I keep a list of bookshops I want to visit before I die, and it grows faster than I can travel.

This video is a virtual tour of independent bookstores from around the world, and it added several to the list in a single evening. I watched it with a pencil in my hand, which is how you can tell that someone has a problem.

How the list works

The rules are simple. It has to be independent. It has to be somewhere I would not otherwise go. And I must have heard about it from a person, or from another person’s enthusiasm, not from a ranking. I have crossed off nine so far, in nine years, which at the current rate leaves me needing to live to about four hundred.

A bookshop with shelves of colorful books
Number six on the list. I went in for ten minutes and missed a ferry.

What I buy when I get there

  • One book by someone from that place.
  • One book the owner insists on.
  • A postcard for the shelf, so that I remember where the book came from.

A town tells you more about itself in its local history section than in any tourist office.

I doubt I will ever finish. I am not sure that I want to. It is a pleasant thing to have somewhere to go next, and the list has taken me to a good many towns that I would otherwise have only seen from a train.

Video: megwithbooks on YouTube. Embedded here, not made by me.

Sample content for The Pixel, a fictional personal blog.