I did not fall in love with Boston due to Fenway Park or
lobster rolls although I would never say no to them. I was in love with Boston because it was a city that seemed
to have been built by people who still take time to read the bronze plaques on
old buildings.
Individuals that put a paperback in the bag so that they can
use it when they need it. Individuals who would prefer to spend an hour in a
peaceful bookstore as opposed to a line at an attraction site.
Boston is a book lover's dream, not a glitzy, social-media
worthy, but book-lined, comfortable, old-leather way.
It is somewhere where history and literature combine into
one so perfectly that you get a sense that you are walking through pages and
not city blocks.
I planned this trip as a sort of personal pilgrimage, and I
wanted it to start off stress-free. That’s why I opted for long stay parking Heathrow, which turned out to be one of
the best small decisions
Here is what I did on a long weekend with a literary and
historic thread in Boston, and how you could do it as well.
The (Literary) Freedom Trail
There is no way you can be in Boston without going on the
Freedom Trail. But what they fail to mention is how many literary layers you
will come across in the process. At the beginning of this walk, at the oldest public park in
the country, Boston Common, I was in the spot where Edgar Allan Poe as a boy
had roamed (more on him in a bit). Once one of the most significant publishing houses in
19th-century America, it now hosts a Chipotle. Thoreau, Hawthorne,
Longfellow--they are all of them in one corner.
The Hidden Bookstore and Beacon Hill
Boston's past appears to be murmuring in Beacon Hill with
its gas lamps and cobblestone streets. I did a bit of aimless wandering down
its tranquil streets and came across a treasure: the Beacon Hill Books &
Cafe. It is a newcomer, yet it seems that it has always been
there, homey, handpicked and with a spiral staircase and a cafe where they
serve tea in porcelain cups.
Note: Always check Meet And Greet Stansted before travelling and book according to your needs.
The Unlikely Statue by Edgar Allan Poe
Growing up, and reading Poe in school, you might be
surprised to know that he was born in Boston, and that he despised it. Nevertheless, he was honored with a bronze statue in the
city close to Boston Common. It is not a typical memorial. Poe is walking ahead
with a raven coming out of his suitcase and some pages flying behind him.
It is dramatic, brooding and just right.The sight of it was the equivalent of discovering a secret
handshake between Boston and book lovers: Yes, we know. He never loved us, but
we are proud.
Brattle Book Shop: A Treasure Hunt
Brattle Book Shop is an antiquarian bookstore that is one of
the oldest in America and it is exactly what you expect it to be, dusty
shelves, tall shelves, creaky floor and an outdoor sale lot where paperbacks
and hardcovers are piled in irregular piles.
I spent more than an hour going through a cart marked with
dollar bargains. I discovered an original copy of a book I adored in college, a
mystery novel with another person having written notes in the margins and a
tiny book of Emily Dickinson poetry printed in 1924.
Money was not the issue. It was the excitement of the hunt.
The tales of the tales.
The Boston Athenaeum: Red Leather and Silent
Minds
The Boston Athenaeum is one of the few sanctuaries in Boston
to book lovers. It is one of the oldest free standing libraries in the United
States and when you enter the building you feel like you are in a novel.
Red leather reading chairs, marble busts, oil paintings and
rows and rows of old books stamped in gold. You can obtain a visitor pass, and
pass a couple of hours there. I lingered till closing time, reading in a corner, as the
city grew louder and louder, and the Athenaeum seemed to keep the silence just
to itself.
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