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What Members Thought
I wanted to like this book. I really really wanted to like this book. France + bookstores should have been a surefire way to get four stars from me. But. The author focused too much on his angsty 20-something life (a surefire way to get one star from me).
I loved learning more about George, the owner/proprietor of Shakespeare & Co., but those parts were too few and far between.
I loved learning more about George, the owner/proprietor of Shakespeare & Co., but those parts were too few and far between.
Books about books are an auto buy for me. I've worked many years in bookstores and libraries, so I thought this would be a wonderful read. Who wouldn't want to live in the iconic Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris? After reading this book, I don't think I would like to live there, visit, absolutely.
Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian crime reporter, received a death threat from a source. He fled to Paris, walked into Shakespeare and Co., where he was invited to tea. He applied to the owner George Whi ...more
Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian crime reporter, received a death threat from a source. He fled to Paris, walked into Shakespeare and Co., where he was invited to tea. He applied to the owner George Whi ...more
Mercer spent several years as a newspaper crime reporter in his native Canada, wrote a couple of true-crime books, dodged a drug charge, fell into alcoholism and finally skipped town after angering the wrong guy. He was truly burnt-out from daily facing the worst of humanity but also feared for his life. Landing in Paris, he discovered the generous and erratic George Whitman, owner of the famous Shakespeare and Company bookstore, who allowed destitute traveling writers to sleep in his store and
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Jeremy Mercer tells of a bookstore unlike any other, George Whitman's Shakespeare & Co. in Paris, France. I found Time was Soft There to be a much more appealing and relatable book than An Alphabetical Life. Although, as i mentioned, Shakespeare & Company is an entirely unique store (one that serves as new and used book store, a lending library, and a kind of free hostel for struggling writers) i found many of the characters somewhat familiar and, in some ways the bookstore itself almost recogni
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Sep 30, 2008
Suzanne
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
books-about-books,
memoir
Mar 02, 2016
Mary Paul
marked it as to-read
Dec 04, 2018
Laura
marked it as added-recently
Jul 07, 2019
Theresa Wright
marked it as to-read
Nov 04, 2021
Keeley
marked it as to-read
