How Reading A Book Sent Me Running To Paris

# Summary

The author's life was transformed by reading "Time Was Soft There," leading them to visit Shakespeare and Company in Paris and inspiring a passion for travel and cultural exploration.

# Abstract

The article narrates the author's profound experience after reading Jeremy Mercer's memoir "Time Was Soft There," which details Mercer's time at the Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris. This book sparked a deep adoration for the bookstore and Paris, compelling the author, despite being a university student with no prior international travel experience, to plan a trip to France. The author's determination to visit Shakespeare and Company led them to enroll in a study abroad program and learn French in just four months. The visit to the bookstore was a life-altering event, offering an inspiring and serene atmosphere that has continuously influenced the author's aspirations and outlook on life, fostering a commitment to language learning and cultural immersion.

# Opinions

- The author was initially skeptical about books having the power to change lives until they read "Time Was Soft There."
- Shakespeare and Company is portrayed as a magical and historical place that had a significant impact on the author's life.
- The author believes it is important to have some understanding of the local language when visiting another country.
- The experience of visiting the bookstore in Paris was so impactful that it has shaped the author's future goals and interests.

I never really believed people who would say, “This book changed my life!” I had read many books, and while I do think every single one of them shifted my perspective about something, I had never considered it to be dramatically life-changing. That is until it was.

For Christmas in 2018, my mom gave me two books following a theme of books about bookstores, one of which was Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co. by Jeremy Mercer. This book turned out to completely shape my next year.

Time Was Soft There is a memoir about the author’s time spent living at Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. More than that, it is a memoir of the bookstore itself and a view of Paris, both of which were magical to my wide-eyed self as I read it. Since it has been a couple of years since I read it and the details have grown foggy, I can’t give it a proper review, but just know I put that book down with a huge sense of awe and adoration for that bookstore. I had to go and see it for myself.

At the time, I was living in the dorms of my university as a 2nd-year student and I had no idea how I would get to France. I had never even been out of the country before. The only thing I did know was that this was something I had to do and I would find a way to get there.

I first thought that I’d follow in Mercer's footsteps and also live at the bookstore. I quickly realized that would never work. He had stayed there in the early 2000s and much had changed since then, unsurprisingly. So I fell back on the classic method students have for travel: study abroad.

By amazing luck, my school had a study abroad program that went to Paris for a month over the summer. And on top of that, the class was about American writers in Paris during the 20s, many of which frequented Shakespeare and Company. If that’s not the universe talking, I don’t know what is.

(A bit of history: The current bookstore is different than the store from the 20s. Sylvia Beach owned and operated the original Shakespeare and Company from 1919 to 1941, which was the stomping ground of many famous writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, and James Joyce among others. The current bookstore was started in 1951 by George Whitman and did not adopt the name “Shakespeare and Company” until 1964. A more thorough history of Whitman's store can be found here.)

I’m very lucky to have had my parents financially supporting my adventurous plans and I will be thanking them forever for that. After signing up for the study abroad program, I quickly realized something kinda important: I didn’t know any French. I had read that knowing French wasn’t totally necessary to survive in Paris, but I didn’t want to be completely helpless. Also, it seemed rude to me to show up in another country expecting everyone to speak English. So I set out to learn all the French I could before my trip.

My timeline went like this: I initially read the book on February 12, 2019, I was accepted into the study abroad program on February 22, 2019, and my plane left for France on July 7, 2019. That left me with four months to learn French.

When I say ‘learn French’ I do not, by any means, mean to fluency. What I wanted was to be able to read the majority of the signs and have very simple conversations with people. I’m still not completely sure what happened those four months, it’s a general haze of YouTube binges. I am amazed I got any classwork done during that semester. Teaching myself French over those months was the most fun I had had since I’m not even sure when.

I came out the other side of that semester having met my goal of reading signs and understanding very simple conversations.

Off I went to Paris.

Drawing of the Shakespeare and Company storefront by the author

I spent every moment I could at Shakespeare and Company and it was the best time ever. The store has two floors, the first being where they keep the books they sell and the second being a massive collection of old books that are not for sale. The first floor is fun to walk around and it sucked me into buying so many books that I almost couldn’t fit them in my suitcase by the time I left. It’s also crowded with customers and pretty loud, which is what drove me up to the second floor. Few people roamed the second floor and there were many places to curl up with a book. A cat also lives up there, which is a bonus.

I felt an energy coming from the second floor, unlike anything I had felt before. It’s hard to explain, but I’ll try anyway. It was like all the history of both bookstores was kept in those old books and I felt the weight of it all. Sitting up there was incredibly calming and inspiring for me. Words don’t really do it justice.

I’ve thought about that experience at least once a week ever since I got back from France two years ago. My experience going abroad completely shifted my mind and directly changed what I had planned for my future. I grew a huge interest in traveling and experiencing different cultures and I plan to be learning languages for as long as I possibly can. It’d be nice to actually reach fluency in French one day.

I can’t imagine a world where I hadn’t read that book that sent me running to Paris.