time was soft there by jeremy mercer

"Hope is a most powerful drug."

It's no surprise that I love memoirs. People telling their stories, sharing and reflecting the most intimate details of their lives... Something I appreciate not only in literature, but in my daily existence. 

In Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian man finds himself wandering the streets of Paris and into a bookstore where he is invited to stay. The memoir takes you through what life was like living in the little bohemia of Shakespeare & Co, and all the adventures in between. 

Shakespeare & Co. is just off Paris' Left Bank, steps away from la Seine and Notre Dame de Paris. I was fortunate to visit the bookstore a few years back during a backpacking trip through Europe. It was raining the day that I poked my head into the shop. I was feeling grumpy after having had a fight with my boyfriend at the time about the downfalls of my rain jacket. After hearing stories about this mythical English bookstore in Paris, often housing vagabond writers and artists, I was curious.

Clearly in a cold, damp haze, we ventured into the store. I felt hesitant to touch anything or look closely at books since I was dripping wet. Being in the shop felt like being transported into one of those movies with the old fashioned libraries—bookshelves from floor to ceiling, notes from visitors plastered onto the walls—leaving me with a sense of nostalgia for a place and time I had never been. I didn't end up purchasing anything, but experiencing the ambiance of the store left me longing to "be free". To be a drifter with no care in the world. To be forever barefoot and lusting after a romanticized vagabond experience. It certainly helped that I spent the rest of the trip sleeping outdoors in parks, exploring unknown places and drinking too much red wine.

Jeremy Mercer was invited to live at Shakespeare & Co., ultimately ending up as a sort-of make shift staff member. The romanticized experience I was longing for is what he lived and wrote about. I read this memoir during an outdoor music festival, and was instantly transported back to my travels and to my vagabond longing. I may never be a drifter, but for those moments, I got to feel like I was. 

You can read more about Time Was Soft There on Amazon.

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A special shout out goes to Hannah for editing this post! Thank you!