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lindseysparks's review against another edition
4.0
I've read so many things about Shakespeare and Company and it was wonderful to finally go there (sort of - it's not the same location), and then to read this book written by the founder, Sylvia Beach. It was nice to get her perspective and read her stories about starting the bookstore, all the writers who came to visit, her adventure publishing Ulysses and WWII. She focuses quite heavily on James Joyce and all of the help she gave him, not just in publishing Ulysses but in supporting his family so he could write. I don't know if he appreciated her enough. I've always wanted to own a bookstore, so I also loved her stories about starting out. There wasn't a lot of detail about WWII, but it's just so sad that she had to close because she didn't want to have to sell to Nazis, and that she ended up in a concentration camp for a little while. She survived, but never re-opened the store. (The one open now was opened later by someone else.) I would love to travel back in time and visit her store in the 20s.
rialowenschuss's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Dense but a really valuable read
mmcloe's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
I've always loved and admired and tried to fashion myself after Sylvia Beach. What an incredible gift to bring together some of the most colorful and brightest minds of a generation into community with one another.
Also she spent 6 months in an internment camp and just mentions it in a sentence??? Girl are you okay???
Also she spent 6 months in an internment camp and just mentions it in a sentence??? Girl are you okay???
juliaviola's review against another edition
3.0
En av de finaste och coolaste ställena jag besökte i Paris. Älskade att få läsa om Sylvia och bokhandeln och alla författare som sprang omkring. Lite långtråkigt närmare slutet när det var lite väl mycket fokus på Joyce, men på det stora hela en läsvärd bok!
sjareads's review
lighthearted
slow-paced
2.75
i found this book to be very misleading. there was too much focus on james joyce’s life (which i get, because beach published ulysses) but i thought the book would dedicate more time to other writers as well. i just became uninterested in the book.
leeeighv's review against another edition
5.0
An excellent glimpse into then Parisian Literary scene. I loved Sylvia’s accounts of the famous writers of the time and the heroic accounts of Hem’s liberation of the book shop!