So as I discussed on my youtube channel yesterday, I went to Boston a few weeks ago. On my channel I showed my mini-bookhaul (link here!), but I also saw some literary stuff in Boston. Now, this was mostly a writing/personal trip so I didn't see everything there is, but I just wanted to share some of what I did see!
Now when I got to Boston on Thursday, the first thing I wanted to find was a Barnes & Nobles. I dream about B&N and all the gorgeous books they have and the wide selection and... I needed B&N to fight my jetlag. I found one in the Prudential Centre WHICH ALSO HAD A STARBUCKS IN tHE STORE!!! Absolutely amazing. Added to that, they had an amazing selection of YA books AND Trouble by Non Pratt and One by Sarah Crossan! I love seeing UKYA books out in the wild in the US - with gorgeous new covers too!
Some of my favourite YA books - HELLE WE WERE LIARS!!
While I was on my way back to the hotel from B&N, and had been up for 24 hours, I bumped into a gorgeous building. At the time, I couldn't piece together quite what it was, but the next day I discovered that I found Boston's public library. And it's beautiful. It is honestly one of the biggest and most stunning buildings I've ever seen and I fell in love with Boston the moment I knew that it's a city that values libraries so much. Yes.
Look at this building! Isn't it just so official and gorgeous looking? One of my favourite libraries I've seen so far!
But I didn't want to focus mostly on books - we have books in the UK too and everyone knows I already have too many to still read - but I wanted to see some of the houses where writers I admire have lived. Clearly where you live inspires your writing a great deal and I hoped seeing their environment (although many years later) could give me some of their inspiration.
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott lived in various places in Boston throughout her life and I decided to visit two; both of them located in the Beacon Hill area, which is in my opinion also the nicest Boston area.
First, I saw her childhood home (20 Pinckney Street), which is commemorated by an official plaque on the front of the house which explains about the family and their role in Boston.
Afterwards, I went to a square where Louisa May Alcott lived when she was older. Unfortunately, they were refurbishing the house so I couldn't really take pictures of it, but here's an impression of the gorgeous Louisburg Square none the less. Louisa May Alcott clearly lived long before Boston was what it is today, but it was still really cool to see her house and to see that it's still reserved, even though so many years have passed since then.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Now I have mixed feelings about The Scarlett Letter, but when I read that Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in the same street as Louisa May Alcott (at different times) I couldn't resist just peeking at his house too - which is by far the most gorgeous house in Boston that I have seen from the outside. Look at that white window! I'm sure there has to be an amazing reading bench right in front of it.
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Right before I went to Boston, I got a little bit obsessed with Sylvia Plath. I started reading her diaries and fell in love with the way she's so relatable and writes so beautifully about the most simple things. So even though Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes only lived on 9 Willow Street for a few years, I still had to go see it for myself - just to feel kind of close to Sylvia Plath for once.
This is the building they lived in, though it looks really modernised so I'm not sure how much of it still reflect the way the building looked during Plath and Hughes' years, but it was on a gorgeous quite street in the middle of Beacon Hill - a great location!
Besides those houses, I saw Cambridge with the Harvard Library and Harvard bookstore, Edgar Allan Poe's statue and a gorgeous bookstore called Trident Bookseller and Café. If you want to see what all of that looks like, I included a slideshow of some pictures I took.
