Between the Pages

 I'm back! Welcome to the Day 11 recap.  Day 11 CITIES Today was our Cambridge + Boston day, and I must say, Boston is certainly one of the better cities we've been to on this trip. I'm not a city girl, but Boston went fairly well today. Ubers and crosswalks and intersections: I feel like a city success tonight.  BOOKSTORES Brattle Book Shop This bookstore was not originally on my Boston list; however, our docent at the Rosenbach suggested we go to this store, so we decided to give it a go. To be honest, it wasn't my favorite. The store is not in the best part of town, but that can mean you've really found an awesome store. Unfortunately, we did not find an awesome store. While it is advertised as a rare and used bookstore, which I would normally love, the selection was not amazing. The coolest thing, however, about this store is the outdoor stalls, and they are, in fact, very cool. I just hyped up this bookstore a little too much in my head (I suffer from "boo...

 I'm back! Welcome to the Day 10 recap.  Day 10 CITIES We woke up in sunny Providence , RI this morning. After finishing up in Providence, we headed to Plainville , MA (which was lovely). After Plainville and a much-needed stop at Target (the Target we pillaged and plundered deserves to be named a city unto itself, as it was massive), we moved on to Concord , MA then Cambridge , MA. BOOKSTORES An Unlikely Story To preface, I have read about this little store in a lot of literary magazine articles, online pieces, and bookstore coffee table books. (yes, these exist. yes, I have acquired quite the collection of them. no, I do not have a coffee table of my own.) An Unlikely Story certainly did not disappoint. As soon as I walked in, I knew this store was a special place; the community's place; a place especially pertinent in the lives of Plainville kids. With a whimsical Harry Potter theme, quidditch brooms and letters hung from the ceiling, An Unlikely Story certainly had me feel...

 I'm back! Welcome to the day 9 recap.  Day 9 CITIES This morning, we left New York City, and to be honest, I'm relieved. Rat race = real. (The city during the summer also smells like rats, so that analogy is applicable on multiple levels.) We drove to New Haven, then to Newport, then to Providence. Today was one of the best days of the trip. LIBRARIES Libraries at Yale University We saw two libraries at Yale today: Sterling Memorial Library and Beinecke Rare Book Library .  Sterling is the main library of the university and was opened in 1931. Architect, James Gamble Rogers designed the space as a centerpiece of Yale's Gothic architecture. Actually, Rogers approached the university with a design for a cathedral; however, the administration told him that what Yale actually needed was a library. Rogers simply changed the title of his plans from "church" to "library." The library holds over 4 million volumes. The university's manuscripts and archives a...

 I'm back! Welcome to the day 8 recap.  Day 8 CITIES Today was our last day in NYC. We took it slow today, as the past two days have been hard on our feet. MUSEUMS The Metropolitan Museum of Art While I have been to the MET before, I am always blown away by the juxtaposition between the scale and magnitude of the museum and how significant just one canvas or one ceramic bowl can be to me. The MET has been the setting of many a children's/young adult book. One particularly great one is From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler .  Aside from being an important setting in books and movies, literature inspires art, and art inspires literature. I saw hundreds of paintings and sculptures today of biblical figures. Religion in general as well as the Holy Bible has inspired many of the greatest works of art. Other notable pieces of literature that have inspired the creation of major works of art are Invisible Man, Ophelia, The Lady of Shalott, Dubling, and Don Quixote...

I'm back! We have officially been on this journey for a whole week. Thanks for sticking around. Welcome to the day 7 recap. Day 7 CITIES Today was another NYC day. I had a plan today. Now, I've had a plan every day, but this morning I got to business early. I got out my G-2 ballpoint pen that I love so much, and I wrote down each stop that we were going to at *specific* times. I also wrote down the walking times between each stop. I had three different plans based on the location of our breakfast location.  We ubered (is this a verb?) to our breakfast spot in south Manhattan and found ourselves at the gathering area for the New York City pride parade. A lot of streets were closed and blocked off. Most of the stores and publishers I planned for us to go to were along the parade route. We walked back to our hotel and decided to change our plans.  LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE STOPS The Central Park Carousel The Central Park Carousel appears in J.D. Salinger's first and most well-know...