The stylish bag that’s become a London mainstay has a way of bringing book lovers together.
That’s right: the fashion accessory of the summer was a Daunt Books tote bag.
I admit, at first my reaction to this was a bit of confusion: “Everyone’s walking around advertising a bookstore?”
As someone who is not used to seeing books, bookstores, and literary-related artifacts so openly represented in public—after all, I live in a college town that doesn’t have a single bookstore—I was shocked. But here, not only had so many people visited the same bookstore, but they’d all liked it enough to buy a bag and carry it around as a way of telling others that they’d been. There had to be something special about Daunt to inspire this kind of loyalty, and I knew that I had to check it out before I left London.
So I took the tube to Marylebone and walked the ten minutes to the Daunt Books, and as soon as I saw it, I understood what inspired so much passion in its customers: the place is truly magical. The exterior of the store is beautiful, with a hardwood façade and arches, clean windows, and green lamps shining from the inside; even standing outside, people were stopping to take pictures, browse the new releases set up in the window, and truly immerse themselves in literary culture. (I immediately became one of them and snapped a few pictures too.) The place looks like a book-lover’s paradise, and I knew right off that every single person I’d seen with one of those totes knew what they were talking about.
Inside I was immediately met with a large selection of books packed into a relatively small but lovely front-space, everything paneled with a beautiful dark wood, and a till at the front surrounded by even more books, with a line of totes hanging on the wall behind it, the very same bag I’d been seeing around London. I gravitated toward the back of the store where I walked into a room with a beautiful window and three floors of bookshelves. It was glorious. I learned that Daunt sorts their books not only by alphabetical order of the author's last name but also where the book is set, and I read back jackets of books from Scandinavia to Tibet to Chile. The sheer variety of countries and authors represented is something we simply don’t have in bookstores in the United States.
I headed back out front to new fiction releases and popular fiction/nonfiction books that were arranged on tables. While I was perusing, a delivery driver came in to bring the new books for that week, and every single employee and person in the store that he walked past either fist-bumped him or asked him something along the lines of “Is the wife okay?” or “Has the boss gotten any better?” It was another level of community that I’ve never really seen in an establishment before, and it made me feel even more comfortable in the store itself. The employees were also incredible and took their time walking customers around to help them find the books that they were looking for.
I started to quickly lose track of time, which was ironic because a lady next to me was experiencing the same thing. She asked her friend, “How long have we been here?” and I’ve never related to anything more in that exact moment. I ended up being in Daunt Books for nearly two hours.
This is a story about Daunt Books, but it's also a story about literary community, a place where I’ve found my people, my friends, and my family. It’s where readers and writers come together to thrive in a world of literature and get inspired. And it’s crucial to visit bookstores and to continue interacting with the community, because it provides support for a wide variety of people. The literary community may sometimes feel small, but it’s everywhere if you know where to look … and for me, that meant noticing something as simple as a tote bag, which eventually inspired me to visit the store for myself. I also got to spread the good word myself: when I was in the Louvre in Paris, I was wearing my own Daunt Books tote and a lady came up to me and went, “Oh my gosh, that's the bookstore I want to visit in London!”
There’s no better feeling than walking into a bookstore and overhearing people talk about their love of books, to discuss with booksellers and book lovers and even complete strangers why we like the books we do, and I’ve gotten some pretty amazing book recommendations from strangers while here. Engaging in literary community always leaves me feeling grateful and inspired to continue reading and writing, and everything about my Daunt Books experience was a validation of that community.
And that brings me back to the simple act of community that led me here: people wearing their love of Daunt Books over their shoulders. I’d first thought those people were wearing an advertisement for a company, but it was more than that: it was both an acknowledgement of a community they were proudly a part of and an invitation for others to join. I can say that if it wasn’t for these tote bags, I might’ve missed out on this absolutely amazing bookstore and wouldn’t have had half the stories to tell about it that I do.
And now, whenever someone back in the States asks me about the tote that’s slung over my shoulder, it’ll be my chance to tell the story.
