WELCOME to the letter R and to this year’s theme: BOOKSHOPS
768 Boston Post Rd. Madison, Conn 203-245-3959
There is nothing like a satisfied customer writing a positive comment about their experience in your bookstore to make all the work it takes to run a successful business worthwhile. “R.J. Julia’s has a lovely, open, welcoming feel. I love bookshops in general and this is certainly an excellent example of that with a great range of books and knowledgeable staff. I think what makes R.J. Julia Booksellers is a great place to visit is the combination of the bookshop and the café at the back that serves very nice and well-prepared food all day. It makes it a great stop for families or couples. You can browse for books and then head for lunch or just a coffee and have a very nice couple of hours.”
R.J. Julia Booksellers is a Publisher’s Weekly Bookseller of the Year and also named one of the crown jewels of downtown Madison. Not all the bookstores I researched made my cut, but sight unseen, I fell in love with places like Madison Conn and Portsmouth, NH. Halfway between New York City and Boston, Madison attracts a sophisticated mix of professionals as well as a growing community of artists. They frequent the town’s independent boutiques and family-owned restaurants, most of which are housed in the two-story shingled and redbrick buildings dating from the 1930s that line Main Street. Henry Bacon, the architect of the town library, went on to create the Lincoln Memorial.If you are fortunate enough to visit this beautiful town and bookshop, may I suggest for the letter R that you buy and read Ann Patchett’s RUN? The novel remains on my short list of favorite books. Author, Ann Patchett also owns a bookstore in Nashville, TN. If you have an extra moment read another blog post I wrote about Ann Patchett and her amazing novel, Run. CLICK HERE
I’ll leave you with a few lines from this novel that is why I love this book. Father Sullivan is one of the wonderful characters in the book. Hard not to be touched by his thoughts….
“It would be incorrect in every sense to say that so near the end of his life he had lost his faith, when in fact God seemed more abundant to him in the Regina Cleri home than any place he had been before. God was in the folds of his bathrobe, the ache of his knees…now that he should be sensing the afterlife like a sweet scent drifting in from the garden, he had started to wonder if there was, in fact, no afterlife at all….What could be greater than the armchair, the window, the snow? Life itself had been holy.”
My goodness! I had no idea you are so well-versed in these Indie bookstores. I LOVE them – the only places where you can enter and immediately smell the books!
When I started researching bookstores with the alphabet in mind, it led to interesting places. Some, however, that didn’t fill my criteria for further writing, but still provided a lot of fun.
Having a cafe in a bookstore is such a good idea. Then it feels like a place you can linger and enjoy, rather than a quick rush in to buy something.
I never learned to drink coffee, but when I see people with their cup and computer and several new books in the bag beside them, it makes me smile.
I go past here quite often! We take that route in antiquing!