(Photo courtesy of Richard Hurd)
Great cities have great bookstores. San Francisco’s City Lights, Washington, D.C.’s Kramers, Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co., Dublin’s Winding Stair Bookshop, Porto, Portugal’s Livraria Lello & Irmão, to name just a handful of the dozens I’ve sought out over the years. All are indispensable urban assets that make a place memorable. I’ve spent many hours in all of them learning as much about the cities in which they are located as the literary wonders awaiting within each. Thus it made me quite happy to learn A Room of One’s Own, one of the stores that make Madison a book-lover’s paradise, was moving from its current downtown location on West Gorham Street, to a new location in the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara Neighborhood.