Time Was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co.

The irony of this book and Shakespeare & Co is completing it just as Notre Dame was reduced to a cinder. A sad epilogue maybe but Jeremy Mercer has rekindled my memories of Paris, long forgotten, which can also be cherished in the hearts & souls of many as the spiritual foundation of which it is annexed, who knows. A great and entertaining read.

OK. Not great. I just wanted to read what it was like living at Shakespeare & Co. after I had visited the bookstore.

This book is the same as baggettes bagels and bed bugs. They changed the title. So completely useless. And returning for a refund became impossible with cost of returning it and the postage I'd already paid and wouldn't get either back. It's gone in the bin.

It read almost like a novel- very engaging

This is an enormously enjoyable memoir capturing a very eventful year or so in a young writer's life as he flees, penniless, to Paris from unpleasant circumstances in Canada. I think the evocation implied in the literal meaning of "time was soft" is a marvelous indication of the pleasure of reading this book -- it's a soft, magical, transporting read that will take you out of yourself into a pleasant but fascinating and very true reverie. The author lived the kind of wonderful adventure we all should be so lucky to experience, and has thankfully put it all down in clear and beautiful prose.As a former investigative reporter for a major Canadian newspaper and the previous author of two or three other books, Mercer has a writing style that is beautiful, insightful, enjoyable, and evocative. This book about his own experiences shows his finely tuned ability to assess situations and people, and thankfully, also reveals modesty and an ability to view and write about himself objectively and candidly as well. It is altogether an enjoyable ride, which we take along with him, while being able to observe him and his inner self at the same time we observe the highly colorful cast of characters.Please don't pass this one up if you love charming memoirs, books about books and bookstores, or colorful true evocations of real eccentrics and exotic settings.

This is a bookophiles book; a book for everyone who loves everything about books, and the written word. It is impossible that I wouldn’t love it.I had little idea what to expect when I added this to my too read wish list. I have only recently discovered that Shakespeare & Co. is a real place. I first encountered it whilst watching the brilliant, Before Sunset. I just assumed that the bookshop was an invention of a clever script and a location manager – I never dreamed it was actually real until a friend posted a picture of them outside of it a few years later.And what a marvellous truth it is that this bookshop does exist. Who hasn’t – or a least who who doesn’t also love books – dreamed of living in a bookshop. Next to eating and sleeping in a library, surely it is the most perfect of dreams. Time Was Soft There is Jeremy Mercer’s own story of the time when he ended up living and working, and writing, and loving in Shakespeare & Co., and through him you get the biography of the bookshops owner and creator, George Whitman.The cast is bohemian, as are the stories, many of them self-contained in their nature. Indeed, for me, the book works best in the first two-thirds, when each chapter is pretty much a self-contained story. When we get towards the end of Mercer’s accounts, the book has more of an over-arching story, and this for me detracts from the portraits of individual characters. Even so, a wonderful book of a a wonderful place, that one day I will visit.

This is a great book, brilliant to read if you've been to Paris or love wandering around old bookshops. Well worth reading if you want to soak up some atmosphere.However be warned this is the same book as Bedbugs and Baguettes by the same author, just a new title and cover, therefore buy one of the other but not both!