June
11
2010
By Lindsay Mackenzie
Bookstores are my weakness. I am incapable of leaving one without spending an hour wandering amongst the shelves before finally walking out with three new books I don’t have time to read or space to store.
I get so sidetracked that I once bought a 1,100-page history of the Middle East and took all three and a half pounds of it with me on a four month backpacking trip through Southern Africa.
So imagine my delight and ensuing distraction when I stumbled into El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Occupying a schizophrenic space on Avenida Santa Fe, El Ateneo began as a theatre and was later converted into a cinema before becoming what it is today—one of the world's most elegant bookstores. Reopened in its current incarnation in 2000, it retains many of the design features of the original 1920s-era theater, including box seats, gleaming golden balustrades, plush red curtains, and winged cherubs frolicking across the frescoed ceiling.
How very romantic. Where once there were seats for up to 1,050 theatergoers there are now 120,000 titles for bibliophiles to browse. Where the orchestra once played, today patrons can enjoy cortados (espresso with a dash of milk) and medialunas (Argentine croissants) in the in-house café. Where tango greats like Carlos Gardel once strode across the stage you can now circle around Latin American classics by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or Isabel Allende.
Another bonus—and oddity—about El Ateneo is that if your Spanish is not up to snuff you are unlikely to leave with worries about overweight luggage—the only English books to be bought are Harlequin romance novels. Unless you like that sort of thing. In which case, what better setting to enjoy your new novel than in a box seat at a bookstore in Buenos Aires.
Lindsay Mackenzie is a freelance tour guide and photographer who has travelled to 50 countries all over the world. Needless to say, her portable bookcase is getting a touch unwieldy. If you're planning to stock up on romance novels in Buenos Aires, contact us first.