Literary Pilgrimage

Dear Reader.

I went here on my holiday. This is Barter Books it is one of the largest (and I would argue the nicest) second-hand bookshops in Europe. It has been described as "the British Library of second hand bookshops". It is just so beautiful and the cafe is so good and there is such a brilliant selection of books that if they don't want to give me a job I'm honestly considering living there and making it my home.

There are some places that just feel like they're sights of literary pilgrimage. The British Library, The Bodlian Library, the Nazi book burning monument in Berlin, the Gutenberg Statue in Mainz, The Gutenberg bible itself, for that matter are all monuments literature as a whole and often they're places of remembrance and gratitude that I would love to visit. I have been to the Gutenberg Statue it is often fairly ignored (there are no letters of thanks or candles left to him) but there is a weekly second-hand book market (mostly German books of course) and I love that it's there. I should say that I did leave a not to Johannes Gutenberg basically saying thank you. Good idea isn't it?

These places are all important to me. I would argue that culture, words and religion are probably the three things that make up my core and solidify me. I am grateful to these people and the things these places represent because I know if I never started reading I'd still be an idiot, and I kind of feel a greater need to go to these places than going to the Holy Land or the Vatican because I don't believe that god lives in certain buildings or places because she's omnipresent (though, maybe there are places where she might be more noticeable) but words are here. They are solid and it seems like they are more connected to solid places.

I know this all sounds a bit weird and insane and its probably dangerously close to being blasphemous or worshipping false idols or something, but its kind of true.

This is the book burning memorial I talked about.
A window onto a room full of empty shelves.