Number 98. Sheryl writes: I adore reading! It is fabulous to have the opportunity to explore bookstores in different countries. In South Africa books are unfortunately expensive and unaffordable to most citizens. We have a 15% VAT charge on books! I believe they should be zero rated: Reading and literacy is a human right!

Maya, Ray and l enjoyed visiting the English-language bookstore: Shakespeare and Company located in the heart of Paris. It opened in 1919 and in the early twentieth century was the meeting place of Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and other writers.   It has a free reading library open to the public and has been included in a few contemporary movies that showcase Paris.

In Amsterdam l found well known cook books written in Dutch and in Bratislava,  Slovakia there is a bookstore and coffeeshop called Foxford that has books everywhere as part of the decor – including in the ceiling and lampshades!  In Lisbon we walked around the oldest Bookstore in the world – Livraria Bertrand which was founded in 1732, where l bought a book by Jose Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

While in San Francisco with my sister Margo in 2015  we spent time at City Lights, an independent  bookstore that specializes in world literature, the arts and progressive politics. It has been operating since 1956 and in 2001 was made an official historic landmark.

By far the most beautiful bookshop that l have ever been into has to be El Ateneo Grand Splendid,  tucked away in the Recoleta neighbourhood of  Buenos Aires, which unfortunately had very few books in English. It was a former theatre that opened in 1919 and about twenty years ago became a bookstore which now boasts over a million visitors a year.

There are many more wonderful bookstores that l have visited: In New York and Toronto, Singapore, London and Jerusalem. These lovingly maintained bookstores value the relevance and importance of books and reading in our lives. Spending time in them has enriched our travels!