I Absolutely Love Bookstores: DC Bookstore Crawl Part 1 of 3

by bookshy - 11:59

A couple of months ago I was in the States for a friends wedding/mini-break. The wedding was in Virginia, I stayed in Maryland, and went down to DC a few times. On my first foray into DC, I went to Georgetown and while walking noticed a bookstore. By now it might have been established that I have a problem - I can't walk by a bookstore without going into it. So obviously I walked in ... and might have bought myself a book. After Georgetown, I did go into DC a couple more times, but this was less book related and more checking out the city.

A few days before I returned to London I realised DC had a lot of bookstores, but with very little time there was only so much I could do. So I decided to create my own bookstore crawl and check out some of the city's bookstores. I just focused on the ones around Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan. And luckily, the day before I left I met a friend for brunch at Busboys and Poets and had the added bonus of checking the bookstore out (ah! simple pleasures). I have to say the one thing I loved about DC was the number of independent bookstores it had and and I can't wait to check out the rest when next I'm there. (PS. I kinda took a lot of photos so I'm splitting these into a few posts). So here's part 1 of my mini DC bookstore crawl featuring Bridge Street Books and Kramerbooks. Enjoy!!!

Bridge Street Books is an independent bookstore in Georgetown. It's a cute little bookstore in a converted townhouse with books stacked from floor to ceiling, with so many genres. Here is where I got a copy of Chris Abani's Graceland.

Caught my eye as I was walking into Georgetown

One author I never struggle to find in a bookstore

Kramerbooks & Afterwords is a bookstore and cafe around Dupont Circle. I knew I was going to love this place as soon as I walked in because there's a special place in my heart for bookstores connected to cafe's (London Review of Books). I did, however, skip the cafe and walk straight to the bookstore. The bookstore itself was amazing and had a ridiculous selection of books. I was in there for too long. Here's where I got Naguib Mahfouz's The Thief and The Dogs.