Time Was Soft There

I'd file this under tempting escapism, except I am too fond of a good shower to truly envy the inhabitants of Shakespeare & Company. The book gives a flavoursome insight into the bohemian life of peripatetic writers and poets that pass through the doors of the world-reknown bookshop. The author appears to display a genuine affection for the store, and, if we are to believe his account, it is interesting the affect his time at the store appears to have had on him. Before his arrival he appears to be - frankly - unlikeable but by the end of the book he seems to genuinely changed his life for the better.

If you are looking for a book about literary Paris, this is not it (I would point you in the direction of A Movable Feast for that), however it is an interesting insight into a long running, and apparently successful, experiment in communal living bonded by a love of the written word.