I did not fall in love with Boston due to Fenway Park or lobster rolls although I would never say no to them.

I was in love with Boston because it was a city that seemed to have been built by people who still take time to read the bronze plaques on old buildings.

Individuals that put a paperback in the bag so that they can use it when they need it. Individuals who would prefer to spend an hour in a peaceful bookstore as opposed to a line at an attraction site.

Boston is a book lover's dream, not a glitzy, social-media worthy, but book-lined, comfortable, old-leather way.

It is somewhere where history and literature combine into one so perfectly that you get a sense that you are walking through pages and not city blocks.

I planned this trip as a sort of personal pilgrimage, and I wanted it to start off stress-free. That's why I opted for long stay parking Luton, which turned out to be one of the best small decisions

Here is what I did on a long weekend with a literary and historic thread in Boston, and how you could do it as well.

The (Literary) Freedom Trail

There is no way you can be in Boston without going on the Freedom Trail. But what they fail to mention is how many literary layers you will come across in the process.

At the beginning of this walk, at the oldest public park in the country, Boston Common, I was in the spot where Edgar Allan Poe as a boy had roamed (more on him in a bit).

Once one of the most significant publishing houses in 19th-century America, it now hosts a Chipotle. Thoreau, Hawthorne, Longfellow--they are all of them in one corner.

The Hidden Bookstore and Beacon Hill

Boston's past appears to be murmuring in Beacon Hill with its gas lamps and cobblestone streets. I did a bit of aimless wandering down its tranquil streets and came across a treasure: the Beacon Hill Books & Cafe.

It is a newcomer, yet it seems that it has always been there, homey, handpicked and with a spiral staircase and a cafe where they serve tea in porcelain cups.

Note: Always check Meet And Greet Stansted before travelling and book according to your needs.

 

The Unlikely Statue by Edgar Allan Poe

Growing up, and reading Poe in school, you might be surprised to know that he was born in Boston, and that he despised it.

Nevertheless, he was honored with a bronze statue in the city close to Boston Common. It is not a typical memorial. Poe is walking ahead with a raven coming out of his suitcase and some pages flying behind him. It is dramatic, brooding and just right.

The sight of it was the equivalent of discovering a secret handshake between Boston and book lovers: Yes, we know. He never loved us, but we are proud.

Brattle Book Shop: A Treasure Hunt

Brattle Book Shop is an antiquarian bookstore that is one of the oldest in America and it is exactly what you expect it to be, dusty shelves, tall shelves, creaky floor and an outdoor sale lot where paperbacks and hardcovers are piled in irregular piles.

I spent more than an hour going through a cart marked with dollar bargains. I discovered an original copy of a book I adored in college, a mystery novel with another person having written notes in the margins and a tiny book of Emily Dickinson poetry printed in 1924.

Money was not the issue. It was the excitement of the hunt. The tales of the tales.

The Boston Athenaeum: Red Leather and Silent Minds

The Boston Athenaeum is one of the few sanctuaries in Boston to book lovers. It is one of the oldest free standing libraries in the United States and when you enter the building you feel like you are in a novel.

Red leather reading chairs, marble busts, oil paintings and rows and rows of old books stamped in gold. You can obtain a visitor pass, and pass a couple of hours there.

I lingered till closing time, reading in a corner, as the city grew louder and louder, and the Athenaeum seemed to keep the silence just to itself.