try to take pictures.

  5. Great video and great article.

    Sad to say I have not been to any of the shops. Even though I have been to few of NYC’s lesser known an/or odd shops I have not been to Brazenhead Books. I will be visiting however.

  6. I have been to that bookshop, I bought some books there but I can’t remember which – and I even have a Barter Books mug. (I’d forgotten about the trains).

    Hogwarts is also in Alnwick, or at least the castle from the films.

  7. When I saw the first place, I thought I was in for more of the same-spectacular spots I will never see, so imagine my surprise to find that I’ve been to two of the places mentioned. Bart’s Books in Ojai is a treat, and Ojai is one of my all-time favourite places.

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  9. I have a Keep Calm and Carry On postcard like the poster. It’s in my office, the best place to be for such a message. (I got it in London when I visited Churchill’s war cabinet)
    I need to visit the one in Paris, next time I go there.

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