{"id":281,"date":"2016-12-16T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/16\/bookshop-love-brattle-book-shop\/"},"modified":"2020-10-28T02:20:10","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T02:20:10","slug":"bookshop-love-brattle-book-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2016\/12\/16\/bookshop-love-brattle-book-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"Bookshop Love–Brattle Book Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Brattle Book Shop in Boston is my favorite kind of bookshop. \u00a0It isn’t a chain. \u00a0You won’t find all the latest releases. \u00a0There isn’t a coffee shop or a play area for your children. It isn’t full of comfy chairs and carefully curated displays. What it is is a real honest-to-goodness secondhand bookshop and there aren’t too many of those around these days. \u00a0Nothing says happiness like rummaging through an eclectic selection of old books and discovering a treasure you didn’t even know you were looking for.<\/p>\n

I only had half an hour before I had to be at an appointment but it was a half-hour I put to good use. \u00a0I skipped lunch in order to visit Brattle Book Shop and I think that is a sacrifice any true book lover will completely understand. \u00a0The bookshop has been around since 1825 and has been in the hands of the Gloss family since 1949. \u00a0It is now one of the largest antiquarian bookshops in the country. \u00a0And it is absolutely wonderful.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

The first thing you notice when you walk down the street (well, after the sign shaped like a giant yellow pencil) is the outdoor saleroom in the lot next door. \u00a0I could have spent hours just here. \u00a0I started grabbing books off the carts but then realized I had to be a bit more discriminating since I was going to have to carry the books around with me for the rest of the day. \u00a0So many good books. \u00a0I will definitely be back, probably with a few friends to help me carry my purchases. \u00a0One young guy had discovered a volume of Ogden Nash poetry and was gleefully reading it to his girlfriend. \u00a0I grew up on Ogden Nash and it was fun to hear the enthusiasm with which he read the poems. \u00a0I hope he bought the book.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Inside there are shelves and shelves of glorious books and the whole place has that wonderful old book smell. \u00a0The store doesn’t look like it has been updated in recent memory and that is fine with me.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

I bought three books and could have bought so many more. \u00a0First of all, I got Two Under the Indian<\/i> Sun<\/i> by Jon and Rumer Godden. \u00a0It is a memoir of a few of their childhood years in India. \u00a0I don’t know much about it, I bought it because I have always loved Godden’s book, An Episode of<\/i> Sparrows<\/i>. \u00a0Second, I bought The Points of the Compass by E. B. White. \u00a0Of course I know him from Charlotte’s Web but I came across some quotes<\/a> on Goodreads lately that I loved so I want to read some of his essays. \u00a0Finally, I bought War Letters From Britain,<\/i> edited by Diana Forbes-Robertson and Roger W. Straus, Jr. \u00a0I have frequently mentioned my fascination with life in Britain <\/a>during the war and this looks like a fantastic addition to my growing library on the subject.<\/p>\n

In my childhood, used bookstores were very common. \u00a0I have fond memories of rooting through piles of old books in many different towns and states. \u00a0These days the slightly grubby, treasure-filled bookstores I remember are few and far between. \u00a0Last week I wanted to move into a library,<\/a> this week I want to move into a bookshop. \u00a0It is a joy and a pleasure to find such a perfect bookshop. \u00a0You can keep your children’s play areas and your carefully curated displays. \u00a0I’ll take Brattle Book Shop’s utilitarian shelves jam-packed with forgotten treasures and wonderful discoveries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brattle Book Shop in Boston is my favorite kind of bookshop. \u00a0It isn’t a chain. \u00a0You won’t find all the latest releases. \u00a0There isn’t a coffee shop or a play area for your children. It isn’t full of comfy chairs and carefully curated displays. What it is is a real honest-to-goodness secondhand bookshop and there aren’t too many of those around these days. \u00a0Nothing says happiness like rummaging through an eclectic selection of old books and discovering a treasure you didn’t even know you were looking for. I only had half an hour before I had to be at an appointment but it was a half-hour I put to good use. \u00a0I skipped lunch in order to visit Brattle Book Shop and I think that is a sacrifice any true book lover will completely understand. \u00a0The bookshop has been around since 1825 and has been in the hands of the Gloss family since 1949. \u00a0It is now one of the largest antiquarian bookshops in the country. \u00a0And it is absolutely wonderful. The first thing you notice when you walk down the street (well, after the sign shaped like a giant yellow pencil) is the outdoor saleroom in the lot next door. \u00a0I could have spent hours just here. \u00a0I started grabbing books off the carts but then realized I had to be a bit more discriminating since I was going to have to carry the books around with me for the rest of the day. \u00a0So many good books. \u00a0I will definitely be back, probably with a few friends to help me carry my purchases. \u00a0One young guy had discovered a volume of Ogden Nash poetry and was gleefully reading it to his girlfriend. \u00a0I grew up on Ogden Nash and it was fun to hear the enthusiasm with which he read the poems. \u00a0I hope he bought the book. Inside there are shelves and shelves of glorious books and the whole place has that wonderful old book smell. \u00a0The store doesn’t look like it has been updated in recent memory and that is fine with me. I bought three books and could have bought so many more. \u00a0First of all, I got Two Under the Indian Sun by Jon and Rumer Godden. \u00a0It is a memoir of a few of their childhood years in India. \u00a0I don’t know much about it, I bought it because I have always loved Godden’s book, An Episode of Sparrows. \u00a0Second, I bought The Points of the Compass by E. B. White. \u00a0Of course I know him from Charlotte’s Web but I came across some quotes on Goodreads lately that I loved so I want to read some of his essays. \u00a0Finally, I bought War Letters From Britain, edited by Diana Forbes-Robertson and Roger W. Straus, Jr. \u00a0I have frequently mentioned my fascination with life in Britain during the war and this looks like a fantastic addition to my growing library on the subject. In my childhood, used bookstores were very common. \u00a0I have fond memories of rooting through piles of old books in many different towns and states. \u00a0These days the slightly grubby, treasure-filled bookstores I remember are few and far between. \u00a0Last week I wanted to move into a library, this week I want to move into a bookshop. \u00a0It is a joy and a pleasure to find such a perfect bookshop. \u00a0You can keep your children’s play areas and your carefully curated displays. \u00a0I’ll take Brattle Book Shop’s utilitarian shelves jam-packed with forgotten treasures and wonderful discoveries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,20,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-i-bought","category-bookshops","category-boston"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2776,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/2776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}