If you’re anything like me, holidays and weekend trips offer the perfect opportunity to hunt out a new town or city’s best bookish haunts. From the most beautiful bookshops in town, to any literary goings-on, the second I settle in somewhere new I scroll through Google to find the creme de la creme in all things bookish.
I love nothing better than hunting out a city’s hidden literary gems – from local bookshops with quaint and quirky offerings, to cosy cafes perfect for curling up with a good book, to beautiful boutique hotels with literary links and beyond.
And so, moving forward, I’m going to be fusing my love of travel and books by creating a series of literary city guides on this blog; taking in my own travel experience, as well as enlisting the help of some brilliant bloggers, well versed in both travel and books alike. It will give me the opportunity to search for some of the world’s best literary landmarks, while sharing my findings on this blog to assist with any would-be adventures on the look out for all things bookish in a new town or city. I’ll also be creating reading recommendations for each of the places I feature – so you can expect a bespoke reading list, tailored to each of the different cities, featuring both books that are based there, and authors with links to the city.
In the next few weeks you can expect to see literary city guides to Laguna Beach, Melbourne and London, with many more to come in the following months.
If you’d like to get involved with my new venture by submitting a literary city guide of your own, or if there’s anything you’d love to see featured on the guides, do get in touch!
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I’m so excited about this project, it sounds great! I don’t know if you’ve visited Edinburgh as well but that city definitely has a lot of bookish history so it might also be great to research for this series 🙂
Edinburgh is top of my list as I’ve never actually been but have always wanted to visit. So glad you’re looking forward to the series xo
Have you been to Porto? You’d love it – don’t want to spoil it for you.
I live in Cheshire near a bookshop that’s always winning best independent bookseller – Simply Books in Bramhall. You might like to hunt it out I’d you’re ever in the Manchester area x
No I’ve not been to Porto but have always wanted to go! Thanks for the recommendation re Simply Books – I’ll have to check it out if I’m ever nearby xo
Love this idea! Looking forward to seeing the city guides
Thanks Nancy – I hope you enjoy reading them! xo
So perfect! I love reading and traveling… and reading while traveling! I also think a literary guide to Paris would be perfect – and likely long 🙂
Yes – Paris is definitely on my list of places to do a literary city guide to pronto! Shakespeare & Co is one of my favourite places in the world! xo
Darling little bookworm,
Perchance you might indulge me with a visit now you are back thumbing pages in the “big smoke” to talk bookish adventures and tales of old.
Francesca Bird! I would love nothing more – where are you living? xo
Can’t wait for these guides! I love looking for literary sites/ places of interest when I travel. London will be a great one, there’s so much there.
What a cool idea – as a reader who goes through at least 4 books a week I find bookshops and literary events a true form of addiction for me…lol…
Thanks Faith – would love to hear any reading recommendations you might have! xo