A Pacific Book Crawl: Victoria and Seattle
As my partner was heading home for the holidays, and I needed to step back from my thesis and clear my head, I took some time off work and spent pre-Christmas in Victoria, BC - which is an absolutely gorgeous city.
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| 2011 - Snowy Victoria/2013 - Sunny (for Winter) Victoria |
Remembering Russell books and the gorgeous Munro Books - which I found out during this trip was founded by Alice Munro and her then husband, Jim Munro - I had to check them out again. At Russell books I found a copy of Aya: The Secrets Come Out. I know it's not the first in the series but I've been dying to read this graphic novel. Now I have one, I am hoping the rest will follow.
Russell Books was also a great place to buy Christmas gifts. My partner wanted to give his mum and sister novels written by Nigerian authors and I thought Adichie would be a great female author for them. So we got Half of A Yellow Sun for his mum and Americanah for his sister. I wasn't there on Christmas day when they opened it, but he said they absolutely loved it :D.
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| Renaissance Books and UVic Bookstore |
As part of my escape from thesis, I was treated to a trip to Seattle - as it wasn't too far (2 hours and 45 mins to downtown Seattle). We left Victoria late Wednesday afternoon and got back Friday morning. So what can you do in 36 hours in Seattle? Surprisingly, quite a bit. Catching up with friends on the first night, spending the whole of the next day cruising the city - coffee drinking (well hot chocolate for me, as I don't drink coffee), seafood eating, a stop at Pike Place Market, and obviously bookstore hopping along the way - and then sleeping on the journey back. Would I go to Seattle again? Definitely!!! Hopefully for much longer. So the bookstores we checked out!
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| Globe Bookstore, Revolution, Arundel and Lamplight Books |
While in the downtown area, we also stopped by the Seattle Public Library - awesome building and great views if you go up to the 10th floor. It's huuge and
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| Pike Place Market, Left Bank books, Inside the Seattle Public Library, The Elliot Bay Book Company |
probably the coolest public library I have ever seen and been to.
By nighttime, we were in Capitol Hill - and our last stop before dinner and drinks was The Elliot Bay Book Company. Unfortunately my pictures do not do any justice to how beautiful it is. It's so spacious with books everywhere, reading areas for customers ... and there's a cafe - have I mentioned I have a thing for bookstores and cafe's.
All the bookstores, were uniquely beautiful in their own ways, and more and more as I get the opportunity to visit different books stores in different parts of the world, I am reminded how much I absolutely love bookstores. Overall, it was a great break - really what I needed.
Here are a few more photos of the bookstores on the inside.
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| Tempted to touch. |
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| The Elliot Bay Book Company |
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| The Elliot Bay Book Company |
The Globe Bookstore
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| Seattle Public Library |
Left Bank Books ... and just in case you were ever curious about what a Gnome reading looks like.
2 Comments
Yes! I visited Seattle in Summer 2012. I didn't really have any plans for when I arrived but I kept coming across used book stores in my walks around the city. I wish I had made better plans; it seems like you came across a lot more than I did. And the library is amazing! I attempted to visit it while I was there but on the day I went, there were alarms going off and fire trucks outside the building.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Seattle is definitely a city I would visit again.
There really were a lot of used bookstores - there were even more we saw that we didn't go in. Yes!!! the library is ... I couldn't believe it. It's really cool on the inside but if I'm being honest was slightly overwhelmed by the enormity of it. I really do hope I get the chance to go again .... and hopefully when the weather is warmer.
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