The last weekend in June is one of my favorite weekends of the year.  It is the weekend upon which I completely ignore all my minimalist impulses and hasten to a warehouse in Somerville to increase the size of my library at the Harvard Book Store Summer Warehouse Sale.

There are four main reasons I get so excited for the warehouse sale:

1) I love to read books

2) I plan on building my very own, in-home library (complete with custom built-in shelves and a bookcase door!) as soon as I own my own home.

3) These books are shiny and new, the genres are wide-ranging, and they are COMPLETELY on sale.

4) It gives me great hope for the future of both books and humanity.

 

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have just purchased a Kindle.  Part of me feels this is somehow sacrilegious, but the companion to one of my favorite book series is only available in e-book, and, I do have a very bad habit of traveling with a library, which is not at all wise since I do try to stick to carry-on only.  So I’ve taken the dive, and we’ll see how it goes.  So far, my Kindle is populated with digital copies of some of my favorites from my physical collection, and while certainly light and convenient, I can’t suppose I’ll ever prefer it to the real thing.  My spatially oriented brain still gets completely lost in a book without proper dimensions.  This is probably why, even though I do adore Audible, and thrill at a well-read audio book, I typically end up buying the physical counterparts of my favorite audiobooks too, so I can see them and touch them, and read them ‘for real’ and then ever after enjoy the site of them sitting on my shelves.

So despite this one small concession to concision, I am still a lover, a collector, and an avid proponent of the physical book, and the Harvard Book Store Warehouse Sale is a booklover’s paradise.  Not only do I come home every time with a new stack of (remarkably inexpensive) treasures for my own library, but in our increasingly digital world, I get to spend an hour or so among my own.  People show up prepared with their own bags and carts, and I am always beyond delighted to browse the shelves alongside folks of all ages who are precariously balancing stacks even larger than mine while flipping eagerly through the next morsel in the row.

As heavenly as those brief moments are each year, and much as I do adore the warehouse sale, I am also, and first, a huge fan of the Harvard Book Store itself.  I inevitably came across it for the first time while working as a tour guide in Harvard Square where I would daily pass their enticing windows and their dollar book tables beckoning on the sidewalk out front.  (I ask you, how can you resist a dollar book table?)  Having been thus drawn inside, I discovered their basement of used and remaindered books, joined their frequent buyer program, signed up for their newsletter and so learned about not only the warehouse sale, but also about their fantastic program of visiting authors, their monthly book club, etc, etc, etc.  What a place.

Not to be confused with the Harvard COOP which is owned by Barnes and Noble and sells the Harvard students their textbooks, the Harvard Book Store is one of Harvard Square’s treasured independent bookstores.  Boston native Mark S. Kramer borrowed $300 from his parents to open the shop in 1932, and it remained in the family until 2008 when Mark’s son, Frank hand-selected the current owners who, happily, have kept the store a vibrantly integral part of the world of Harvard Square.  When next you find yourself in Cambridge, please do pay a visit!

While the Harvard Book Store is clearly my favorite of the bunch, I would be terribly remiss if I wrapped up this post without giving mention to a few of the other excellent independent bookshops in my stomping-grounds.

Just behind the Harvard Bookstore on Plympton Street is Grolier’s Poetry Bookshop another Harvard Square landmark in front of which I have performed Shakespeare (and almost been killed by a car as I tried to exit stage left and instead went sprawling into the road).

Just blocks from Grolier’s is Shoenhof’s,* a foreign language and travel bookshop and the oldest business (besides Harvard itself, of course) still running in Harvard Square.  This place was founded in 1856, and I feel it really ought to have something to do with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who in that very year was still struggling valiantly to make the modern languages program stick over at the university.  I don’t think he was at all involved, but wouldn’t it be cool if he was?  One way or another this place is still around, and well worth a visit if you are looking to stretch your own language skills!

On a tangent, we really should be stretching our language skills here in the States.  Seriously.  Compared to most of the rest of the world, we are linguistic infants- such a shame.  Longfellow felt, accurately I believe, that learning another language would give us greater insight into other peoples and cultures.  I myself, am currently enjoying playing with Rosetta Stone– I’m almost done with French, and next I’m going to start Italian- and while I’m nowhere near fluent, I can at least now feel fairly confident in carrying on basic interactions with the French speakers I meet on the Freedom Trail and at the Chocolate shop!  And I hope to be able to carry on basic conversation when I travel to Italy for my 30th next year.  It really is an empowering feeling to have at least a little familiarity with another language or two.  If you haven’t thought a word in French since you got out of that class in high school, I would recommend giving it another go!

Back to the bookstores, Harvard Square is also home to Raven Used Books.  I discovered this place when it was a cozy treasure in a downstairs spot on JFK street.  They have since moved to a much roomier space over on Church Street, and they are still one of my favorite places to just have a good browse.

On the other side of the river there is the iconic Brattle Bookshop.  Right off the Common, they have their famous outdoor space, two floors of delicious winding shelves full of used books, and then a third floor of rare and antiquarian treasures.  Always worth a visit if you find yourself in Boston.  The Boston-side bookshop that gets a little more of my attention, though is Commonwealth books.  This may be because they are right smack dab on my Freedom Trail tour route, so I see them every day.  It may also be because they have a cat (a big, fluffy, orange love bug named Leo- he even has his own guest book!), I really can’t resist a bookstore cat.  Either way, they’re tucked down a little alley called Spring Lane and despite being on just one level, they have a delightful layout that perfectly enables getting lost among the shelves of books and antique prints.

Since the Freedom Trail’s Old Corner Bookstore is sadly no longer a bookstore, but a Chipotle, all of the above are completely necessary stops for the literary traveler in Boston.  Since Boston is a literary and an intellectual town at heart, I do know that there are some excellent shops that I have not listed here.  But these are the ones I know and frequent, so I hope you’ve enjoyed your tour!  If you have a favorite bookstore in the Boston area that I missed that you think I definitely need to see, or if you have a favorite in your area, or one that you’ve stumbled upon in your own travels, please let me know in the comments, or by sending me an email through the contact page!

And to close, for all you US citizens out there, a very happy 4th to you.  Celebrate well, and I’ll see you back here next week!

 

*Very sadly in March of 2017, Schoenhof’s closed its doors. It still exists as an online shop, but its ivy covered, brick storefront is empty now.