I was staying close to the O’Connell Bridge in City Centre, so when I asked Google Maps to show me “bookstores near me” a lot of red markers popped up. Big smile. I decided to head across the River Liffey to the nearest red dot.
The Winding Stair is lovely inside. The coziness invites browsing and buying. I have no business buying more books, so I bought gifts for others.
I received a text from Tevis and met for lunch at O’Neill’s pub on the other side of the river–crossing the Ha’Penny Bridge. We were chatting over lamb stew about our plans. A couple of local Dubliners sitting next to us heard me say that I’ve seen everything at least twice. They suggested I check out a special statue in St. Stephen’s Green and Francis Bacon’s studio (see next post). I decided to continue my bookstore crawl and see the tribute to WWI soldiers in St. Stephen’s Green.
I walked past a few unmemorable shops, plus a rare bookstore (danger, Will Robinson), I ended my crawl at Hodges Figgis at 56-58 Dawson Street. It is in the Waterstones corporate family and yet it offers so much choice I had to go in. To avoid purchasing I took pictures of books that appealed to me.
I did buy books for others and I mailed them home from the post office in Bray. Some of those books took a month! to get to California.
Bookstores sing a siren song to me. I cannot resist going in. I’m already thinking about how close my hotel in London is to Foyle’s bookstore for my stay in March. I just had some new bookshelves built in my dining room and I was finally able to unpack my boxes of books after more than a year. I found a book on polo with a forward by Prince Charles that I bought with money I could not afford when studying at Cambridge University one college summer.
I will embrace my weakness and make it my strength! And pack accordingly.
americanjulie.com 