Plus, Harvard Bookstore is my favorite bookstore of all time, my great love affair of a bookstore. I try to visit it every time I'm in Boston, but it's hard to maintain a long-distance relationship. These stories make me nostalgic.

Nice stories indeed, occhiblu! I have been to this bookstore too, heh!

Back during my dating times, I used to take "friends" to bookstores. Perusing the books, their selection was always an indicator of the possibility. Once I had taken someone there and showed him all the books I loved -titles or content very suggestive to what I thought was the perfect courtship. But he did not get it. What a shame.

How wonderful, carmina! And sad.

Hmm. Are bookstore courtships inherently tragic? It seems like they should be, to fulfill our (my) romantic notions.

Also, I never met anyone at this bookstore, but I did pick up so many people who filled my evenings. The used book basement was always my first stop when I was lonely, or bored, or fidgety, or heading out to a meal by myself. I've never found another bookstore so reliably full and entertaining. And that smelled so perfect, and always had unusually intriguingly literary selections. I really do miss it.

(I tried to express this longing to the clerk the last time I was there -- I was so happy they still had my ancient phone number listed for my frequent buyer account! -- but he gave me a crazy cat lady spinster look, so I stopped gushing.)

I worked at a bookstore for nigh unto 4 years and nary met a single interested single lass. Fortunately, I now work for a bookstore and am married.

I've been to the Harvard Bookstore! It is pretty cool. : ) My favorite bookstore of all time, though, is The Strand in NYC. That's always the first place I go when I get to New York (after I drop my stuff off at my hotel, of course!)

I've never picked up a guy at a bookstore. But I always wanted to...: )

the second date my guy asked me out on, he recommended we meet at the Tattered Cover in LoDo, which is a fairly famous Denver indie bookstore. It combines two of our favourite geeky obsessions: a great (independent!) coffeeshop and books. to be specific: four storeys of rambling maze-like book-infested corridors. oh and it has a long iron railing on the front sidewalk, to which, at any given time, a half dozen or more bicycles are locked. needless to say, ours are amongst them quite often.

I should add that he's a history major, and one of the only people I know who's a bigger bookworm than I am. He actually built a library in his house!

recent developments indicate that we're in for the long haul, so if you're looking for tragic courtships occhiblu, it seems ours, so far, doesn't cut it.

Oooh, I like The Strand, too, but it's too big to be my favorite. At Harvard Bookstore, I can maintain the arrogant illusion that I will one day have read everything in it. It makes me feel comfortably proprietary; The Strand just overwhelms. (This might me a larger commentary on why I'd have trouble living in New York, as well!)

lfr, hee. I certainly don't wish you tragedy!

I like The Strand, too, but it's too big to be my favorite.

If you think the Strand is too big, for godsakes don't ever visit Powell's if you come to Portland.

The first time I ever visited Portland, I walked in the door of Powell's, looked around, and thought "Wow. This bookstore is pretty damn big. It's almost as big as the Strand."

Then I realized I was in the lobby.

That said, Powell's just might be my favorite place on the planet.

(I tried to express this longing to the clerk the last time I was there -- I was so happy they still had my ancient phone number listed for my frequent buyer account! -- but he gave me a crazy cat lady spinster look, so I stopped gushing.)

Dude sounds like a philistine.

Met my (now ex-)husband in a bookstore. He's at least literate. But he was a really crappy husband, and has been a right jackass as an ex. Hmmmm, maybe I can find a self-help book about getting over bitterness.