I love book and collect them (thousands of them — where to put them all?). \u00a0I make a point of visiting libraries and bookstores during my travels although sometimes these visits happen by accident. \u00a0So it was when I discovered El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore one evening in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, as my wife and I were walking back to our hotel after dinner in a parrillo (Argentine steakhouse).<\/span><\/p>\n

Buenos Aires is known as the “Paris of South America”.\u00a0 Many elegant buildings were constructed a century ago when the country was one of the wealthiest in the world, before a string of progressively worse governments destroyed Argentina’s economy.\u00a0 The result is a city that has a European look and feel to it, even though it’s Latin. \u00a0Part of its charm are the many cafes and small newsstands around the city. \u00a0It’s a place where a weak national currency and high taxes on imports (like cell phones and Kindles) make traditional printed media the most popular form of reading — like it was in the rest of modernized world twenty years ago. \u00a0So it’s not surprising that there would be some fine bookstores in B.A.<\/p>\n

From the street, El Ateneo is inviting. \u00a0We entered to find most books in Spanish, which we don’t read fluently enough to even try tackling a novel.\u00a0 But it was very well organized, a key feature to a great bookstore in my experience.\u00a0 Beyond the front lobby you enter a cavernous bookshop and discover what a G-R-E-A-T place this is. \u00a0It’s one of the biggest bookstores in South America and certainly the most elegant.<\/p>\n

The building was constructed in 1919 as a lavish theater, the\u00a0Teatro Grand Splendid.\u00a0<\/em> It was originally home to live performances, but was soon converted into a cinema in the 1920s with the birth of the film industry.\u00a0 It remained a cinema for decades and was morphed into a bookstore in 2000.<\/p>\n

El Ateneo, a publishing company, refurbished and converted the old theater into the bookstore you can visit today, preserving the elegance of the building, mostly just replacing seats with bookshelves. \u00a0The stage, still framed by heavy red curtains, is now a nice cafe.\u00a0 There are many floors of books, well organized by subject matter, and a large collection of children’s books, DVDs and CDs can be found in the lower level.\u00a0 It quickly was clear to me why this place had been voted by The Guardian<\/em> as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.<\/p>\n

Around 1,000,000 patrons visit El Ateneo ever year. \u00a0Some come to buy a book by a favorite author, some to read in the box seats of the balconies. \u00a0Some come for coffee. \u00a0Some, like me, come to enjoy its beauty and snap a few photos — now shared with all of you.<\/p>\n

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