Remember my post a few days ago about a little movie called The Last Bookshop?  Because I loved the film so much, I thought it would be very appropriate to make the very first Bookstore of the Month Hall's Bookshop, where much of the filming took place.  While many other bookshops were used in its making, the exterior of Hall's was featured prominently throughout the movie.


Although I'm pretty sure none of my readers live in the U.K., it's still a very interesting place to learn about, especially if you one day plan to visit.  Located in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells (could there be a more English name for a place?) in Kent, Hall's Bookshop is an antiquarian bookseller that has been in business for over a hundred years.  Don't be intimidated though!  While Hall's does have a selection of rare and valuable books and a book-finding service for those hard-to-find must-haves, the majority of their stock is £10 and under, and they're famous for their 10 pence box.  They also buy used books from their customers, much as other used bookstores do, and can tell you the value of your rare books .

The atmosphere inside the store is my favorite type: a beautiful old building that is filled wall to wall, floor to ceiling with books.  It's the kind of place a bibliophile could move into and call home.


See what I mean?  If I were to go to England, I know that I would have to devote an entire day just to this one store, especially considering my love for old and rare books of all sorts.

If you'd like to pay them a visit or get in touch with them about any questions you may have, I've provided an address, contact information, and a map below.  Their hours are 9:30 am to 5:00 pm GMT, Monday through Saturday.  According to their website, they do offer a mailing service if you are unable to carry all of your books home with you, but it doesn't state whether or not they will mail to international addresses.  Also, like many places in Europe and the surrounding countries, they do not accept debit or credit cards, so come with cash in hand.  Happy travels, and may all your paths lead you to more books!


Hall's Bookshop
20-22 Chapel Place
Tunbridge Wells
Kent
TN1 1YQ

website:
www.hallsbookshop.com
email:
info@hallsbookshop.com

telephone:
01892 527 842

Buy a copy of Portzline's book here

So I've always been one to fall in love with the book stores I go to, and sometimes I'll even travel quite a ways just to visit the special ones.  That's why I'm so captivated by this fairly new concept of bookstore tourism.

So what is this thing?  Bookstore tourism is where you, either by yourself or with a group of other bibliophiles, make a particularly interesting bookstore your travel goal and then, well... travel to it.  The self-styled originator of bookstore tourism and author of Bookstore Tourism, Larry Portzline, says on his website that the goal of bookstore tourism is to support independent bookstores by promoting them as a travel destination.  Portzline himself used to lead "bookstore road trips" to New York, where the 50 people aboard his chartered bus would visit about 20 independent booksellers in Greenwich Village.

Now we all know that independent bookstores are now more than ever in need of customers and the boost that bookstore tourism can offer, what with the advent of the e-book and all.  I've seen a lot of unique and interesting bookstores, and it would be a terrible, terrible shame if any of them were to go out of business.  Because I know that they would appreciate me pointing you in their direction and because I think it would be super fun do some of my own bookstore touring, I'm going to start highlighting one independent bookstore each month!  Who's else is excited?!

I couldn't resist throwing this in to express the excitement

Each bookstore that I post about will have something truly wonderful about it that makes it worth traveling to reach.  I'll give you information on all my old favorites, plus some new ones that I hope to visit especially for this blog (I hear Nashville has some awesome bookstores).  I'd also like to post about some of the really beautiful ones all around the world, even though I might never see them all in person. Be looking out for June's bookstore in my next post!

But if you just can't wait that long to read about amazing bookstores, you can pay a visit to Travel Between the Pages, a blog I found while researching this post.  There are tons of posts on bookstore tourism, but really all of the posts on the blog are fascinating and worth a read.


 Until next time, happy reading and happy travels!