Let me tell you about a magical place called Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights. Doesn’t it already sound magical??
If you’ve seen my previous posts, you know I was studying in Bath, England for a little over a month this summer. And one of the highlights of my stay was Mr. B’s.
In the spirit of Bath as a spa town, Mr. B’s offers “Reading Spa” packages. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.
The Reading Spa includes sitting in a very comfy chair surrounded by books, sipping tea and eating cake while talking with a member of the AMAZING Mr. B’s staff about your reading likes and dislikes. Then you have all the time you need to decide how to spend your 40 or 75 pounds (depending on what package you choose) on books. Having gone to the Thermae Bath Spa the evening before our book spa, my friend and I say with confidence that we felt better coming out of Mr. B’s book spa than we did the actual spa.
The experience was charming and rejuvenating. It reminded me just how vapid we can get in our reading lives if we don’t have other people around us with whom to talk about books, and more importantly, from whom to get recommendations. I went into the spa wanting to come out with books I’d never heard of before, and that’s what I did. We all have our long lists of books we want to read based on what we’ve heard of and are interested in. But once in a while we need to pick up something totally new to us. That’s why walking out of Mr. B’s with a stack of new books really felt rejuvenating (like the spa is supposed too feel!) because now I have lots of books to read that aren’t ones that have just been sitting on my list forever. They are fresh and new (to me at least).
So a huge thank you to Mr. B’s simply for existing, and to my lovely friend Annabel for joining me and making the spa experience so delightful! If you ever get a chance to go to Bath, you must not miss this place. Make sure to hit up all the lovely bookshops used and new around Bath (I did my research before I came) because there are several gems! But none shine quite as bright as Mr. B’s.
Rose Read 
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